Nearly $500K wagered as illegal betting website favours Olivia Chow in mayoral race
· Toronto Sun
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Even though betting site Polymarket is illegal in the province, nothing is stopping its users from having an opinion on the outcome of the Toronto mayoral race.
“I guess that’s happening,” mayoral candidate Brad Bradford said Thursday afternoon in Etobicoke. “I don’t even think that’s legal in the province, but that’s kind of out of my jurisdiction. I am certainly not engaged in any of that.”
As of late Tuesday afternoon, approximately US$481,013 has been wagered on the outcome of the election.
Polymarket is a peer-to-peer prediction market platform where users trade shares on the outcome of real-world events. Polymarket allow its traders to buy and sell “yes” or “no” contracts.It operates fully on cryptocurrency, allowing trades and winnings to be paid out automatically.
The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) fined Polymarket’s parent companies $200,000 in April 2025 and classified the platform’s “yes” and “no” options as illegal under securities laws.
Polymarket is also geo-blocked to Ontario users.
What are the odds?
Bradford was asked if he wanted to know what the odds were of him winning.
“No. I try to keep very focused on crime, congestion and cost,” he said. “I don’t know what the odds are. I don’t look at any of that stuff.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, incumbent Olivia Chow was the bettors’ choice with 65% of the speculators. Bradford was second with 36%.
And even though Polymarket doesn’t represent change on his behalf, Bradford is all about change.
“If you want change in the city, you have to change the mayor and the best way, in fact the only way to do that is to go out and participate in this great democratic process,” he said.