Cookie Policy
This site sets Google Analytics cookies only if you accept them. This cookie policy lists every cookie the site sets, what each one does, how long it lasts and how to refuse the analytics ones.
On your first visit a banner at the bottom of the page asks, and until you click Accept, Google Analytics stores nothing in your browser. As of 28 October 2026, every page of sportsbettinginontario.ca loads Google Analytics 4, which stores _ga and _ga_FMM0YY8VLB in your browser to count visits; there are no advertising cookies and no cross-site tracking cookies.
What a Cookie Actually Is
A cookie is a small text file a website asks your browser to store, so that the site can recognize the same browser on a later request. Used well, that keeps you logged in or remembers a preference. Used badly, it follows you between sites and builds an advertising profile.
The distinction that matters is not technical but purposeful: a cookie that serves you and a cookie that watches you are the same file doing different jobs.
What This Site Sets
If you accept, the site sets the two Google Analytics cookies below; if you decline, or simply do not choose, it sets neither. They are written by the Google tag (gtag.js), which every page loads from www.googletagmanager.com, and they are first-party cookies: they sit on our own domain, not on Google’s. The only other cookies appear when one of the site’s administrators signs in:
| Cookie | When it is set | What it does | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| _ga | On your first page view, by Google Analytics | Holds a random identifier so that Analytics can tell a returning browser from a new one | 2 years |
| _ga_FMM0YY8VLB | On your first page view, by Google Analytics | Keeps track of the current visit (session), so that the pages you read are counted as one visit | 2 years |
| wordpress_logged_in, wp-settings | Only for site administrators who sign in | Keeps the editorial session open and stores admin screen preferences | Session to one year |
Your choice itself is kept in your browser’s local storage under the name gdm_consent, with the value granted or denied. It is not a cookie and not an identifier: every reader who makes the same choice stores the same value, and nothing is sent to us. Our hosting provider, WPX, can also set a cookie named wordpress-wpx when its security layer checks a visit. It is set by the host’s infrastructure, not by this site’s code, and we do not use it for analytics or advertising.
The two-year lifetimes are Google’s defaults, set out in its help page Cookie usage on websites. Browsers can shorten them: Google notes that Chrome caps a first-party cookie at 400 days and Safari at 7 days if you do not come back. Neither Analytics cookie is used for advertising. The administrator cookies are strictly functional and set by the WordPress software itself.
What Analytics records with these cookies, and what Google does with it, is explained in our Privacy Policy. In short, we use it only to see which pages readers find useful and how they find the site; we do not sell the data and we run no behavioural advertising. Google handles the data under its own policy, How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.
What This Site Does Not Set
This list is deliberately specific, because vagueness is how cookie policies usually hide things:
As of 28 October 2026, the site’s pages load scripts from two domains that are not ours: www.googletagmanager.com, for Google Analytics, and code.jquery.com, which delivers the jQuery library and sets no cookie. Analytics then sends its measurements to www.google-analytics.com. You can check that yourself in a few seconds: open your browser’s developer tools, reload any page, and look at the network tab for a domain that is not ours.
How to Refuse the Analytics Cookies
The simplest way is the banner: analytics cookies stay off unless you click Accept. To change your mind later, open the cookie banner again and choose Decline, which also deletes any _ga cookies already stored. Before you choose, or after you decline, the Google tag still loads but runs in Google’s Consent Mode with analytics storage denied: it writes no cookie, and can send Google a basic cookieless signal that a page was viewed, without an identifier.
You can also stop Google Analytics from measuring your visits by other means, and the site works exactly the same either way:
- Install Google’s opt-out add-on. The official Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge, stops the tag from sending data to Analytics on every site that uses it.
- Block or delete the cookies for this site. Because _ga and _ga_FMM0YY8VLB are first-party cookies, blocking third-party cookies will not stop them: block cookies for sportsbettinginontario.ca, or delete them, in your browser’s site settings.
- Block tracking scripts. A browser or extension that blocks trackers will usually stop the Google tag from loading at all, so the cookies are never set.
Cookies Set by Operators After You Leave
This is the part a cookie policy normally buries, so we will be direct about it.
When you click a link from this site to a sportsbook, it passes through a short redirect on our own domain, which sets no cookie, and then carries a tracking parameter identifying us as the referring site. Once you arrive, the operator’s own cookies are set by the operator, on the operator’s domain, under the operator’s cookie policy – typically including analytics, advertising and affiliate-attribution cookies. Registered Ontario books also use technical measures to confirm you are physically inside the province before accepting a wager.
We do not control those cookies and cannot switch them off for you. What we receive from them is aggregate: how many readers arrived, and how many opened an account. Nothing that identifies you as a person reaches us. If you want to know exactly what a given book stores, its cookie policy is linked in its own footer, and it is worth two minutes before you register.
How to Control Cookies in Your Browser
Whatever any website tells you, the browser is where control actually lives:
- Block or limit third-party cookies. Every major browser can do this in its privacy settings, and it stops most cross-site tracking without breaking normal browsing.
- Clear cookies for a specific site. Use the padlock or tune icon in the address bar to see and delete what a single site has stored.
- Browse privately. A private or incognito window discards cookies when you close it.
- Use tracking protection. Firefox, Safari and Brave block many trackers by default; Chrome and Edge offer equivalent settings.
Blocking cookies, the analytics ones included, will not affect your experience of this site, since nothing on it depends on them. It may well affect sportsbook sites, which use cookies to keep you logged in and to run their location checks.
Changes to This Policy
If this site begins setting a cookie that is not listed here, this page will list it and the date at the top will change. The date is the last time something substantive changed, not a routine refresh.
Questions go to info@sportsbettinginontario.ca. See also our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Policy FAQs
- What cookies does SportsBettingInOntario.ca set?
If you accept them, two Google Analytics cookies: _ga, which tells a returning browser from a new one, and _ga_FMM0YY8VLB, which keeps track of the current visit. Both are first-party, with Google’s default lifetime of two years. Administrators who sign in also get WordPress cookies, and our host’s security layer can set one named wordpress-wpx.
- Does the site set cookies before I accept?
Not the analytics ones. Until you click Accept, Google Analytics stores nothing in your browser: the Google tag runs in Consent Mode with analytics storage denied, and can send Google only a basic cookieless signal that a page was viewed, without an identifier.
- How do I change my cookie choice?
Open the cookie banner again and choose Decline, which also deletes any _ga cookies already stored. Your choice is kept in your browser’s local storage as gdm_consent – not a cookie, and not an identifier.
- Does the site use advertising or tracking cookies?
No. There is no Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn or X advertising tag, no session recorder or heatmap, no advertising network or retargeting tag, and no device fingerprinting. Neither Analytics cookie is used for advertising.
- What cookies do sportsbooks set when I click through?
Their own, on their own domain and under their own cookie policy – typically analytics, advertising and affiliate-attribution cookies. Our redirect sets no cookie, and we cannot switch the operator’s cookies off for you; each book links its cookie policy in its footer.
19+. Ontario only. Gambling can be addictive. Free, confidential help is available 24/7 from ConnexOntario: call 1-866-531-2600, text 247247, or visit connexontario.ca.