CANADA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Richard McLaren and Janie Soublière, McLaren Global Sports Solutions
tions. The CSSP Rules clearly and publicly set out how Sport Integrity Canada operates and administers the programme, including defined timelines at each stage of the reporting process, confidentiality parameters, appeal pathways and mechanisms, and the posting of sanctions and violations imposed on participants on its Public Registry. The CSSP also offers support ser - vices to connect participants with help along the way. The UCCMS is the core document setting out harmo - nised rules to be adopted by sport organisations that receive funding from the government of Canada, in order to advance a respectful sport culture that deliv - ers quality, inclusive, accessible, welcoming and safe sport experiences. The UCCMS includes: • common principles and a commitment to advance a respectful sport culture; • standard definitions of various forms of maltreat - ment, including grooming, neglect, and physical, sexual and psychological abuse; • a list of other prohibited behaviour, such as retali - ation, failure to report maltreatment, intentionally filing false allegations, misuse of power, etc; and • a framework for determining appropriate sanctions against such prohibited behaviour. All organisations that receive Sport Canada funding are subject to the UCCMS. Sport Integrity Canada’s CSSP Rules provide that appeals of applicable and narrowly defined decisions issued under the CSSP are to be appealed to the SDRCC. Those appeals are governed by the Cana- dian Sport Dispute Resolution Code, the CSSP Rules and the UCCMS. The evolution of legislation governing match-fixing and gambling Historically, Canada’s Criminal Code broadly prohib - ited most forms of sports betting. Canadian bettors were restricted to “parlay” wagers, meaning they had to combine multiple outcomes into a single bet. This effectively barred single-event sports betting for dec - ades.
A major turning point came with Bill C-218, the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act, which came into force in August 2021 and amended the Criminal Code to decriminalise single-event sports betting. With bet - ting no longer being a criminal matter, legislative juris - diction now belonged to the province rather than the federal government. Ontario was the first province to step into the legis - lative vacancy, allowing sportsbooks to register with it to provide markets in Ontario in April 2023. The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) adopted a self-regulatory regime for sportsbooks, which were required to have an independent monitor and to self-regulate and report based on the regula - tions of the AGCO. All provinces and territories can regulate and license wagers on individual games and contests (excluding horse racing, which is still feder - ally regulated). Legal online betting has since grown in popularity across the country – for example, Ontario now embraces private operators regulated by provin - cial authorities, and Alberta is expected to legislate similarly in 2026. The strict regulatory regime of the AGCO was to pull billions in previously illegal or offshore betting into a secure and transparent legal framework, in an effort to enhance consumer protections and generate new public tax revenue. However, the expansion of legal sports wagering has also brought increased concerns about match-fixing. Under the current law in Canada, there are no specific Criminal Code provisions crimi - nalising match-fixing. This forces authorities to rely on general fraud statutes, highlighting a significant gap in the legal regime. To address these risks, Canadian sports and integrity bodies have stepped up efforts, with groups like the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) work - ing to strengthen monitoring, education and report - ing mechanisms. In 2025, joint programmes between the IBIA and the Professional Footballers’ Association Canada trained athletes on betting integrity, with the primary focus being on identifying and reporting sus - picious approaches and activity that could undermine sport fairness.
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