Soccer is having a moment in North America, with a combination of factors contributing to its growing audience in the US and Canada. Apart from obvious catalysts like the 2026 World Cup, there’s also the fuel provided by the rollout of legalized sports betting in more and more parts of the continent. And with more eyes on the sport comes more potential for uninitiated bettors to make false assumptions about how it works.
Specifically, Major League Soccer and the Canadian Premier League might seem like they offer essentially the same experience from a bettor’s perspective, when the reality is that you need to know about what distinguishes them in order to make correct calls.
The State of Players
How each league handles players is the first and most influential factor separating MLS from the CPL. In MLS, the budget available for players is much higher, hence why top teams are able to entice world-class international stars like Lionel Messi, who in turn are able to be real difference-makers, for better or worse. So if you’re wagering on an MLS game, you need to pay attention to the team sheet, and recognize that if a big-hitter is injured or unavailable for some other reason, that will really impact the odds and the likely outcome.
Meanwhile, the CPL has a much more stringent cap on player salaries, as well as stricter rules regarding the proportion of a team that must be made up of homegrown talent. That means star players making millions of dollars a year aren’t really a thing, and squad depth isn’t anywhere near what you’ll find in MLS. So if you’re betting on CPL games using PowerPlay in Canada, you have to consider that there’s more parity across the league because of how squads are managed, and with this parity comes the opportunity to find untapped value, if you’re a data-driven bettor.
Market Size
Another interesting aspect of betting on MLS versus the CPL is that, because the former has a bigger international audience than the latter, there’s also a gulf between the two when it comes to sports betting market action. Apart from there being much more liquidity in MLS, there’s also often more coverage from bookmakers across a wider range of market types. And as a rule, when there’s more money involved, bettors must expect that the markets will also be faster to react when relevant news goes public.
Conversely, CPL has a smaller bettor pool and as such is a bit more of a niche concern from a bookmaker’s perspective, which in turn means you might face both a smaller variety of markets and tighter limits on how much you can bet on a given outcome. While this might put some off, for others it’s actually an opportunity, because quick-acting bettors focused on the CPL and with a deep innate knowledge of the league may be in a stronger position to use their knowledge to out-think and out-pace the sportsbooks.
There’s a lot to like about betting on MLS and the CPL if you’re based in Canada. As a rule, you’ll do better if you’re passionate about a league in the first place.
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