Soft2Bet, the company behind the heavily Canadian-branded, AGCO-licensed ToonieBet, is the subject of an international investigation that links it to scores of blacklisted offshore casinos, one of which reporters say took bets from Ontarians and did not check players’ ages. Ontario’s regulator, which renewed ToonieBet’s licence in March, now says it is reviewing. Soft2Bet denies any wrongdoing.
- An investigation by 15 news outlets, dubbed the Soft2Bet Files, alleges the gambling firm Soft2Bet and its partners earned about 600 million euros through offshore casinos that regulators had blacklisted, and links the group to roughly 145 banned websites.
- Soft2Bet also holds a legitimate Ontario licence for ToonieBet, a casino and sportsbook that has sponsored the CFL, the Grey Cup, two CFL teams and, until recently, the NHL’s Ottawa Senators.
- The reporting centers on unlicensed sites, among them OnlySpins, an adult-themed casino the Toronto Star reported targeted Ontarians without a licence and did not verify users’ ages. It has since gone offline.
- The AGCO renewed ToonieBet’s registration in March and now says its Financial Investigations Unit is reviewing the allegations, while regulators in Ireland have opened their own inquiry.
- Soft2Bet denies wrongdoing, calling the reporting an incorrect and misleading reading of its business.
TORONTO – ToonieBet is about as Canadian as a gambling brand can market itself. It is named for the two-dollar coin, it plasters its logo across Canadian football, and it has run since 2024 under a licence from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. Its parent company is now at the center of an international investigation that has prompted regulators on two continents to start asking questions.
A Very Canadian Brand
ToonieBet launched in Ontario in late 2024, its licence held by a company called Canadix Limited that was granted an AGCO certificate of registration in March 2024. It offers an online casino and, since last year, a sportsbook, and it has spent heavily to look like a hometown operator. It signed on as an official sports betting and casino partner of the Canadian Football League and its Grey Cup championship, holds a deal with the Ottawa Redblacks, recently added the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and was, until this year, the online casino partner of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators. Among the licensed Canada sportsbooks and casinos competing for Ontario players, few have wrapped themselves in local branding as tightly. The company behind it, however, is a different story.
The Soft2Bet Files
ToonieBet is a brand of Soft2Bet, a Malta and Cyprus based operator and software supplier that has run since 2016. This month, an investigation by 15 news organizations coordinated by the nonprofit newsroom Investigate Europe, and known as the Soft2Bet Files, alleged that Soft2Bet and its partners earned roughly 600 million euros through shell companies operating offshore casinos that regulators had blacklisted for illegal gambling. The reporting says leaked material links the group to about 145 websites banned by authorities, and that revenues from those sites were routed through two UK-regulated payment firms. Investigate Europe reported that Soft2Bet’s founder, Uri Poliavich, was paid nearly 200 million euros in dividends between 2019 and 2024. Soft2Bet has rejected the findings, describing them as based on an “incorrect and misleading interpretation of our business” and saying it takes compliance and responsible business practices seriously.
The Ontario Thread
The allegations that matter most in Canada attach not to ToonieBet, which is licensed, but to the unlicensed sites the reporting connects to the same corporate world. Chief among them is OnlySpins, an adult-themed casino that the Toronto Star, an Investigate Europe partner, reported had targeted Ontario players without a provincial licence and did not verify whether users were over 18. According to the reporting, the site was licensed instead through the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, a jurisdiction that offshore operators have increasingly used, and it routed deposits through a payment firm tied to Poliavich. A Star reporter was able to open an account under a fake name and a Toronto address, and at OnlySpins and two other unlicensed sites, staff reportedly told a reporter posing as a struggling gambler that closing an account would mean forfeiting any winnings, a practice at odds with Ontario’s player-protection expectations. OnlySpins posted a notice that it would stop operating on July 17 and is now offline, and a second Soft2Bet-linked site, a Harry Potter-themed casino called Betwarts, has said it will shut down at the end of the month.
The Regulator’s Position
That leaves the AGCO in an awkward spot. It renewed ToonieBet’s registration in March, roughly a year after Investigate Europe first reported, in 2025, that blacklisted gambling sites were connected to Soft2Bet. Asked about the latest findings, the regulator said it takes the matters raised seriously and that its Financial Investigations Unit and its Licensing and Registration Branch are reviewing the issues and allegations in the reporting. It is not the only watchdog moving. Ireland’s Gambling Regulatory Authority has confirmed it opened an inquiry into the Soft2Bet-linked sites with a view to enforcement, and lawmakers in the United Kingdom and a member of the European Parliament have pressed regulators to examine the payment firms that process money for unlicensed operators. The episode raises an uncomfortable question for online gambling in Ontario: how closely does the province examine the global corporate networks behind the brands it licenses, and the teams those brands sponsor.
What It Means
For a player, the practical distinction is the one worth holding onto. ToonieBet is a regulated Ontario product, subject to the province’s rules; the sites at the heart of the investigation are unlicensed operations that Canadians can still stumble onto through search or ads, with none of the same protections. The larger stakes are reputational and regulatory. If the AGCO’s review turns up problems, the fallout could reach the leagues and clubs that took ToonieBet’s sponsorship money, and it would sharpen a debate about how a licensed brand’s parent can simultaneously be tied to a blacklisted offshore network. For now, Soft2Bet maintains it has done nothing wrong, and no Canadian finding has been made. For a running view of which operators are licensed and how the market is policed, the Canada gambling sites hub tracks each development.
