NHL Proline Betting

PRO LINE is a very popular “sports lottery” in Ontario and some other Canadian provinces.  Seeing as PROLINE is only available in Canada it is fair to assume that a majority of the bets placed through PRO LINE are on NHL games.  This page will take a look at how PRO LINE betting works and compare it with pros and cons to betting on the NHL online through a reputable online sportsbook.  If you are an avid PROLINE bettor you may be surprised at how much money you are leaving on the table by not opening an online sportsbook account.

How PROLINE Works

As mentioned earlier PROLINE is a government run “sports lottery” in several provinces in Canada.  It is called a “sports lottery” because it is impossible to win over a long period of time.  In fact, in one instance the government attempted to tax a PROLINE bettor on his winnings over a few years betting on PROLINE, but the judge ruled that the odds were so bad that it would be impossible to win over the long run based on skill alone.  For this reason PROLINE is considered more of a lottery than a sportsbook.

With PROLINE the bettor must select between 3 and 6 games.  There are 5 options for each game: V+, V, T, H, H+.  The +’s mean that the team must win by 2 or more goals and as a result the odds are slightly higher.  The V and H means that the team must win the game prior to the shootout and the T means the game must go to the shootout.  As you can see already, the odds associated with the outcomes cannot even be compared directly to the odds found online because if any one game goes to a shootout then the ticket is a loser, while online that parlay ticket would still be a winner.  In the event of a winning ticket the bettor must then return to a PROLINE outlet to collect their cash.

PROLINE Odds vs Online Sportsbook Odds

It is ridiculous how bad the odds for PROLINE are compared to betting online.  In fact in 2010 the OLGC, which provides proline, profited $91.8 million off of Ontario resident proline bettors, which was a 34.46% profit from the $266.4 million in tickets sold.  Compared to an online sportsbook where the average profit margin on a bet is 4.5% (math can be found here) this profit margin is ridiculous and proves just how bad the PROLINE odds are.  But don’t take my word for it, let’s look at a real life example comparing PRO LINE with our top rated Canadian sportsbook, SportsInteraction.com:

In this example 5 winners were chosen randomly.  **It is also important to remember that if any of the 5 games goes to a shootout the Proline ticket loses, while the Sports Interaction ticket still pays out.

Example

As you can see the PROLINE ticket pays out $177 on a $10 wager, while the Sports Interaction ticket pays out $345.55 on the EXACT SAME outcomes.  **Actually they aren’t the exact same.  If any of the games goes to a shootout the PRO LINE ticket is automatically a loser, while the Sports Interaction ticket is still alive.

Betting With Sports Interaction Won $168.55 More Than PRO LINE

SportsInteraction.com is our top rated sportsbook for Canadian residents because they offer fair lines (you will notice we use their lines often in our NHL predictions) and they are focused on gaining a larger market share in the Canadian online sports betting market, which means that they go out of their way to ensure that Canadians are able to sign up at the sportsbook and fund their accounts easily.  For more information on Sports Action, visit their website.

If you want to see another example go to the Proline website and the Sports Interaction website right now and set up your own parlay cards.  You will see that this is the case for any parlay bets.  Or you can check out another example of a more detailed why not to bet on PROLINE article at our sister site.