The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation has some special news in store for its basketball fans as it inks an exciting partnership with the National Basketball League or the NBA. Now, its fan-favorite sports betting brand PROLINE will become an official sports betting partner to the league in Ontario. This enables locals to wager legally for the first time on the NBA Draft.
OLG is a provincially-run agency that offers safe and regulated gambling, sports betting, and lottery offerings to Ontario, in both online and retail forms. It also delivers bingo and other electronic products to Charitable Gaming Centres. The Crown corporation’s proceeds are reinvested into the province, and since 1975 it has generated over CA$55 billion in revenue for the local economy.
Official Sports Betting Partners
Through this agreement, users of PROLINE will be able for the first time ever to wager on the 2022 NBA Draft in a safe and regulated environment. The draft will take place this Thursday, June 23, at 8:00 p.m. ET and it will be broadcast on Sportsnet and TSN. This latest agreement between the Crown agency and the league is just another example of their impeccable relationship.
In addition to that, through this new partnership, the Crown and NBA will commit to creating unique experiences on the OLG’s online sportsbook PROLINE+ and its retail one PROLINE. The land-based version of the sportsbook is available across approximately 10,000 Ontario locations. And as part of the deal, the OLG will utilize NBA betting data, as well as integrate official league marks and logos.
Chief Digital and Strategy Officer for the OLG, Dave Pridmore, commented that the continuation of the partnership with the NBA will help the Crown to provide new riveting opportunities for its basketball fanatics. He also notes that the organization is more than excited to offer betting on the NBA Draft for the first time, while also providing bettors with more exclusive content.
Kuljeet Sindhar, NBA’s Associate Vice President, International Gaming & Data Ventures, said that the latest arrangement with the OLG is another example that the league deeply values the long-term partnership with the Ontario regulator. He concluded by saying that the NBA is delighted to extend its collaboration with the Crown in order to innovate the fan experience in Ontario’s new era of sports betting.
A recent study found that Ontarian sports bettors are quite fond of basketball when it comes to wagering online. The province’s new online operators which are part of its new iGaming market reported that most of the players tend to wager mostly on basketball. The study found that in April basketball collected 27.6% of the online wagers, and the NHL was a close second with 22.1%.
Partnering with Another Major League
On top of that, last week, the Crown surprised its baseball fans as announced that its PROLINE brand will be an official sports partner of the MLB. This is the first sports betting partnership for the league in the province. It will enable PROLINE with distribution rights to the league’s official logos as well as cross-promotion across MLB digital and social channels.
Source: “OLG and the NBA Announce PROLINE Sportsbook as an Official Partner of the NBA in Ontario”, Cision, June 22, 2022
