Each Thursday, Sports Handle will recap all the top sports betting news in Canada, highlight the Game of the Week, and take a look ahead at some of the most intriguing games to bet on over the weekend.
Our top Canadian sports stories this week
- NHL Stanley Cup Final Preview – Colorado Avalanche Vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
- TheScore Bet Launching Users To New Heights At Canadian Open
- Three Takeaways From The Canadian Gaming Summit In Toronto
- Report Confirms ‘Astounding Amount Of Dirty Money’ Laundered Through B.C. Casinos
- CFL Week 2 Wagering Preview: Argonauts Undervalued In Their Season Opener?
Game of the week
Canadian Grand Prix – June 19
The F1 Canadian Grand Prix is set to return to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal for the first time since 2019 after COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the race the past two years.
Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll is one of two Canadian drivers hailing from Montreal in the race this Sunday along with Williams’ Nicholas Latifi, who will be racing professionally on Canadian soil for the first time.
Lewis Hamilton has enjoyed huge success on this track, having won a record-tying seven races at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve since his F1 debut in 2007.
Here are the F1 Canadian Grand Prix odds at FanDuel:
- Max Verstappen -125
- Charles Leclerc +300
- Sergio Perez +350
- Carlos Sainz +1600
- George Russell +2500
- Lewis Hamilton +3200
- Lando Norris +7500
- Valtteri Bottas +11000
- Daniel Ricciardo +18000
- Fernando Alonso +18000
- Pierre Gasly +18000
- Alex Albon +20000
- Esteban Ocon +20000
- Guanyu Zhou +20000
- Kevin Magnussen +20000
- Lance Stroll +20000
- Mick Schumacher +20000
- Nicholas Latifi +20000
- Sebastian Vettel +20000
- Yuki Tsunoda +20000
This Ferrari hat was hard to miss during Pit Lane Walk at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix #F1 pic.twitter.com/4Xs6Mu2sIm
— Stu Cowan (@StuCowan1) June 16, 2022
PROLINE partners with MLB
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation and Major League Baseball announced a multi-year partnership Thursday that makes OLG’s PROLINE (retail) and PROLINE+ (online) sportsbooks official sports betting partners of the league.
It’s MLB’s first sports betting partnership in Ontario, but Toronto-based theScore Bet is also an official gaming partner of the Toronto Blue Jays.
The deal gives OLG distribution rights to the league’s official logos and cross-promotion across MLB’s social and digital channels.
“Teaming up with a world-class organization like the MLB enables OLG to create exciting, one-of-a-kind interactive experiences for baseball fans at the game and on PROLINE+,” Dave Pridmore, OLG’s chief digital and strategy officer, said in an email. “The true value of this partnership for OLG is the way it will bring PROLINE customers even closer to the game they love in ways they’ve never experienced before.”
PROLINE’s retail sports betting games are available at nearly 10,000 lottery outlets across Ontario, and the sportsbook also has official partnerships with the NHL and NFL.
PROLINE and PROLINE+ had a monopoly on the legal sports betting market in Ontario until the launch of the province’s regulated iGaming market on April 4.
PointsBet and ClubLink
PointsBet Canada announced another strategic partnership this week, this time with ClubLink, the largest owner and operator of golf courses in Canada.
The multi-year partnership makes PointsBet the official sports betting partner of ClubLink, which hosts over 1 million rounds of golf annually at its golf courses in Ontario.
“We are delighted to be partnering with one of the most recognized brands in Canadian golf,” said Nic Sulsky, chief commercial officer at PointsBet Canada, in an email. “A friendly wager is a regular occurrence among golfers enjoying a round which makes the ClubLink audience a natural fit for us. Golfers are some of the most passionate sports fans and we cannot wait to show them why PointsBet is the two-time winner of EGR North America’s Best Sports Betting Operator.”
PointsBet Canada has inked Canadian partnerships recently with the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks, NHL Alumni Association, The Trailer Park Boys, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, Alpine Canada, and Curling Canada.
The sportsbook was one of the first to launch in Ontario’s regulated market on April 4.
Who doesn’t like to make a friendly wager on the golf course 😏
Today we’re proud to announce that we are the Official Sports Betting Partner of @ClubLink ⛳
Learn More: https://t.co/wVqgLcf87w pic.twitter.com/XeIUoiu20j
— PointsBet Canada (@PointsBetCanada) June 13, 2022
Ipsos poll results
Market research company Ipsos released some interesting data regarding the gambling habits of Canadian and Ontario residents.
Here are some of the findings:
- One-third of Ontario adults surveyed report being registered on at least one website that offers online betting, putting them slightly above the Canadian national average of 30%.
- The Atlantic Canada region (Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland) has the highest proportion of Canadian adults registered to play online at 41%. British Columbia is tied with Ontario at 33%, followed by Quebec at 26%, Alberta at 24%, and Manitoba/Saskatchewan at 22%.
- The percentage of Ontarians who have signed up with private gambling operators is nearly equal to the percentage who have registered with OLG.ca (25% and 23%, respectively).
- The average Canadian who gambles online is registered with three or four websites (3.6 is the national average).
- When asked if they had heard of the Ontario regulated market changes on April 4, only a quarter of Canadians (26%) said yes, while 41% of Ontarians were aware of the shift.
- Canadian online gamblers tend to favor private operator sites. They report that about 44% of their wagers go to one of the provincial government sites, while the rest (56%) goes to private operator platforms.
Ontario, which is home to 15 million Canadians, is currently the only province to adopt an open gaming market with regulation of private operators. There are 28 gaming sites now live in Ontario, with that number expected to increase to at least 70 by the end of the year.
The poll was conducted from May 10-13, 2022, and included a sample size of 2,001 Canadians aged 18 or older.
