Toronto, Canada, October 22, 2026. The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) has explicitly prohibited authorized financial intermediaries from offering, trading, or promoting prediction contracts linked to sports outcomes and entertainment events. The decision, formalized on October 16 through Bulletin 26-0215, tightens restrictions on platforms such as Wealthsimple and Interactive Brokers Canada.
The regulator, led by President and CEO Andrew J. Kriegler, expanded the guidelines jointly published with the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) on August 27, under the chairmanship of Stan Magidson, to prevent sports contracts from being marketed as financial instruments.
Stan Magidson
The new conditions prohibit displaying unauthorized products in applications, watchlists, recommendations, alerts, or promotional links, even when their trading functions are disabled. CIRO only permits contracts linked to verifiable economic, financial, and environmental indicators, subject to prior authorization, minimum maturities of 30 days, and restrictions on leverage. Products related to elections and political events are also excluded.
Miranda Hubbs
Currently, only Wealthsimple and Interactive Brokers Canada have approval to facilitate these instruments under the regulator's conditions. Toronto-based Wealthsimple offers more than 4,000 Kalshi event contracts through Wealthsimple Predict, excluding sports and entertainment markets available in the United States.
The regulatory tightening also indirectly affects Polymarket, a platform without CIRO authorization. Its affiliated companies, Blockratize Inc. and Adventure One QSS Inc., received a two-year ban in Ontario, approved on April 17, 2025, along with a CAD 200,000 fine, CAD 25,000 in investigation costs, and an additional payment of US$22,966.75. The restriction expires in April 2027, although this does not guarantee new authorization. Polymarket also announced access restrictions in Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec during 2026.
CIRO, whose Board of Directors is chaired by Miranda Hubbs, maintains technical oversight through Phil Devault, Vice-President of Regulatory Policy, and Sheel Chaudhuri, Regulatory Policy Legal Counsel. The decision does not prohibit sports betting authorized under provincial regulatory frameworks, but rather its commercialization through financial intermediaries subject to CIRO oversight.
