If you like parlays, be smart: Bet online, not with Proline

Note: This article applies to Proline bettors in all jurisdictions except Ontario. Thank you to Puckline.net reader Jon for pointing out that in Ontario shootouts are included in final game results.

Canadians love playing Proline because of it’s convenience – you can go to the corner store and place your sports bets while you’re picking up some munchies.

There also the illusion that you’re getting value since the payoff off on a cheap five dollar Proline bet can be significant. This is especially appealing for notoriously conservative (cheap?) Canadians who are adverse to taking big risks – this is one of those subtle difference we have with Americans.

Of course, there’s a huge catch when betting with Proline – you have bet on a minimum of three games and all three games have to win. This is what we call a “parlay”.

Bookies like the Canadian Government love parlays because they are so hard to win – it’s tough enough to predict the outcome of one game, let alone three. Everyday millions of $5 Proline tickets across Canada inevitably lose and fill the government’s coffers with cash. (I guess that’s why they call Proline a sports “lottery”.)

Of course, the Proline revenues don’t stay in the coffers very long – they’re quickly vapourized by our fat and inefficient government bureaucracies. But I digress…

Any sharp bettor worth his salt avoids parlays and bets on games individually, which is something the Canadian Government won’t allow you to do via Proline. Online sportsbooks and bookies in Vegas will certainly allow you to bet on individual games, and this is really the smartest way to go.

What I’ve said here is nothing new, and I’ve written on this subject in the past. Inevitably I receive emails from bettors who swear by Proline, who say that they’ve made lots of money and that the only reason they come to this site is to do research for their Proline ticket.

They also say they trust the Proline system, which is basically like saying you trust the government with your money, which is absurd.

That said, let me be the devil’s advocate to my better judgment. Admittedly, there is an allure to the parlay ticket that’s hard to ignore.

As a cheap, cautious Canadian, I obviously like the idea of laying down a little with the chance to win a lot, regardless of how slim the odds might be. Small risk, possible big reward.

Hence, if I were going to play a parlay ticket, let’s take a look at what odds I would get at Proline for a three-teamer in the NHL. Let’s say I want to take the visiting Penguins vs. the Flyers, the hometown Canadiens vs. the Wild and the hometown Oilers vs. the Predators.

My odds with Proline would be 2.00 on the Pens, 2.00 on the Habs, and 1.95 on the Oilers. All three teams would have to win PRIOR to any shootouts (overtime is included in a Proline ticket, shootouts are not). My payoff on a $5 bet would be $39.

Let’s now take a look at the odds I would get on a parlay ticket at an online sportsbook. In this case, I’ll use Bwin.com, a licenced European bookmaker that’s listed on numerous stock exchanges. I mention this because, like most Canadians, I want to feel secure knowing that I’m not going to get ripped off by some fly-by-night scamster.

Logging onto to Bwin.com. I’ll be given more than 25 betting options for each of the three games in Proline example.

I can bet on the results after regulation or after overtime and shootouts. I can also mix in bets on a goal spread, also known as the puckline, or a bet on the total. I can also break the games down and bet period-by-period if I want. And I only have to include two wagers in my parlay if I choose.

For the purposes of comparison, I’ll concentrate on win/loss bets for all three games. If I take the Pens to win in regulation, I’ll get odds of 2.45, for the Canadiens I’ll get 2.40, and for the Oilers I’ll get 2.25. On a $5 bet, my payoff would be $66.15, almost $30 more than Proline!

What if I wanted to bet on the final results of the games, including overtime and shootouts? At Bwin.com, I would get the Pens at 1.91, the Habs at 1.91 and the Oilers at 1.87 for a payoff of $34.11 on a $5 bet.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the payoff is $5 less than at Proline. Why? Because when you bet on the final result of games at Bwin.com, like most real sportsbooks, shootouts are included in the final score.

At Proline, if you take teams to win, your ticket will lose on a tie after overtime because shootouts are not included. So you might have picked all three winners correctly, but you were SCREWED by Proline because the Pens won in a shootout!

Someone is probably thinking, “Well, since shootouts aren’t included, Proline’s method would be an advantage for the bettor who bets on a tie.”

Unfortunately, because Proline includes overtime in its results, the tie bettor gets screwed if a team happens to score in the five-minute overtime period. At Bwin.com, if you bet on a tie, the game only has to be tied after regulation; overtime is NOT included!

So, say we wanted to take the Preds-Oilers game to end in a tie. At Proline we would get odds of 6.35; at Bwin.com we would get 4.10. The odds are lower for a reason: at Bwin.com we are not exposed to the risk of the five-minute overtime period. Proline tries to hide this little scam by boosting the odds for a tie and suckering us into a bad bet.

So in conclusion, if you’re going to bet on parlays, might as well be smart about it and bet at a trusted online sportsbook that at least gives you a fair chance to win.

Besides, what would you rather do, get dressed and go to the corner store in -20 degree weather to place your bets, or fire up your computer and place your bets while sitting in your Lay-Z-Boy sipping a cold beer?

Please send me your thoughts, comments and questions on this article. Would love to hear from you.

Have a profitable Christmas.

Reed Holmes
Editor
Puckline.net

As mentioned above, Bwin.com is a fully licenced sportsbook based in Vienna, Austria. Bwin sponsors professional European soccer teams as well as international basketball.
To open an account at Bwin.com, click here.