BC Exceeds $25m in Single-Event Bets
The Canadian provincial lottery operator British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) has revealed that British Columbians placed over $25 million (£14.7m/€17.3m) in single-event sports bets through its PlayNow.com website. The record betting occurred in the first two months following the official launch of single-event sports betting in Canada.
The British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) has revealed that British Columbians placed over $25 million (£14.7m/€17.3m) in single-event sports bets on its PlayNow.com website. ©jameswheeler/Pixabay
Top Betting Event was Week 4 NFL Game
The lottery operator for Canada’s province of British Columbia, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), has revealed that gamblers in British Columbia wagered over $25 million (£14.7m/€17.3m) in single-event sports bets via its PlayNow.com website.
This high amount of bets arrives only two months after the official launch of legal and regulated single-event sports betting in Canada. Bill C-218 was unanimously passed through the country’s senate this past June 2021. It was first reintroduced into the Canadian parliament in November 2020.
According to the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), the American National Football League (NFL) was the most popular sport to bet on for British Columbian players. The number of NFL wagers rose by 97% in the first seven weeks of the 2021 NFL season, compared to the same period in 2020.
In second place came the National Hockey League (NHL), with wagers here rising by 71% after the first 19 days of the season year-on-year. The most popular single betting event on the BCLC’s PlayNow.com website since the legalization of single-event sports betting in Canada was, perhaps unsurprisingly, the week 4 NFL game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the New England Patriots.
BCLC Describes Showings as Significant Milestone
The British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s (BCLC) CEO and interim president Lynda Cavanaugh shared some comments on the highly encouraging results, describing them as a “significant milestone” for the corporation:
“This is a significant milestone for BCLC that demonstrates further how PlayNow.com is well positioned to provide highly entertaining and engaging sports betting in a safe and secure environment.”– Lynda Cavanaugh, CEO and Interim President, British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s (BCLC)
She spun a positive message out of the single-event sports betting results, reminding players that gambling through the British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s official PlayNow.com channel helps reinvest back into the province:
“It’s important for players to know that playing with BCLC supports the success of British Columbia, as PlayNow.com is the only legal gambling website from which revenue supports important provincial initiatives, including healthcare and education.”
theScore Bet Partnered with Golf Canada in August 2021
Sports betting continues to take off across Canada, with sports betting operator theScore Bet revealing in August 2021 that it was going to become the official betting partner of Golf Canada.
As is somewhat typical for the industry, theScore Bet and Golf Canada’s partnership will assume the form of a multi-year deal which, as of writing, is currently scheduled to begin next year, in 2022.
theScore Bet players and Canadian golf fans can expect to see exclusive brand partnerships across all of Golf Canada’s events, including the creation of members club experiences for Golf Canada customers, as well as digital activations across Golf Canada’s channels.
Senior vice president of content and marketing at theScore, Aubrey Levy, celebrated the sports betting provider’s partnership with Golf Canada as a rare chance for the provider to reach out directly to Canada’s surprisingly active golf scene. She cited in particular the presence of the RBC Canadian Open in Ontario, as well as the CP Women’s Open, as a strong niche for the operator to be able to engage with the country’s devoted golf fanbase.
Canada Ranked Low Among Regulated Markets in June 2021
Back in June 2021, a report was published by the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) in collaboration with H2 Gambling Capital which analyzes regulated iGaming markets worldwide and which came as somewhat of a bombshell for the Canadian gambling industry.
The report ended up ranking Canada 19th of the 20 countries which were evaluated. It analyzed and ranked 20 different regulatory online gambling markets based on five different criteria: regulation, tax, product availability, integrity and marketing.
With one of these criteria being regulation, the fact that Canada still holds a betting monopoly, even on a provincial level, was one of the reasons for its low ranking. And at the time, Canada hadn’t yet legalized single-event sports betting, meaning that the combination of sports betting monopolies still being present in the country, along with the ban, caused the country to score only 47 points out of a maximum of 100.
Canada’s neighbor south of the border had two of its states rank in the top six regulated markets — Nevada and New Jersey. The former’s regulatory system was praised in particular, described as having:
“relatively recently introduced arrangements that limit the number of online betting licenses and require online companies to establish agreements with incumbent licensed land-based operators.”
