Canadian Lotteries Break Records with Super Bowl LVI Wagering
This week, we’ve spent time covering some of the impressive sports betting results from the Super Bowl in the United States. Still, Canada also had an eventful Super Bowl Sunday, with this being the first time the country has had legal single-game wagering for the big game. Super Bowl LVI saw an average audience of 8.1 million viewers across Canadian networks on Sunday per Numeris, making it the most popular broadcast event of the year. With sports betting providing even more of a reason to watch, Canadian lotteries posted record-breaking handles.
Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation
Ahead of Super Bowl LVI, the OLG’s ProLine+ became the first official Canadian sports betting partner of the National Football League. ProLine+ offered sports bettors over 80 unique offerings for the Super Bowl, including a range of player prop and novelty prop wagers. Ontario has a population of about 15 million, and for the time being, ProLine+ is the only legal single-game wagering platform in the market.
OLG reported a “significant number of new customers” on ProLine+ in addition to the following information regarding specific wagers:
- 54% of bettors correctly wagered on the Rams moneyline
- 52% of bettors correctly wagered on the Bengals (+4.5) against the spread
- 40% of bettors correctly wagered on the under 48.5 total points
- 20% of bettors correctly wagered that Odell Beckham Jr. would score the first touchdown
- 12% of bettors correctly wagered on Cooper Kupp to win MVP
- 51% of bettors correctly wagered on the coin toss to be heads
- 18% of bettors correctly wagered on the Gatorade color to be blue
Atlantic Lottery Corporation
Over the past decade, ALC’s Pro-Line has set new records for single-day revenue on each Super Bowl Sunday, with the latest day being the biggest. Across Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, bettors placed Super Bowl wagers on Pro-Line to give ALC new records in the handle, profit, and active bettors. Single-game sports betting was recently legalized in Nova Scotia last Friday, just in time for the Super Bowl.
Over 40% of wagers placed on ALC’s Pro-Line were on singles, representing half of Pro-Line’s online handle for the Super Bowl and over a quarter of its retail handle. ALC saw 62% of bettors take the Bengals ATS and 64% take the under 48.5 points. Pro-Line was also proud of its Stadium Bets on Moneyline, spreads, and totals, where a vig of just 2.5% allows it to offer low holds on those wagers. 56% of bettors picked heads on the coin toss, which was the winning wager.
British Columbia Lottery Corporation
Currently, the only legal sports betting website in British Columbia, PlayNow.com, had a record-breaking Super Bowl LVI. With over 70,000 bets placed over $2.1 million, this Super Bowl saw twice as much wagering as last year, which had $1 million in total wagers. Like Ontario, British Columbia is expected to add a handful of new sports betting platforms to the existing market in the coming months, so PlayNow.com enjoyed what could be its last Super Bowl as the sole operator in BC.
Most of the wagers at PlayNow.com were on the Bengals ATS (+4), similar to the other Canadian Lotteries. However, unlike OLG and ALC, 64% of bets in BC were on the over on the points total of 48.5. PlayNow.com also paid out over $27,000 (CAD) in wagers on Odell Beckham Jr. to score the first touchdown, which was a popular prop bet across all platforms in Canada.