What is a gambling site?
Gambling covers a broad range of activities, such as playing real money roulette and blackjack, betting on sports, bingo, poker, and even playing the lottery. A gambling site is a website that allows customers to partake in their favourite activity online.
There are numerous benefits of using online gambling sites compared to traditional brick and mortar, face-to-face methods. These include convenience, more gaming options, and better bonuses and promotions, among others.
How we choose
The objective of Casino Select is to help you find the perfect gambling site from a sea of options. To do that, our expert team has vetted each of the operators, so we are confident that those in our table are the best gambling sites in Canada. Here’s how we choose which ones make the cut.
Licensing
Licensed gambling sites offer greater protection if players have an issue or complaint. Plus, their games and other operations are regulated to ensure they deliver fair gambling and gaming experiences.
Gambling options
A good variety of gambling options is essential. Our team has years of experience, so we know how to measure this effectively.
Payments and payouts
We look for a selection of easy-to-use payment methods while also assessing if there are any fees. Additionally, payout times are important. Like you, we don’t appreciate gambling sites that drag their feet on withdrawals.
Multiple devices
The top gambling sites use a multi-platform approach to ensure a seamless gambling experience. We review these to see if they are up to scratch.
Bonuses and promotions
From size and quality to the wagering requirements, we evaluate all aspects of the bonuses and promotions to bring you the best offers.
Reputation
Player approval ratings help guide us as to how gambling sites are performing. We analyze this data to ensure the operator is trustworthy and its customers are satisfied with the products and service.
What makes a good casino
The best casino gambling site is a personal choice based on your preferences and desires. However, there are several common attributes that all good casinos share. The range of games is most certainly of great importance; whether you’re a slot player or a live roulette enthusiast, you want a decent assortment of titles to choose between.
Also, player-friendly bonuses are a must. There’s little point in claiming an offer with outrageous playthrough requirements. This is not to say you will win with every bonus you get, but you want a fair chance. The best gambling sites have great customer support. When playing online, particularly real money games, you want to know assistance is available if and when you need it.
What makes a good betting site
Canada is a sports-loving nation with many people who like a wager on their favourite teams. Therefore a good betting site needs to cater to these demands. The sports and betting markets should have a local flavour, with NHL, CFL, NBA, and MLB taking centre stage. Of course, they must have all the big international sports and events like soccer, tennis, rugby, darts, and cricket, as well.
Other features of the top sports gambling sites are competitive odds, regular promotions, such as free bets, betting tools like cashout and bet builder, live in-play betting, and a robust mobile platform.
What makes a good bingo site
Local community centres and village halls are known for having regular bingo nights in Canada. Now, the game has taken hold online, so what makes a good online bingo site?
The price range of the cards is a principal factor. To serve more players; the best bingo gambling sites have games starting from $0.01 or $0.02 a card up to $5 or $10. Furthermore, good bingo sites have lots of different rooms, so there are games starting every two or three minutes. Promotions – especially freerolls – are another hallmark that the top bingo gambling sites share.
What makes a good poker site
Poker is arguably the most popular online gambling activity in Canada. Unlike playing at a casino or sports betting, one of the most important ingredients of a good poker site is a high number of players. This ensures that you aren’t sitting around too long waiting for the games to start.
In addition to that, the best poker sites offer several different variants, such as Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and Seven Card Stud, with fixed-limit, pot-limit, and no-limit games to choose from. Furthermore, they will have cash games, sit and go tournaments and MTTs with buy-in limits ranging from a few cents up to hundreds of dollars.
Gambling offers
Promotions are crucial to all online gambling sites. Whichever form of gambling excites you, there will be welcome bonuses waiting for you at the top online casinos, sportsbooks, bingo sites and poker rooms.
However, the gambling offers don’t stop at the front door. You’ll discover many promotions after registering an account. Here’s a taster of what you’ll be able to enjoy at the best gambling sites in Canada.
Casino offers
Casinos attract players with no deposit bonuses and welcome offers. More often than not, a casino welcome bonus will be a matched deposit offer, where the operator ‘matches’ the player’s deposit by a set percentage up to a maximum value – 100% up to $500, for example. To add a little more appeal, the casino may also add some free spins.
Of course, all casino bonuses come with terms and conditions, which stipulate the minimum deposit amount required to claim the bonus, what the wagering requirements are and how long the bonus is valid for, among other things.
With the new customer offer done and dusted, players can find an array of weekly promos like free spins offers, reload bonuses, rebate bonuses in the live casino, rewards schemes and VIP clubs.
Sports betting offers
New sportsbook customers can also snap up a variety of welcome bonuses. These can also be matched deposit offers, or simply free bet bonuses. While free bets rarely come with wagering requirements, a matched deposit offer will. However, these won’t be as steep as the wagering for a casino matched deposit bonus.
