Horse Racing Betting Sites for Canada

Here you’ll find the best places to bet on horse racing online from Canada.

The online betting sites we recommend are secure, offer the best promotions, and have the most profitable betting opportunities. We can confidently state these are the best Canadian horse racing betting sites around.

How We Rate

Safety & Security

You should be able to gamble online without fear. So we only recommend licensed sites that use the latest security and encryption techniques.

Bonuses

Maximize your bankroll with fantastic bonuses. Our recommended sites offer valuable bonuses with fair terms and conditions, including manageable wagering requirements.

Games & Betting

The best sites have the best wagering options. That’s why you will find extensive games and betting opportunities on our recommended sites.

Banking

Getting your money to and from your account shouldn’t be a hassle. We only recommend sites with a variety of convenient banking methods, including cryptocurrency and e-wallets.

Our team spends countless hours reviewing and testing the top online racebooks available in Canada. There are many characteristics we look for, and we only recommend the sites that perform well in all the key areas.

The rest of this page explains everything you need to know about how we rank the best Canadian horse racing betting sites. But if you’re eager to get started and start placing real money wagers, simply choose a site from our list and get yourself signed up.

The most important factor for any real money gambling site we recommend is how safe it is to use. We only ever recommend Canadian online gambling sites that we know can be trusted. Here are some of the things we look at when assessing the safety and security of betting sites.

If we see any obvious red flags when scoping out betting sites, we don’t recommend them to our readers. There are some shady sites out there, and they should be avoided at all costs.

The ultimate test is whether we’d feel comfortable recommend a site to our family and friends. If the answer’s yes, then we’re thrilled to recommend them to our readers.

A horse racing betting site’s license, and the gambling commission that issued it, is especially key when assessing safety and security

A license is important because every gambling commission has rules that a site has to follow if they want to keep it. That means treating their customers with respect, keeping bettor’s money in a separate account, and offering fair action.

Now, a license isn’t always worth the digital paper it’s printed on. This depends on the gambling commission that issued it. Some are stricter than others.

The stricter, the better, as that means the gambling commission runs a tighter ship. If they receive a legit customer complaint, they’ll investigate it. And if the betting site did something wrong, they’ll have to fix it or risk having their license suspended or, worse, revoked.

You can learn more about gambling commissions here.

One important characteristic to consider in an online racebook are its betting options. Nothing else matters, whether that’s banking options or promotions, if you can’t make the bets you want.

This comes down to the races you can bet on, types of bets you can make, and betting limits.

The following are the most popular horse races that you can bet on at Canadian horse racing betting sites.

The Queen’s Plate, Prince of Wales Stakes, and Breeders’ Stakes make up the Canadian Triple Crown. This is like the US Triple Crown, except that each of these races run on a different surface.

Here are a few more races that run in Canada.

You’re not limited to Canada’s horse races either. The Canadian horse betting sites we recommend also accept action on races such all over the world, such as the Grand National, the Melbourne Cup, and the Kentucky Derby.

Your betting options include those listed below.

These are the most common bets. But, depending on the Canadian horse racing betting site you join, you might also find future and prop bets.

Prop bets are fun. One example of a prop is the option to bet on how large a margin the winning horse will win by. Another prop example is whether a horse will beat a previous horse’s track record.

Here’s some more information on various type of horse racing wager.

Betting limits are important because everyone’s bankroll is a different size. Most racebooks have low minimum limits ($1 to $5), so that’s not something you need to worry about.

What we do pay attention to are the maximum betting limits. These vary wildly from one betting site to the next. We’ve seen maximum bets as low as $75 and as high as $2,000.

Some sites focus on payout instead. For example, the maximum payout for a single wager might be something like $100,000.

The best horse racing betting sites for Canada cater for everyone regardless of their budget. It’s worth checking that the limits suit you before signing up, though.

Promotions are an important characteristic. Every real money gambling site offers them, so all things being equal, you want to find the best deals you can.

The following are the most common promotions Canadian horse racing betting sites offer punters.

Deposit Bonus

The racebook matches a percentage of your deposit. For example, claim a 100% match bonus up to $200 and the racebook will give you a $1 bonus for every $1 you deposit (capped at $200). Claim the whole offer and you’ll have an extra $200 to bet with.

Rebate

A percentage of your net losses back. The standard rebate for horse racing betting is 8%.

Best Odds Guaranteed

Get the best odds regardless of when you placed your bet or the odds you took (if those odds are worse).

Free Bets

These work in various different ways

VIP Program

Earn points for every bet you make. You’ll use points to exchange for cashback. The casino will use them to determine your place on the site’s VIP scheme where you can receive perks such as bonuses, gifts, expedited cash outs, and more.

