The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Wealthsimple chief executive officer Mike Katchen says Canadian regulators' decision to keep sports and entertainment bets outside of securities regulation creates new challenges for the country's emerging prediction market industry. The Globe's Meera Raman writes that a recent joint statement from Canadian securities and investment industry regulators which keeps sports and entertainment contracts off regulated prediction market platforms "did not address how the mechanics are going to work," Mr. Katchen said. Wealthsimple argues that putting certain contracts, such as those tied to sports outcomes, under gaming regulation while others remain under securities regulation would be "unworkable," adding that sports contract and an inflation contract "are, mechanically, the same instrument." Now that regulators have drawn a line between the two, "It's a mechanic argument that's going to present a number of challenges that I'm not sure is fully thought through yet," Mr. Katchen said. The decision puts Canada's nascent prediction-market industry on a different path than its U.S. counterpart, shutting financial services companies out of lucrative categories like sports.
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