Sport Select Review (Western Canada)

In this Sport Select review, you’ll see why Sport Select and Ontario Proline lag way behind PlayNow, Proline Stadium and Mise-O-Jeu when you compare the provincial sports lotteries in Canada.

For starters, how about the Sport Select website, which looks as though it hasn’t changed since the 1990s. That’s the feel you get playing Sport Select as well – that you’re behind the times.

Just check out the Atari-like ‘entertainment’ on their website (click on ‘The Locker Room’ in the top navigation of their site).

Sport Select’s limited betting selection includes:

  • Proline (when you pick Visitor, Tie or Home for who will win the game, and Over or Under the total)
  • Point Spread (parlaying picks against the spread)
  • Pools (where you predict the outcome of every game on the card, with the person with the most correct picks winning or sharing the prize pool)
  • Props (picking between two players to win a matchup in a specific statistical category, such as points in hockey or receiving yards in football)

Sport Select Bonuses

The only sign of a ‘bonus’ we saw on the WCLC website when doing this Sports Select review was a contest in which you could win a VIP Sports Trip.

Destinations included the Super Bowl in Houston, an Bruins/Kings game in Los Angeles, a Blue Jays game in Toronto, the Grand Prix in Montreal, or a build-your-own trip. Values of the trips ranged from $5,000 to $20,000.

You can enter the contests by submitting your losing Sport Select tickets.

Sport Select tie rules


Sport Select Proline tie rules are similar to Proline tie rules in other provinces when it comes to football (games decided by 3 points or less are ties) and basketball (games decided by 5 points or less are ties).

Their tie rules in hockey and soccer are the same as Proline Stadium: if the game is tied at the end of regulation. Overtime and shootouts are not included.

There are no ties in baseball.

Sport Select Odds

The biggest reason Sport Select ranks so far down our list is because of their really poor odds.

While PlayNow and Proline Stadium were at least within 20% of online sportsbook payouts on a standard parlay, Sport Select doesn’t even come close.

Just check out this example:

sport select review

sports-interaction-odds

A 3-game $100 parlay at Sport Select Proline paid $750 ($650 profit) while the same parlay paid $1267 ($1167 profit) at Canadian online betting site Sports Interaction. That means Sports Interaction is paying 80% more than Sport Select on this wager!

Sport Select point spread odds are no better.

As you can see below, you can win 5X your wager on a 3-game point spread parlay in football or basketball. Your true odds of winning this wager are 12.5% (50% x 50% x 50%), which means fair odds would be 8:1, not 5:1.

By comparison, sportsbooks pay approximately 7:1 on a 3-game parlay of point spread bets priced at -110 odds.

sport-select-point-spread-odds

With Sport Select’s Pools game, the total jackpot is 60% of entry fees, similar to Mise-O-Jeu. So even if you had a 50% chance of winning, you’d only be getting 60 cents on your dollar.

Parlay rules

Sport Select requires you to parlay at least 3 games on your Proline ticket. PlayNow, Mise-O-Jeu and Proline Stadium allowed you to parlay as few as 2, so you can expect to lose a lot more tickets when you have to go 3-for-3 at a minimum to get paid.

On the plus side, more losing tickets means more entries into the Sport Select contests.

If you just want to bet 2 games at Sport Select, you can play Point Spread – but the odds aren’t great, as we mentioned above.

Sport Select online betting

Considering how we have already been critical of their simplistic website, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that you can’t play Sport Select online.

If you live in Manitoba, at least you can bet sports on the PlayNow.com website developed by the British Columbia Lottery Corporation. Otherwise, if you live in the prairie provinces, you better get in your car and head to the nearest convenience store.

Sport Select Review: Conclusion

In this Sport Select review, we haven’t been too flattering of the WCLC sports lottery.

Unfortunately, there really isn’t that much to be positive about. At least Sport Select pays you slightly better odds than those poor Proline players in Ontario, but residents of the prairie provinces have to live with an outdated website, limited betting selection and the inability to bet online.

That’s why we recommend anyone who lives in Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba to check out the best online sportsbooks for Canadians. They all allow you to bet one game at a time with total convenience, and completely legally.