1 CommentDo you take the visitor or home plus, going for the extra payout but needing your team to win by 11 points or more? Perhaps you go a bit more conservative, just needing your team to win the game by six points or more. Or you could always go the tie route, when you just need your team to keep the game within five points (win or lose).
Each option comes with its own set of risks. It sucks to pick the winning team, only to lose your ticket because of the tie rule. And it really sucks when you pick an underdog to tie, only to see them win the game by more than five points and sink your ticket.
With this in mind, we decided to take a close look at 12 of the top teams in this year’s March Madness NCAA basketball tournament and see …
PROLINE
Ontario’s sports lottery offers a limited menu of betting options, but it might be enough to satisfy your needs if you’re just looking for a little action.
With Proline, you can bet on five different outcomes for the game. You can take the Visitor + or the Home +, where either the visiting team or home team (depending on who you picked) has to win the basketball game by 11 points or …
We always knew Proline odds were bad, but we didn’t fully comprehend how bad they are until reading a recent article in the Toronto Star.
The Jan. 7 article, titled ‘OLG shut down NFL Pro-Line betting on Sunday’, described how the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation constantly monitors and limits wagers on games. In some cases, the OLG will close betting on games if too many players are betting on the same combination and make the OLG vulnerable to losing too much money.
This revelation was certainly an interesting one, though it didn’t necessarily surprise us.
What did surprise us was, later in the article, an OLG spokesperson stated that the OLG aims for roughly a 60 per cent payout. That structure has allowed the OLG to make $1.7 billion since it began offering sports betting in 1992.
60 per cent payout! How bad is that?
Well, if the simple math of getting 60 cents back on every dollar you bet doesn’t paint a clear enough picture, let’s compare that payout percentage to …
(Odds taken from Bet365 on Jan. 25)
Proline
This is a very popular option for Canadian sports bettors. With Proline, you can bet on the point spread, money line (including a tie option for a game decided by 3 points or less) and the over/under. Proline will also almost certainly be offering many Super Bowl-related betting options on a props card. Using Proline to bet on the Super Bowl is obviously convenient because you can just buy your ticket at the corner store, rather than having to set up an account with an online sportsbook and deposit money in it. But you’ll be getting way worse odds through Proline Super Bowl betting, and you’ll have to parlay your Super Bowl picks (bet on a couple other games on the same ticket) instead of being …
It’s in our nature to always search for the big score.
Whether it’s impatience or laziness or simply wanting the adrenalin rush, we’d rather take our chances on the one big payday instead of playing it safe and trying to win a little bit.
That’s why those V+ and H+ hockey odds on Proline can be so damn appealing. But, in reality, those V+ and H+ bets are among the worst you can make.
Here’s why:
In Proline hockey betting, the V+ and H+ bets mean that either the visitor (V) or home (H) team needs to win the game by more than one goal.
Problem is, wins by more than one goal just don’t happen that often in the NHL anymore. In order for the V+ and H+ bets to pay off, you’d need to get some pretty fat odds. And Proline just ain’t offering them.
In the NHL last season, nearly half (47.7%) of games were decided by one goal, including shootouts. You might think the top teams typically win by more …
Bill C-290, the proposed legislation that would allow government to regulate single-game wagering in Canada gained some very serious support from Conservative Senator Bob Runciman last week.
Here’s an excerpt from the speech to Senate by the 70-year-old Runciman, who is also known for fighting against the end of slots at racetracks and for his pro-horse racing stance in Ontario:
Runciman seems to have changed his stance — or at least his level of …
If you’ve ever played Proline, you’ve likely been tempted by the bigger payouts offered by the V+ and H+ columns.
Proline’s V+ and H+ mean different things in different sports. In hockey betting, it means either the visiting or the home team is required to win by two goals or more. In baseball betting, the team you bet on has to win by two runs or more. In football betting, that spread is inflated to over a touchdown.
You likely realize there’s a tradeoff with taking the fatter odds on the V+ and H+ bets. It’s far less likely for teams to win by those margins in sports, so you’re a lot less likely to win your V+ and H+ picks. That explains why you get a bit extra on your bet.
But how much extra should you be getting when you take the V+ and H+ bets?
Here’s the answer: Way more than Proline is offering you. Often more than double what Proline is offering you, in fact.
I found this out today when …
So online sports betting is coming to the province of Ontario, and perhaps the rest of Canada?
Please excuse us while we yawn.
Even with the recent passing of legislation that will allow the government to offer single-game wagering in Canada, we don’t see much advantage in it for sports bettors who already prefer using online sportsbooks.
If you’re at all familiar with Proline, you know that the provincial lotteries stack the odds against us. Not only does Proline require you to bet a minimum of two games (and most often three) at a time (known as a parlay), it also doesn’t pay you even close to what you should be paid if you win all your games.
Don’t expect things to change that much once the government starts offering single-game wagering, either.
Las Vegas sportsbooks typically offer point spread betting with a “juice” (or vigorish) structure of -110. In other words, you need to lay 11 to win 10, or 110 to win 100, and so forth. At that juice structure, bettors need …
Whenever you’re thinking about doing some Proline NCAA basketball betting, it’s a good idea to compare the point spreads to online sportsbooks like Bodog, Bet365, Pinnacle Sports and 5Dimes.
There are often quite a few disparities between Proline and sportsbook spreads on every sport, and college basketball is no different.
Comparing the spreads is helpful for two reasons. First, it’s obviously a good thing to get the best line on each game, since so many games are decided close to the point spread. And second, since sportsbook odds change throughout the day while Proline odds remain the same, you can get a good sense of which way the money is going on each game by watching the online sportsbooks.
If you get the better point spreads on your games by betting on Proline, go with a Proline ticket. But if the point spreads are better at the online sportsbooks, it might be worth signing up for a sportsbook account. And remember, online sportsbooks only require you to bet one game at a …
The Super Bowl may have marked the end of the NFL football season, but there’s still plenty of football to bet on these days.
European football — or soccer, as most of us Canadians call it — is heating up with a few big games on tap for this weekend.
Here’s a preview of what lies ahead in the Premier League if you plan on betting at Proline. Or, if you want to get better odds by using an offshore sportsbook, remember that Pinnacle Sports offers the best odds on all sports.
The spotlight will be on both Manchester United and Liverpool as they meet at Old Trafford in what is expected to be a fiery derby encounter.
There will be even more attention on the game as it is the first time Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra play against one another since the two were involved in a race incident.
Suarez was subsequently banned for eight games and will be raring to go at Old Trafford. However, he will be expecting a …
d
