Where Can I bet on the CFL?

The Canadian Football League, or CFL, was founded in early 1958 and consists of nine teams - the BC Lions, Edmonton Eskimos, Calgary Stampeders, Saskatchewan Roughriders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Hamilton Tiger Cats, Toronto Argonauts, Montreal Alouettes and Ottawa Redblacks.

The Canadian Football League is massively popular throughout the prairie provinces, with teams like the Eskimos, Roughriders and Blue Bombers consistently enjoying strong attendance and profit numbers. The game continues to struggle to find its way in other Canadian cities, however, as teams like the BC Lions and Montreal Alouettes continue to have their fair share of struggles.

The Canadian Football League is markedly different from the NFL in a number of ways.

The most glaringly obvious difference - there are only three downs inside of four. In addition, the field is much bigger, and the end zones are absolutely cavernous compared to the NFL.

In the CFL, speed and quickness is much more important, especially when it comes to the offensive side of the ball. Quarterbacks in the CFL must be able to scramble - the tall, sit-back-in-the-pocket QBs of the NFL don't really translate to the CFL, which is more about scrambling and quick slant passes and heaving the ball into the end zone.

There are more differences as well, including extra points for missed field goals and kicks that roll into the end zone, plus the clock functions differently than in the NFL.

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The CFL has requirements as to the number of Canadian players that each team must have. For some, this is a way to keep the Canadian Football League truly Canadian.

For others, this relegates the CFL to bush league status, as the league isn't truly fielding the best possible players that it could.

The league had a failed experiment with expansion into the United States in the '90s - this experiment very nearly ended the league. In recent years, the league has expanded carefully, with a franchise (another one) going into Ottawa, and Halifax being rumoured to get a team in order to bring the league up to 10 clubs.

The league certainly isn't fantastically profitable, with the smaller population of Canada constraining the overall growth of the game. The reality is that many people prefer the NFL because it features the best players in the world.

Others, however, swear by the Canadian version of the game.

There is no doubt that the CFL is very exciting, as it typically produces more offense than in a NFL game. With the way that the clocks stops in the last few minutes of a game, teams are rarely out of it until the final whistle is blown.

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Betting on the CFL can be difficult, as teams can change so much from year to year.

Quarterbacks frequently switch teams, and star players rarely remain with a club for more than a few years.

One thing is for certain, however - the Western teams typically tend to be much better than the Eastern teams.

It can be hard to get a handle on teams at the beginning of the regular seasons, though this can be excellent for the shrewd gambler, as there is usually plenty of sports book confusion to exploit.