Maintaining Fair Play: How Digital Systems are Keeping Canadian Esports Honest

Since the legalization of single-event wagering in 2021, online sports betting in Canada has experienced unprecedented growth. Its market value is projected to reach over $8.7 billion as favorable regulations and mobile tech adoption make betting more accessible. That said, this rapid expansion and high consumer engagement have led to concerns about competitive integrity within Canada’s esports scene. 

These concerns were recently amplified by the VALORANT NA Challengers League scandal in 2025. The scandal, which was brought to light by veteran competitor Sean Gares, revealed that esports organizations were coordinating match-fixing and underground gambling. With claims that even tournament officials were complicit in the match fixing, this incident provided a sobering reminder that competitive integrity in esports is an ever-present problem. 

So, how does Canada need to do to keep competition honest and maintain fair play in this rapidly evolving landscape?

Canadian Esports Landscape

With a growing player base and major tournament organizers such as OverActive Media and Toronto Defiant, Canada’s esports scene is now in full sprint. Esports engagement is expected to hit over 15.2 million users by the close of the decade: that’s one in three Canadians either participating or watching competitive esports games. 

What’s more, professional Canadian esports players are also punching well above their weight. Currently, there are over 3500 pro Canadian esports players who have earned over $45 million in prize winnings in international tournaments. This ranks Canada among the top ten countries for esports revenue. The emergence of professional teams, such as the Vancouver Titans, has helped esports in the country evolve from casual game play into league-based competition with million-dollar sponsorships and media coverage. 

As the sector scales, with more money from sponsorships and more people placing bets, esports competitive outcomes are also now under even more scrutiny. What’s more, these outcomes are not of concern only to players and fans but also to platforms and sponsors who have invested heavily in the industry.

What Does Competitive Integrity Mean In Digital Sports

Competitive integrity is all about ensuring ethical standards in digital sports. From promoting fair play and ensuring the digital safety of participants to the implementation of policies that guide governing bodies, competitive integrity helps maintain the reputation of esports in the country.

While in traditional sports this assurance was reinforced by drug testing protocols and physical referees overseeing a competition, esports faces a whole different set of challenges in trying to ensure competitive integrity. So far, some of the main threats to competitive integrity in esports range from match fixing through coordinated manipulation, as was the case in the VALORANT NA Challengers League scandal, to cheating through software and identity fraud.

Early on, esports cheating entailed the use of wallhacks, aimbots, and trigger scripts, among other software-based tools that influenced the gameplay. However, cheaters have since adapted by using cheating technology that operates outside the game entirely, making it difficult to be detected by anti-cheat software. From the use of Direct Memory Access (DMA) tools to AI-assisted aimbots that use computer vision models, they are evolving to the use of cheating hardware on a separate “cheat” computer rather than installing software on the primary gaming PC.

Recent reports by Krafton show that millions of players were banned in PUBG alone in 2025 due to DMA-based cheating. What most players don’t know is that esports cheating has legal consequences. For instance, cheat producer, EngineOwning, was ordered, in a default judgment, to pay over $14 million to Activision in financial penalties in 2024 for selling software that bypassed Call of Duty game’s security systems.

Technologies Driving Fair Play In Canada 

Understanding the cheating threat in esports competition is only half of the battle; developers have to build systems that can detect these threats to maintain fair play. In an attempt to keep up with cheating technology, modern anti-cheat tech is leveraging AI to authenticate hardware equipment and map player actions to detect any form of cheating. This has led to an arms race between cheaters and developers.

Recent anti-cheat technological evolution has seen a shift to detection software that is embedded in the deepest layer of a PC’s operating system. This kernel-level operation blocks threats before they reach the game. For instance, Riot Games’ Vanguard performs a comprehensive memory scan that prevents any driver manipulation in real time. The technology has helped ban over 3.6 million VALORANT accounts over the last 4 years. Other notable kernel-level technologies, such as BattleEye –used by PUBG and Rainbow Six Siege– and Fortnite’s Easy Anti-Cheat, have played a huge role in match integrity monitoring.

On the other hand, Sportradar’s Fraud Detection System (FDS) has also been integral in monitoring betting market movements. Today, any operator looking to run a legitimate professional league must incorporate FDS for real-time match integrity monitoring.

The global anticheat software is growing exponentially, hitting over $6 billion in 2025 and projected to reach over $10 billion by 2032. These figures show just how seriously publishers and tournament operators are investing in keeping competitive integrity in esports.

The Future Of Integrity In Canadian Esports

As Canada’s esports ecosystem expands, there will be an increasing need for integration of smarter technology and cooperation across the sector to help maintain competitive integrity. We are likely to see a major shift from the current reactive model to a more proactive framework driven by professionalized competitive gaming and increased government oversight.

With match-fixing a prevalent problem, it’s only a matter of time before the industry introduces real-time monitoring systems that can detect and flag any suspicious activity in real money casino games or esports games on the go. Besides, there needs to be an ongoing collaboration between developers and Canadian regulators, especially now that the Olympic Committee confirmed the inaugural Olympic Esports Games for 2027. That said, Alberta’s Bill 48, which was introduced in March 2025, is a major step in the right direction towards regulating esports betting and online gaming in Canada.