Many top-rated sports betting sites have regular free bets promos, with some providing free clubs for bettors to opt in to. Additional offers include price boosts, parlay insurance of specific sports and boosted accumulator payouts. As with casino bonuses, always read the T&Cs before you claim an offer to understand the rules.
Bingo offers
Bingo sites like to offer their own type of match deposit bonuses, which award new customers with free bingo tickets. In some instances, players may be required to deposit and spend a certain amount before being given the bonus.
Guaranteed jackpots, buy one get one free promotions, happy hour sessions, loyalty rewards and prize giveaways are some of the other common bingo bonuses. Also, many bingo sites host a range of online slots, so you can expect several cross-product promos where you can get some free spins on slots if you buy bingo tickets.
Poker offers
New customers can also claim matched deposit bonuses at most poker sites in Canada. However, these offers are slightly different to the type of matched deposit bonuses served up at casinos.
With a casino matched bonus, players receive the bonus funds immediately after completing their deposits. They must then clear the wagering demands before the cash can be withdrawn. Poker no deposit bonuses are usually awarded to players after they have played a specific number of hands or tournaments, and the bonus is given out in increments. The positive is that when you get your poker bonus cash, it can be withdrawn if you desire.
Freeroll tournaments are another popular poker promotion, along with guaranteed jackpot MTTs, free tickets to sit & go tournaments, rake-back bonuses and loyalty clubs.
Best mobile gambling sites
Mobile gambling sites are the talk of the town. Essentially, every reputable gambling site operator, whether their focus is casino, sports betting, poker or bingo, has gone mobile. Why? Because more customers prefer to use their smartphones and tablets for gambling than a laptop or PC.
With the exception of the smaller screen size on portable devices, you’ll see little or no difference between gambling sites on a desktop and mobile. You can still enjoy the same games, claim the same bonuses and use virtually the same banking options. It’s just everything is now in the palm of your hand. These are some of the key benefits of mobile gambling sites:
Most people have their phones with them all the time, making using a mobile gambling site far more convenient. As long as you have an internet connection or data, you’ll be able to access the site from wherever you are and whenever you like. A quick sports bet at lunchtime? A game of roulette on the commute home from work? Bingo while laying in bed? With gambling on your mobile, any of these combinations and more are possible.
Canada’s top gambling sites offer mobile apps. These give players one-click access to the site. There’s no need to load URLs and wait to log in. In today’s fast-paced world, this appeals to customers who want to get straight to the heart of the action.
Another perk of mobile gambling apps (and something desktop platforms don’t offer) is push notifications. With these, gambling sites can send instant messages directly to your device with information about new bonuses and promotions. You’ll never miss another exciting offer again.
Best new casino sites
Whether it’s a new operator or an existing company with another brand, new casino sites are launched every month. Of course, there are pros and cons to joining a new online casino compared to an established brand. Naturally, they lack the history and reputation. Furthermore, many new casino sites don’t offer mobile apps. However, there are some intriguing benefits, in our opinion.
Firstly, a new casino is likely to offer player-friendly terms for its bonuses and promotions. After all, it needs to attract customers to try its site. Additionally, fresh-out-of-the-box casino sites often use the latest software, while they may also have some of the newest games other casinos haven’t added to their libraries yet.
Best new betting sites
Like casinos, new betting sites come along regularly. However, sports betting is a different ball game compared to casinos. Rarely do new sportsbooks launch with live streaming and mobile betting apps, which puts them slightly on the back foot straight away.
To overcome these shortfalls, the best new betting sites in Canada may offer odds with lower margins, so bettors get more value. Also, there’s a focus on bonus offers with friendly terms like free bets with low odds on the qualifying bets.
An improved user experience is something else new sites can offer by using software which has been specifically designed for mobiles, as this is the most popular way to bet online these days.
Best new bingo sites
Bingo has been a popular game in Canada for years – and it’s proving to be a hit in the online gambling world. While new bingo sites aren’t launched as frequently as new casinos, it’s still worth keeping an eye open for when a new site does pop up.
The best new bingo sites offer a variety of themed rooms with games starting every few minutes. Players are also treated to an abundance of promotions, including welcome offers, free tickets and regular happy hours. You’ll also find a wide range of payment methods for hassle-free deposits and withdrawals.
Of course, many bingo games rely on a high number of players buying tickets to build up the jackpots. Therefore, new sites tend to start with more fixed jackpot bingo games. The advantage here is that if you are competing against fewer players/tickets, the odds of you winning are higher.
Best new poker sites
If you’re a beginner at online poker, new poker sites are the perfect place to learn the ropes. Why? Simply because the established brands like 888 Poker and PokerStars attract highly-skilled players, and you don’t want to be competing against them when you’re just starting.
Therefore, head for one of our recommended new poker sites. You should find more players at the same skill level as you there. This will give you a better chance of improving your game without smashing through your bankroll too rapidly. In addition, many new online poker rooms have daily freerolls and other exciting promotions to increase the value of playing on their platform.
