Pro-Line Sports Select Betting in Canada Eh

Canada has been offering legal sports wagering since May 1, 1984. In the early days it would have been hard to call this sports wagering as it was simply a lottery where a person could win millions if their 13 team parlay ticket was a winner. Today’s version much more resembles sports betting found in Nevada sportsbooks, with the exception being the vig (juice) is significantly higher and bettors must make their wagers in parlay form.

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This Canadian sports lottery is regulated by provincial government and is known country wide as Sports Select. Each province has a different name for Sports Select. To give examples, in Quebec Sports Select is known as Pari sportif, in British Columbia as Sports Action, and in Ontario and Atlantic Canada as Pro-Line. The lottery was first established to cover American major professional sports leagues such as MLB baseball, NHL Hockey, NFL football and NBA basketball, but in recent years it has been expanded to also include English Premier League soccer and NCAA college sports.

Sports Select Betting Options

Sports Select offers three different types of betting options, and all three are available only as parlay bets (requires multiple game selections per ticket) partly because betting on a single sporting event is technically illegal under the Criminal Code of Canada. The three betting options are as follows:

Pro-Line: This betting option is known as Oddset in British Columbia and Mise-O-Jeu in Quebec. Pro-Line offers fixed odds, known by Americans as moneylines. Each bettor selects two to six (BC and Atlantic) or three to six (Quebec, Ontario and Western Canada) of the matches offered on the Sports Select card. Once again, in this option fixed odds are used, there is no point spread, and these are quoted in decimal odds format for each match. In order to win, all selections on the ticket must be a winner. The payout odds differ from province to province, but start with at least a 30% house edge to the province, and in the case where 6 teams are selected the province edge is 66%.

Point Spread: In point spread betting odds, players can parlay 2 to 12 teams, depending on province, and are playing against the point spread. As is the case with all Sports Select tickets, the payouts offered vary by province.

Over/Under Over/Under is known as Total in Quebec, and is simply betting on whether a games total score will be over or under the posted total. Here, bettors can also bet 2-12 games in a parlay, depending on province, and payouts also vary in each province.

Tax Free Gambling

Even though Pro-Line is set up in such a way that it is nearly impossible for any bettor to beat the odds long terms, with a 30-66% house edge to the province, there have been big winners. A 2007 Tax Court of Canada case R. v. Leblanc was Revenue Canada claiming two brothers who netted $5.5 million on $50 million in bets over five years should be required to pay tax on their winnings. The Tax Court ruled the profit was not taxable because even if skill was used to win this money, the odds of Pro-Line are such that it is not possible for anyone to actually win long term against the odds.

Online Sports Betting

When Sports Select was established back in 1984, a couple days after it launched, news columnist Charles Gordon shared his opinion in an article published in Ottawa Citizen Newspaper when he said, “this [Sports Select] is not gambling, it is another tax on the stupid”. As owners of this website and also professional sports bettors, we can say 26-years later that we couldn’t agree more.

Many Canadians are now turning away from Pro-Line as they become more familiar with the more favorable odds offered by the best Canadian online sportsbooks. Recently, a 15-year old American Friendly company with a proven track-record, Bodog Sportsbook, opened to the Canadian Market. Here, players can find much more favorable sports betting odds, and also receive same day cashout to their e-wallet account, or via direct money transfer.

To learn more, read our Bodog Sportsbook Review.