Canada’s most valuable online gambling brand is not licensed to operate in a single Canadian province, according to new research published by CasinoCanada.com. An analysis of the 301 gambling brands active in the country places Stake – an offshore, crypto-enabled operator – at an estimated market value of CAD 2.50 billion ($1.8bn), ahead of every regulated competitor in Canada.
Stake is one of four offshore brands in Canada’s top ten, and part of a wider pattern the research identifies: the minority of Canadians who gamble offshore are comfortably outspending the majority who don’t. Blask’s August 2026 figures show 66.47% of Canadian gamblers now use licensed sites against 33.53% offshore – yet offshore platforms took CAD 712 million ($512m) in wagers, compared with CAD 484 million ($348m) on licensed ones.
The research argues that Ontario’s much-cited 91% channelisation rate has masked how far the rest of the country has drifted. Outside Ontario, estimated offshore leakage runs to 93% in Saskatchewan, 88% in Alberta and Manitoba and 83% in Quebec, where Loto-Québec has operated since 2010. British Columbia, with BCLC’s PlayNow platform long established, sits at roughly 49%.
On why players are leaving, CasinoCanada points to product gaps regulated operators are not permitted to close. AGCO standards require Ontario balances to be held in Canadian dollars through an authorised financial services provider, excluding cryptocurrency from the regulated market by design, while prediction markets sit largely outside provincial frameworks. Both categories are growing quickly offshore: Rainbet has grown its Canadian business by 621% year-on-year, and offshore prediction market activity is up 161%.
The report also links offshore play to the players least able to absorb it. A 2026 Toronto Metropolitan University study of more than 1,800 bettors in Ontario and Alberta found men under 30 report 50% greater gambling-related harm and 44% higher anxiety than the wider betting population, with 60% rating responsible gambling messaging as having little or no impact on them. Norwegian account-level data cited in the research found problem gamblers made up 2.1% of players but 46% of offshore turnover.
Eugene Ravdin, Head of PR at CasinoCanada, said: “Ontario has proved that regulation can work at scale, and it deserves the credit it gets. The problem is that the rest of Canada is being measured against a number it has no realistic route to matching, province by province, with none of it joined up.
“Offshore operators aren’t winning on trust or on brand – they’re winning on products licensed operators are structurally not allowed to offer, marketed to exactly the group the data says is already at most risk. Until that gap closes, better messaging on its own won’t bring players back.”
Dingnews.com 25/08/2026