Lodavo vs sports betting: how much each one costs you

Twenty dollars on Sunday’s game gives you something to watch for. So does Lodavo, a free savings app with a weekly cash draw, where every $25 in your account earns a free ticket. The real difference in Lodavo vs sports betting is the price. A sportsbook keeps a small cut of every bet, about 7 cents on the dollar in Ontario. Lodavo costs nothing, and the $20 is still yours when the week is over.

What is the difference between Lodavo and sports betting?

With sports betting, you stake your own money on a result, and the sportsbook builds its cut into the odds. Win and you collect more than you put down. Lose and the stake is gone. With Lodavo, you save, and every $25 in your account earns a free ticket in a weekly cash draw. Nothing is staked, so you can’t lose money on it.

Both give you a reason to check your phone during the week. A bet gives you three hours of a game that suddenly matters. Lodavo gives you seven evenings, with one winning number revealed each night.

How much a sportsbook keeps

iGaming Ontario (opens in a new tab) publishes the province’s regulated online gambling numbers every month. In the 12 months to August 2026, Ontarians bet $12.7 billion with licensed sportsbooks, and the operators kept $894 million of it. That’s 7.0%, so on average bettors got back about 93 cents of every dollar. Those figures cover sports, esports and novelty bets together.

Ninety-three cents is a fair price for entertainment, and it’s a much smaller cut than the lottery takes. Our sports betting vs lottery comparison puts the two side by side.

Parlays cost about twice as much

The 7% is a blend of every kind of bet, and no Canadian regulator publishes the split. Colorado’s regulator (opens in a new tab) does. Over the 13 months to July 2026, sportsbooks there kept about 15.5 cents of every parlay dollar, against about 6.5 cents on everything else. Each leg you add multiplies the book’s margin, and our guide to parlay odds shows what each one costs.

Betting your winnings again

The cut applies to every dollar that goes through, including winnings you put back in. Bet $20 at standard odds, win about $18, put the $38 on the next game, and the book takes its share of all $38. A small price per bet turns into a bigger number by the end of a season that way.

A weekly draw where nothing is staked

Lodavo connects to the savings or chequing account you already use. At 8 p.m. ET each Sunday, every full $25 of your balance earns you one free ticket in that week’s draw. Each ticket holds seven numbers from 0 to 99, which you can pick yourself or leave to the app.

The winning numbers are chosen before anyone picks theirs and locked behind a published code, then revealed one a day, Monday to Sunday, at 8 p.m. ET. Every week at least $100 goes to the user with the most matches, and matching all seven wins the $10,000 jackpot. You can confirm the numbers weren’t changed on our provably fair page, and the contest rules set out the odds and who can enter.

The prize money comes from partners, not from users. The app suggests financial products that might suit you, and if you sign up for one, the partner pays us a referral fee at no cost to you. Ignore every offer and your tickets still arrive each week.

Can you bet and use Lodavo?

Yes. Lodavo is free and works with the bank account you already have, so it fits in alongside whatever you do with your betting money.

One thing is worth knowing if you do both. Your tickets come from the balance in the bank accounts you’ve connected, so money you’ve already moved into a sportsbook account doesn’t count toward them. Money waiting in your own savings until you place a bet still does.

When sports betting is the better choice

Betting does a few things a savings draw can’t.

• What you know counts. Follow a league closely and your read on a game shapes your result. Lodavo’s draw is pure chance, and knowing the schedule won’t help you.
• The game matters more. A bet turns a Tuesday game you’d half-watch into one you care about from the opening faceoff. A number revealed at 8 p.m. is a smaller moment.
• One bet can pay a lot. A $20 parlay can return hundreds of dollars in a single night. Lodavo’s top prize is $10,000, but the usual weekly prize is $100.
• You set the terms. You choose the stake, the odds and how much risk to take on every bet. Lodavo’s tickets just follow your balance.
• It’s settled when the game ends. Lodavo’s draw ends on Sunday night, with the seventh number.

If those are the reasons you bet, a free draw won’t replace them.

If you want a chance to win without putting money down

Lodavo fits when the part you enjoy is the chance itself: a number to check, a prize that could land, something to follow through the week. You get that for free, and saving more gets you more tickets, so the habit that grows your balance is the same one that improves your odds.

It works with virtually any Canadian bank or credit union, so the draw comes on top of the banking you already do.

What $20 a week adds up to in a year

Here’s the same $20 a week for 52 weeks, three ways. The betting rows use the cuts above: Ontario’s average across all bets, and Colorado’s figure for parlays.

Saving the $20 also earns tickets as the balance grows: about 1,080 free tickets over the year, and 41 in every weekly draw once you reach $1,040.

The betting rows assume you bet each $20 once and keep whatever comes back. Bet the winnings again and the cut applies again. They’re averages across everyone betting, too, so some people finish the year ahead and more finish behind. A Lodavo prize is luck as well, but the tickets cost nothing, so a week without a win doesn’t cost you anything either.

Want something to follow every night of the week without staking a dollar? Get Lodavo free on the Apple App Store (opens in a new tab) or Google Play Store (opens in a new tab).

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.