Proline NBA Betting Returning To Ontario This Season

For the first time in more than 20 years, Ontario residents will be able to include NBA basketball games on their Proline tickets this season.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation pulled the NBA from its Proline menu in 1995 when the Toronto Raptors came into the league. Then-commissioner David Stern liked to pretend nobody bet on basketball games and threatened to revoke the Raptors franchise if the OLG continued to offer NBA on Proline.

With the NBA recently warming up to the thought of gambling on its games, there had been rumours for years that NBA basketball would return to Proline. It appeared imminent in 2011, but those efforts quickly fell through.

“Ontario loves basketball, and coming off NBA All-Star 2016 in Toronto and the Raptors’ most successful season in franchise history, the popularity of the NBA in Canada is at an all-time high,” Greg McKenzie, OLG’s Chief Operating Officer, said in a media release. “OLG is thrilled to add the NBA to PRO-LINE for our customers. With the addition of the NBA, Ontario sports fans will now have even more choices for a better gaming experience.”

Proline basketball betting in Ontario is expected to remain subject to the ‘tie rule’, which grades all games decided by 5 points or less as a tie instead of a victory by the winning team.

Bettors will still be required to parlay (combine multiple outcomes onto one ticket) their Proline NBA basketball bets. Online sportsbooks and illegal bookmakers currently remain the only options for Canadians to bet on one game at a time.

There was also no mention of whether NBA basketball betting would also be offered on Point Spread, an OLG product that allows bettors to wager against the point spread instead of having to select Home win, Visitor win or Tie.