This year’s edition of the Super Bowl turned out to be quite the success for provincially run sportsbooks in Canada. After the Los Angeles Rams’ 23-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation, and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation have all reported record handles of wagering.
The immense volume of sports wagering volume in Canada can be explained by the rising popularity of the industry, as well as the introduction of single-event wagering in the country. According to early data from Numeris, the Super Bowl saw an average audience of 8.1 million viewers across the country, hence becoming the largest broadcasting event of the year.
New Sports Betting Heights
The OLG did not report an exact number of its wagering volume for Sunday’s Super Bowl, but it revealed that it had a significant increase of newly registered users on PROLINE+. According to the Crown agency, wagering and placed amount per bet has substantially increased in comparison to the NFL playoffs and regular-season games, with live in-play bet accounting for 10% of the total volume.
OLG reports that 54% of the bettors correctly predicted the Rams money line, while 52% of the bettors guessed correctly the Bengals (+4.5) to cover the spread. The coin toss was also quite the popular sales, as 51% of the bettors guessed that the result of it would be “heads”. Players have also enjoyed the “Gatorade color” option, however, only 18% of them guessed correctly with blue or clear color.
Days before the clash between the two football teams, the OLG presented its newest sports show called Game Plan. The program is co-hosted by former CFL receiver and The Bachelor Canada star Brad Smith, and in order to provide some insight on the final, the first guest of the show was Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana. The show will air for a total of 20 weeks.
Atlantic Canada Activity
The ALC reported that new records were reported for handle, profit, online revenue, and active bettors in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. Nova Scotia, which legalized single-event wagering on Friday, just two days before the grand final, reported that 40% of its Super Bowl bets were recorded in the new offering.
ALC Sports Betting Manager Scott Eagles, half of the Crown corporation’s PRO•LINE platform wagers for the Super Bowl come from singles betting. According to him, a lot of the props went in the corporation’s way, as the money line saw the Rams take in half of all handle, while bettors mostly took the Bengals on the spread (62%) and the under on the total (64%).
Volume in B.C.
And last but not least is British Columbia, which reported a handle of approximately CA$2.1 million. This is a record-breaking number for its PlayNow platform, as the province doubled the amount of money wagered in comparison to the last edition of the Super Bowl. According to the BCLC, a total of 70,000 bets were placed during the Super Bowl weekend.
