Canadian Football League Betting
The 2023 CFL regular season will get started on Thursday, June 8, 2023. There will be 81 games as each of the nine teams plays 18 times, and the regular season will last until Saturday, October 28, 2023. The season will conclude with the 110th Grey Cup on Sunday, November 19, 2023, and it will be held at Tim Horton’s Field in Hamilton, Ontario.
2023 Grey Cup Odds
Even though the Winnipeg Blue Bombers lost the 2022 Grey Cup to the Toronto Argonauts, they are the title favorites coming into the 2023 CFL season. They have won the West Division for each of the last three seasons, claiming the Grey Cup in 2019 and 2021 over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Zach Collaros continues to be an elite quarterback, and the Blue Bombers will be a contender as long as he is healthy.
The BC Lions will be their biggest competition. They appear to have a great defense, and Vernon Adams Jr. is a dual threat signal caller that can move the chains with his arm or his legs. Taquan Mizzell looks to be a solid running back too.
Toronto won the Grey Cup last year, but the Argonauts went 11-7 in the regular season. They benefited from playing in the weaker East Division, and they only beat the Blue Bombers by a single point in the Grey Cup Final. Starting quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson is now in the USFL, so this is Chad Kelly’s team for the foreseeable future.
CFL East Division Teams
TEAM |
HEAD COACH |
HOME STADIUM |
Hamilton Tiger-Cats |
Orlondo Steinauer |
Tim Hortons Field |
Montreal Alouettes |
Jason Maas |
Percival Molson Stadium |
Ottawa Redblacks |
Bob Dyce |
TD Place |
Toronto Argonauts |
Ryan Dinwiddie |
BMO Field |
CFL West Division Teams
TEAM |
HEAD COACH |
HOME STADIUM |
BC Lions |
Rick Campbell |
BC Place |
Calgary Stampeders |
Dave Dickenson |
McMahon Stadium |
Edmonton Elks |
Chris Jones |
Commonwealth Stadium |
Saskatchewan Roughriders |
Craig Dickenson |
Mosaic Stadium |
Winnipeg Blue Bombers |
Michael O’Shea |
IG Field |
Since the late 1950s, the CFL has typically had nine franchises. However, there has been some vacillation in that number over the years. The CFL had nine teams from 1958 to 1986, but then the Montreal Alouettes folded the day before the 1987 season was to start. The league had eight teams until the mid-1990s when the CFL nearly doubled in size because of the United States expansion. Seven American teams joined the league during that time, but Baltimore was the only city where the Canadian game was a success. In just three years, the American teams were all gone, making it a fully Canadian game once more.
The CFL lost its longest-tenured team, the Ottawa Rough Riders, after 120 years of football in 1996. Fortunately, the league was able to put a team back in Montreal that year to keep the league static at eight teams. A new team in Ottawa bumped the league back up to nine teams in 2002, but the number of CFL franchises dropped down to eight once more after Ottawa folded after just four seasons in the league. There were just eight teams until 2014 when the Ottawa Redblacks were founded, and the league has been stable at nine teams since that point.
Differences Between the NFL and CFL
There are a number of important differences between the NFL and CFL, but we’re only going to focus on a few. One of the first things you notice when watching a CFL game is the size of the field. CFL fields are 10 yards longer in the field of play and have end zones that are 20 yards deep. Fields up north are about 20 percent wider too, so CFL games are played with an extra player on both sides. Goalposts in the CFL are on the goal line and not at the back of the end zone like they are in the NFL.
Another major difference is the number of downs you have to achieve a first down. In the American game, you have four downs to pick up 10 yards, but in the Canadian game, it’s just three. That leads to far more passing (and punting) in the CFL than you see in the NFL.
Additionally, CFL’s similarity to rugby is seen in two major areas. First, there is a one-yard neutral zone between offensive lines and defensive lines in the CFL that cannot be crossed before the ball is snapped. Secondly, teams can score a single point by kicking the ball through the end zone in what’s called a single or a rouge.
List of Grey Cup Champions (2000)
YEAR |
WINNING TEAM |
LOSING TEAM |
SCORE |
2000 |
BC Lions |
Montreal Alouettes |
28-26 |
2001 |
Calgary Stampeders |
Winnipeg Blue Bombers |
27-19 |
2002 |
Montreal Alouettes |
Edmonton Eskimos |
25-16 |
2003 |
Edmonton Eskimos |
Montreal Alouettes |
34-22 |
2004 |
Toronto Argonauts |
BC Lions |
27-19 |
2005 |
Edmonton Eskimos |
Montreal Alouettes |
38-35 |
2006 |
BC Lions |
Montreal Alouettes |
25-14 |
2007 |
Saskatchewan Roughriders |
Winnipeg Blue Bombers |
23-19 |
2008 |
Calgary Stampeders |
Montreal Alouettes |
22-14 |
2009 |
Montreal Alouettes |
Saskatchewan Roughriders |
28-27 |
2010 |
Montreal Alouettes |
Saskatchewan Roughriders |
21-18 |
2011 |
BC Lions |
Winnipeg Blue Bombers |
34-23 |
2012 |
Toronto Argonauts |
Calgary Stampeders |
35-22 |
2013 |
Saskatchewan Roughriders |
Hamilton Tiger-Cats |
45-23 |
2014 |
Calgary Stampeders |
Hamilton Tiger-Cats |
20-16 |
2015 |
Edmonton Eskimos |
Ottawa Redblacks |
26-20 |
2016 |
Ottawa Redblacks |
Calgary Stampeders |
39-33 |
2017 |
Toronto Argonauts |
Calgary Stampeders |
27-24 |
2018 |
Calgary Stampeders |
Ottawa Redblacks |
27-16 |
2019 |
Winnipeg Blue Bombers |
Hamilton Tiger-Cats |
33-12 |
2020 |
Season Canceled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic |
2021 |
Winnipeg Blue Bombers |
Hamilton Tiger-Cats |
33-25 |
2022 |
Toronto Argonauts |
Winnipeg Blue Bombers |
24-23 |
The Toronto Argonauts have won more Grey Cups than any other team in the CFL. They won their first Grey Cup in 1914, defeating the University of Toronto Varsity Blues 14-2, and Toronto won its 10th title in 1952. The Argos overcame a three-decade title drought to win in 1983, and they have now won seven Grey Cups in the last three decades.
A handful of franchises have three-peated, but only the Edmonton Elks have won five straight Grey Cups. Edmonton dominated the CFL in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as Warren Moon lit up the league. Moon led Edmonton to its last four Grey Cups, and it took five years for the Eskimos to win again after he left for the NFL.
The unluckiest team in the history of the Grey Cup is Saskatchewan. The Roughriders have made 19 appearances in the Grey Cup final, but they have just four championships to show for it. They have lost some heartbreakers over the years too, none more painful than losing the 2009 Grey Cup to Montreal after too many men on the field penalty with no time left.
Access live betting lines and Football Betting Articles from your mobile device at BookMaker Sportsbook! You can wager on sporting events as they unfold on television with BookMaker’s live betting platform. Real-time spreads, totals, props and, money line odds are all available by clicking here so start betting with BookMaker now!