Betting the National Bank Open: What Canadians Should Know
Meta Description: How Canadians bet the National Bank Open: the Toronto/Montreal city swap, 2026’s Shelton and Swiatek results, and how outright and match markets settle.
The National Bank Open is the one ATP and WTA event Canadian bettors get to watch at home. It’s split between Toronto and Montreal, with the men’s and women’s draws swapping cities every year, and the 2026 edition just wrapped with Ben Shelton winning the Montreal title and Iga Swiatek winning in Toronto.
Before betting anything tied to this event, it helps to understand that swap, since it determines which tour and which players you’re actually looking at depending on the year and the city.
2026 National Bank Open: Quick Facts
| Detail | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Dates | August 2 to 13 (qualifying started August 1) |
| Men’s host city | Montreal (IGA Stadium) |
| Women’s host city | Toronto (Sobeys Stadium) |
| Men’s champion | Ben Shelton, defeating Brandon Nakashima in the final |
| Women’s champion | Iga Swiatek, defeating Elena Rybakina in the final |
| Men’s draw / prize money | 96 players, $9,415,724 |
| Next year’s swap | 2027 flips to men’s in Toronto, women’s in Montreal |
How the Alternating Format Works
Rather than fixing the men’s draw to one city permanently, the National Bank Open swaps host cities every year. Since the format was reset in 2021, even-numbered years put the men’s ATP Masters 1000 event in Montreal and the women’s WTA 1000 event in Toronto, and odd-numbered years reverse it. That’s why 2026 ran Shelton’s title through Montreal and Swiatek’s through Toronto, and why 2027 will flip back to men’s in Toronto and women’s in Montreal.
That swap changes the specific field, the draw size and which players are actually in form for the year you’re researching. Confirming which tour is playing in which city for the year in question is the first thing to check before reading anything else about the event, rather than assuming it matches the year before.
Surface and Conditions
The National Bank Open is played on outdoor hard courts at both venues, the same broad surface category as the US Open later in the season. That matters if you’re reading a player’s form heading into the event, since a strong result on clay or grass earlier in the year carries less weight than recent hard-court form specifically. Our how surface changes a tennis match article covers why hard-court results are the more relevant form guide here.
The men’s Masters 1000 status also means a full 96-player draw and one of the tour’s larger purses outside the Grand Slams, which is part of why the National Bank Open draws deep, competitive fields rather than a thinner summer-swing lineup.
Betting the Event: Outrights and Match Markets
An outright bet on the National Bank Open works the same way it does at any other tournament: a wager on who wins the title, settled only once the final is decided, and staying alive for as long as the backed player keeps winning rounds. A bettor who backed Shelton before the Montreal draw opened, for instance, wouldn’t have seen that bet settle until his win over Nakashima in the final two weeks later.
Every round-by-round match at the event also carries the full set of match markets: match winner, set betting, handicaps and totals, the same as any other tour stop. The mechanics don’t change just because the event is on Canadian soil. Our Tennis Bet Types Explained page covers how each of those markets is built if you need a refresher before betting the event.
How the Favorites Have Actually Fared
Outright odds at this event have been volatile. Here’s how the pre-tournament favorite lined up against the actual champion across the last four years, both draws included:
Every champion, score and result below is confirmed fact. Only the champion’s own pre-tournament price is sometimes missing, and those cells carry an asterisk rather than a guessed number.
| Year | Draw (City) | Pre-Tournament Favorite | Actual Champion | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Men’s (Toronto) | Carlos Alcaraz, +140 | Jannik Sinner d. Alex de Minaur, priced at +1000 | Upset. A $10 bet on Sinner at his pre-tournament price would have returned $110.00 total, a $100.00 profit. |
| 2023 | Women’s (Montreal) | Iga Swiatek, +210 | Jessica Pegula d. Liudmila Samsonova, priced at +1100 | Upset. A $10 bet on Pegula at her pre-tournament price would have returned $120.00 total, a $110.00 profit. |
| 2024 | Men’s (Montreal) | Jannik Sinner, +150 (defending champion) | Alexei Popyrin d. Andrey Rublev | Big upset; Popyrin’s pre-tournament price is unknown.* In the final itself, though, he was still the 3.09 underdog to Rublev’s 1.34.† |
| 2024 | Women’s (Toronto) | Aryna Sabalenka, +300 | Jessica Pegula d. Amanda Anisimova, priced at +1800 | Upset. A $10 bet on Pegula at her pre-tournament price would have returned $190.00 total, a $180.00 profit. |
| 2025 | Men’s (Toronto) | Alexander Zverev / Taylor Fritz, +600 each | Ben Shelton d. Karen Khachanov | Value winner pre-tournament; Shelton’s own price is unknown.* In the final itself, though, he was the 1.48 favorite over Khachanov’s 2.52.† |
| 2025 | Women’s (Montreal) | Iga Swiatek, +250 | Victoria Mboko d. Naomi Osaka | Major upset; Mboko’s price is unknown at any stage of the event.* |
| 2026 | Men’s (Montreal) | Ben Shelton, +335 | Ben Shelton d. Brandon Nakashima | Favorite delivered. A $10 bet on Shelton at his pre-tournament price would have returned $43.50 total, a $33.50 profit. |
| 2026 | Women’s (Toronto) | Aryna Sabalenka, approx. +405 | Iga Swiatek d. Elena Rybakina, priced at 12.00 (approx. +1000) | Value winner. A $10 bet on Swiatek at her pre-tournament price would have returned $120.00 total, a $110.00 profit. |
Of the eight editions above, every one had a confirmed pre-tournament favorite, and that favorite only won once: Ben Shelton in Montreal 2026. Every other year, including three where the champion’s own price is now confirmed too (Sinner, Pegula twice), went to a mid-priced name well behind the favorite. Victoria Mboko’s unseeded, home-soil title in Montreal 2025 remains the biggest outstanding upset by reputation, even without a confirmed price to put a number on it.
