PROLINE+ Steps Up as Ontario’s Original Online Sportsbook

Dave Schwab Sports Betting Expert

3 minute read

The Canadian province of Ontario made history on April 4 with the launch of commercial sportsbook operators. Major US players such as BetMGM, Caesars Sportsbook and BetRivers were among the first commercial mobile sports betting apps to go live.

However, Ontario’s original online sports betting platform is not backing down from the added competition. PROLINE+ is owned and operated by the province through the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission (OLG).

Legal sports betting in Canada goes back almost four decades through each province’s lottery corporations. The only legal form of sports betting prior to August of 2021 was in the form of single wagers on multi-team parlays.

Las Vegas odds on winning a three-team parlay are normally set at 6-to-1. The true odds to win a three-team play are more like 8-to-1. The payout odds for a three-team parlay through OLG were just 5-to-1 so it is easy to see why sports betting was not all that big in Ontario.

That all changed when Canada amended its sports betting laws in 2021 to allow legal wagers on single games and sporting events. PROLINE+ was established as the only game in town at the time. Taking a progressive approach to the new opportunity, Ontario decided to open up the marketplace to commercial sportsbook operators.

Instead of folding up its tent and calling it a day, PROLINE+ decided to reinvent itself with an updated sports betting website. The new betting site has been a major upgrade from the previous online betting platform.

PROLINE+ also expanded the various sports leagues and betting markets offered. This offering is now headlined by more choices for single game wagers. All the major betting leagues are represented such as the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. The home grown CFL (Canadian Football League) should be a huge draw for the upcoming 2022 football season.

The updates to PROLINE+ have been a good start in the right direction. Yet, there is still work to be done as compared to advanced betting sites such as BetMGM and Caesars Sportsbook.

In a relatively short amount of time, the Ontario sports betting industry is going to explode with multiple commercial operators. All the major US sportsbooks want a piece of the action. UK and European-based operators are also entering the marketplace to ramp up the competition.

There is still something to be said about being first to market. PROLINE+ can maintain a major competitive edge as a highly familiar brand name connected with Ontario’s lottery. Yet, the effort to improve the offering at hand is not going to be enough to maintain current market share.

One of the best ways to compete is through competitive odds. The other way is through a wider selection of sports leagues and betting markets. By offering a stronger all-around betting product, PROLINE+ has the ability to remain relevant with Ontario sports bettors.

Written by Dave Schwab, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert.

The featured image for this post was sourced on Getty Images.

Dave Schwab

Dave Schwab has been covering the sports betting industry for the past 12 years as the main focus of his specialty marketing company for online content. This endeavor followed a previous career in the field of sales and marketing in the wholesaling sector.Most of his weekly pieces focus on the rapidly expanding legal US sports betting industry. However, he still does extensive work covering betting angles that can provide a competitive edge to avid players. Dave believes that it is always a challenge to take past results and current form to try and correctly determine a future result. Sports brings out the unpredictability in what should be a fairly predictable outcome based on the stats, facts and recent trends in a particular matchup. More from Dave Schwab