Despite Canada’s restrictions on prediction markets, foreign dealers are allowing bets on Canadian elections, setting the stage for debates on how the burgeoning industry might influence our economy and nation.
The news: Just over $600,000 USD has been wagered on US-based prediction market platforms Polymarket and Kalshi predicting the outcome of Toronto’s mayoral race. Canadians can’t legally bet on the race because authorized dealers, like Wealthsimple (whose chief compliance officer, Hanna Zaidi, sits on BetaKit’s board of directors) and Interactive Brokers, can only offer markets tied to economic indicators, financial markets, and climate trends. That means that $600,000 was wagered either by Canadians using VPNs to spoof their location or foreign speculators. Prediction markets can be swayed by insiders and influence public opinion—meaning those risks are now in effect despite that type of market not yet legally operating here.
As more Canadian players look to provide prediction markets, and Wealthsimple advocates for regulators to expand available markets, a panel of industry experts at the IIC Canada conference in Ottawa on Tuesday discussed the possibility of expanded trading on markets like politics and sports—and were pessimistic about the value an increased presence would bring.
From the source: “You want your capital markets to essentially channel people’s savings into economically productive uses … you want people to invest in companies that are going to build factories,” FAIR Canada executive director Jean-Paul Bureaud said on stage. “If you think about prediction market contracts, it is basically: if I win the bet, I get paid out. If you win the bet, you get paid out. That money never touches the economy.”
The context: Bureaud was joined by business lawyer and Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project fellow Rachel Wasserman, alongside Canadian Association of Broadcasters president and CEO Kevin Desjardins. The speakers touched on prediction markets’ connection to gambling, dismissed their utility as a financial hedging tool, and weighed the implications of young people potentially seeing prediction-market luck as a more reliable way to accumulate wealth than labour.
Final thought: Despite those concerns, Wasserman fears that Pandora’s box has been opened to prediction markets, and Canada may loosen regulations rather than ban the practice outright. However, that prediction hasn’t come true just yet. Last week, Canada’s investment watchdog tightened its rules, saying that, in addition to preventing clients from trading them, brokers can’t advertise unavailable markets like political bets.
Most AI projects do not fail on the model, they fail on foundations nobody checked first.
Dedicatted’s AI Opportunity and Readiness Assessment finds the AI use cases actually worth doing in your business, tells you honestly whether your data is ready, and maps a costed path to production, all in four weeks and about six hours of your team’s time.
You walk away with four documents: a prioritized use case register, a readiness scorecard, a target architecture and business case, and a twelve-month roadmap.
It’s funded through AWS partner programs, so qualifying businesses pay nothing.
Book your assessment today to learn more.
Latest news across tech
Internet lockdown
Two security issues put IT teams across the internet on high alert and forced numerous websites, including Canadian government sites, to proactively go offline on Wednesday.
A severe PHP programming language vulnerability put 70 percent of the internet’s websites at risk, while a separate vulnerability involving TLS certificates could impact everything from VPNs to IoT devices.
OpenAI noted that security researchers using its GPT‑5.6 Sol model found the vulnerability. As AI models get better at finding exploits, is the internet periodically going down the new reality?
Limited assistance
Several AI companies are developing personal agents to scour the internet and make dinner reservations or travel plans on their humans’ behalf, but their utility may be under threat. The Verge reports that banks, airlines, and online retailers are beginning to block personal assistants from accessing their services—a potential roadblock for those companies’ sales pitches.
Canada’s chaotic research funding pipeline
A new report commissioned by the federal government has found that Canada’s major research facilities don’t follow a national, coordinated agenda. It suggests the country should treat research like a portfolio of assets deserving of long-term planning, according to The Logic.
Tesla to the moon, again
The boards of Elon Musk’s biggest companies, SpaceX and Tesla, have formed special committees to review a possible merger, but Musk isn’t allowed to be in the discussions, he told investors on a recent earnings call. A merger of the two billion-dollar-plus companies would mark one of the largest business consolidations in history.
Touching grass
A former Meta employee has formed a community for laid-off workers to get outside, enjoy their severance, and swap stories with new friends. The Toronto Star told the story of the Toronto Layoff Hiking Group and the growing gathering of people navigating unemployment, as well as the city’s parks, together.
Sponsored stories
Entrepreneurship in Canada is being redefined.
The Modern Entrepreneur Report from Tangerine Bank and PwC Canada revealed that today’s business owners are moving away from traditional markers of success like headcount and rapid scaling, and are instead prioritizing freedom, flexibility, and community impact.
Jodi Kovitz, Managing Director of Business at Tangerine Bank, explains how Tangerine Business is evolving its model to better support solo founders, side-hustlers, and small business owners, given these recent trends.
On the move
This week’s hires, fires, and exec shakeups:
- CTO Mikhail Parakhin will leave e-commerce giant Shopify after just over two years in the role.
- Montréal-based Amiral Ventures is hiring a venture partner in Toronto.
- Repeat tech entrepreneur Ryan St. Germaine joined Vancouver-based Raven Indigenous Capital Partners as partner in preparation for its next fund.
- Toronto-based healthtech company PointClickCare appointed former Appen CEO Armughan Ahmad to its board of directors.
- Ottawa-based defence company Calian permanently appointed Will Majic as CFO and added Kristine McTaggart as its president for essential industries.
- After AI fears rocked software stocks earlier this year, Constellation Software has appointed Daan Dijkhuizen as chief AI officer.
- Electronic Arts shut down legendary Edmonton game studio BioWare as part of global cuts that impacted 50 remaining employees.
- Online commerce platform eBay is going to cut around 1,000 jobs, or about nine percent of its workforce, Reuters reporteds.
- Vancouver-based clinic network Well Health appointed Samara Starkman as chief privacy officer to lead the company’s AI governance strategy.
- Vancouver-based marketing platform Wishpond promoted Jacky He as CFO, replacing the outgoing Adrian Lim.
- More Canadians are starting businesses than ever, but fewer of those businesses are hiring compared to 20 years ago, according to a new RBC report.
- Underperforming AI agents at big banks are at risk of being replaced, The Logic reported.
- Half of companies that added AI requirements to non-technical roles never formally told employees, according to a report by employment platform Oyster.
Want to feature a hiring announcement in our list? Email partnerships@betakit.com with the subject line JOBS.
Canadian businesses’ AI spending has expanded 12x in just two years.
Join BetaKit and Float on Friday, October 23rd at 11:00 AM ET for tactical advice and practical strategies on managing volatile AI costs and foreign currency fees.
We’ll cover:
- Why AI spend behaves differently from standard software budget lines
- Key findings and insights from Float’s AI Spending Snapshot
- Managing foreign exchange fees on USD-billed invoices
- Practical frameworks to track ROI and assign clear spend ownership
#1. What did Elon Musk promise to give every child in the United States next year?
Your score:
b) One of his SpaceX shares. According to CNBC, there were 72 million children under 18 in the US as of July 1, 2025, which would amount to Musk giving away about $10.5 billion USD worth of shares. Musk didn’t provide details on how his great wealth redistribution would work.
b) One of his SpaceX shares. According to CNBC, there were 72 million children under 18 in the US as of July 1, 2025, which would amount to Musk giving away about $10.5 billion USD worth of shares. Musk didn’t provide details on how his great wealth redistribution would work.
Contributors: Alex Riehl (Ottawa staff writer), Douglas Soltys (editor in chief), Sarah Rieger (managing editor), Trevor Nichols (web editor).
Feature image courtesy Alex Riehl for BetaKit.