*An asterisk means the champion’s own pre-tournament outright price was not located in any dated, publicly archived preview, nothing more. Who won each match is not in question; every champion listed above is a confirmed historical fact from the National Bank Open’s own site and multiple news outlets. That outright price is still missing for three players (Popyrin in 2024, Shelton and Mboko in 2025), and a sportsbook’s own historical outright odds feed is the only way to close that gap.
†These two notes carry the final-match price instead, pulled from OddsPortal’s historical results archive. That’s what the player was actually priced at in the championship match itself, after already winning through the entire draw, not the outright price posted before the tournament began, and the two figures answer different questions. Victoria Mboko’s 2025 title over Naomi Osaka has no archived price of either kind; OddsPortal’s page for that specific final did not return usable data despite repeated attempts.
Canadian Players Worth Following
Canada has produced a genuine run of top-level ATP and WTA players over the past decade, led by names like Félix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov, Leylah Fernandez and Bianca Andreescu. A home tournament is naturally where Canadian interest, and Canadian betting volume, concentrates hardest. Fernandez gave the 2026 Toronto crowd a run to the fourth round before being eliminated, the kind of home-soil result that tends to move betting interest even after the player is out of the draw.
Specific rankings and seedings shift constantly and would be out of date by the time you read this. The more useful habit is checking the current ATP and WTA rankings and the tournament’s own official site closer to the event, since that’s the only source that reflects who’s actually entered a given year.
What Doesn’t Change Between Years
The format itself, outdoor hard courts, an alternating men’s and women’s host city, and a field drawn from the top of both tours, is stable even though the specific draw, seedings and dates move every year. That’s worth understanding ahead of time, since the mechanics of betting the event are consistent even when the players and the city aren’t. For the rest of the calendar, our home page covers how the four Grand Slams and the broader ATP and WTA season fit around an event like this one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the National Bank Open played in 2027?
The format flips in 2027: the men’s ATP event moves to Toronto and the women’s WTA event moves to Montreal, reversing the 2026 arrangement.
What surface is the National Bank Open played on?
Outdoor hard courts at both venues, Sobeys Stadium in Toronto and IGA Stadium in Montreal, the same surface family as the US Open later in the summer.
Who won the National Bank Open in 2026?
Ben Shelton won the men’s title in Montreal, beating Brandon Nakashima in the final. Iga Swiatek won the women’s title in Toronto, beating Elena Rybakina.
How does an outright bet on the National Bank Open settle?
It stays open for the full two weeks of the event and only settles once the final is played, paying out only if the backed player wins the title.
Does the betting favorite usually win the National Bank Open?
Not lately. Of the last eight editions, each with a confirmed pre-tournament favorite, that favorite won only once, Ben Shelton in Montreal 2026. The rest went to mid-priced or long-shot champions.
Bottom Line
The National Bank Open’s mechanics stay the same every year: hard courts, an alternating host city, and outright and match markets that work like they do at any other tour stop. What changes is the city, the field and the champion, so confirm which tour is playing where before you research anything else about a given year’s edition.
Ava Carter writes about casino games — slots, live dealer tables and game shows — for Canadian players. She focuses on the mechanics that decide how a session actually goes: RTP and volatility, bet sizing, table limits, and the gap between demo play and real money. Her guides aim to make the maths legible before anyone stakes anything, and treat deposit and time limits as part of playing well, not an afterthought.