Keep in mind that before you claim a promotion or bonus, you’ll want to read the betting site’s terms and conditions.

These “house rules” explain how much you need to wager and what you can wager on before you can withdraw your winnings. Fail to do this, and the site might void your winnings.

We make that the terms and conditions are fair before recommending any online horse betting site for Canada.

Banking options are another crucial characteristic. You won’t have any problems finding a banking option you can use. Everyone has at least one debit, credit, or prepaid card. And all the top horse racing betting sites accept them.

But what if you don’t want to use those options? Or what if the banking option you do want to use doesn’t have the deposit or withdrawal limits you want?

That’s why we recommend the horse betting sites that accept a variety of banking options that also have reasonable limits, fees, and processing times.

The following are the best banking options Canadian gamblers have to choose from.

If you’re unsure about which banking method to use, we suggest starting with credit or debit. The banking limits are almost always reasonable and hardly ever have fees. They process almost instantly, too.

The downside to using credit or debit for deposits is that you can’t always use them for withdrawals (especially Mastercard). So, the next option might work better.

E-wallets have reasonable limits, fees, and processing times. And you can use them for withdrawals. The limits and fees are reasonable there, too.

You’ll have to decide which option is best for you. We have a section on our website that can help you out. It explains each major banking option in detail, including how they work and its pros and cons.

Last, but by no means least, is customer support. While we recommend horse racing betting sites even if they have subpar customer support, we’ll never rank them at the top.

Customer support is important. You’re spending tens, hundreds, even thousands of dollars online with a company you hardly know. You deserve attention if and when you have a question or need help.

We test every betting site’s customer support during our review. Most times, we send them an email with a few questions. This is to test how quickly they respond and how helpful they are.

You’d be surprised at the number of sites that fail this test. So many of them don’t even respond to our emails. Of course, we don’t recommend those sites. If they can’t bother to answer your email, we’d hate to see how they’d treat something more serious.

Ignore this characteristic or any of the others above at your peril. These can make or break your experience betting online, which is why we take them so seriously.

You should, too. That’s the only way you’ll ever find the best sites for betting on horse racing in Canada.

Absolutely. You can also bet on the Preakness Stakes, The Everest, Melbourne Cup, Epsom Derby, Irish Derby, and many others.

That said, we do make recommendations for sites that do an exceptional job at covering the Kentucky Derby if that’s a race you want to focus on.

There are a few types of horse races Canadians can bet on, but there are two that are the most common.

The first is flat racing and the second is harness racing.

Absolutely. Betting on horse races is nothing like playing slots or roulette. Granted, you can make bets that rely on luck. However, with a little research, you can make educated bets that have a higher chance of winning.

That said, most people who win tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, or millions, usually have a ton of luck on their side.

One example comes from a Texas woman who wagered $18 on the Kentucky Derby and won $1.2 million. She did a Pick 5, which is a bet on one horse to win five consecutive races. This is a major longshot and is not something you can predict.

But when you win $1.2 million, who really cares if you did it with luck?

Yes, it’s possible for Canadians to stream horse races online. However, you’ll need to join a horse betting site that offers live streaming and make sure they cover the races you’re interested in.

You’ll also want to check their terms to see if everyone can stream the races. Usually, there are stipulations. They might say you need to have made a bet recently or you need to have money in your account.

But if you don’t meet either stipulation, you can always go to a site like TSN.ca and stream horse races there.

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) oversees horse racing in Canada. They took over after the Ontario Racing Commission (ORC) closed.

There are other agencies and commissions that oversee other aspects of horse racing and betting in Canada, too. For example, the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency (CPMA) oversees betting. And the Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG) administers funds for purses and operational costs.

No doubt, it’s a team effort.

This is a tough question to answer because everyone has different interests, budgets, preferred banking methods, and so on.

The short answer is to choose from our list of the best Canadian horse racing betting sites. You can’t go wrong with any one of them, especially if you choose to join one of the top two.

Horse racing betting is huge in Canada, just like it is in many other countries. Bettors wager billions every year on the outcome of races like the Kentucky Derby, Melbourne Cup, and Prince of Wales Stakes.

You can get in on this action, and it’s never been easier than it is today. But please ensure you join a quality site that’s secure, has a great reputation, and fair terms and conditions.

The easiest way to do that is to join one of the top Canadian horse racing betting sites we recommend. We spend a lot of time reviewing and testing each site, and we have several decades of combined experience in the online betting industry.

When you join one of our recommended sites, you know that it’s one of the best horse racing betting sites for Canada.

Join one today and see for yourself. You won’t regret it.