Ver dx, led by former Vanguard Canada CEO Atul Tiwari, is pursuing regulatory approval to launch Canada’s first investment dealer focused solely on prediction markets.

Canada’s regulatory landscape currently restricts legal betting to contracts tied to economic indicators, financial markets, and climate trends, excluding bets on sports and entertainment.

Tiwari argues that prediction markets aggregate diverse views into a single market price, likening the concept to ETFs in terms of efficiency and price discovery.

Ver dx has filed applications with the Canadian Securities Administrators to become an investment dealer and with the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization to operate a regulated platform offering event contracts.

Tiwari stresses that Ver dx will be a focused provider of event contracts, not a broader prediction-market product within another business, aiming for a distinct competitive edge.

Tiwari has assembled a team including CFO Jim Andriopoulos and Michael Williams, who brings compliance and risk experience from Richardson Wealth and HSBC, to establish Ver dx.

The move places Ver dx among other Canadian platforms pursuing prediction markets, such as Wealthsimple and Interactive Brokers, as regulators continue to debate how these markets fit within securities laws.

If approved, Ver dx would operate as an order-execution-only investment dealer, enabling trades without providing investment advice.