The Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corporation, known to be responsible for the provision of gambling options in the Canadian province of Ontario, announced that it has partnered with the National Basketball Association, a partnership that would see NBA games become available to gambling customers to wager on as of October 25, 2016, when the 2016/17 NBA season is slated to begin.
Of the newly added gambling options, OLG COO Greg McKenzie said that NBA and basketball’s popularity is experiencing its all-time high in Ontario and Canada as a whole. The increasing interest in the game has been driven by the 2016 NBA All-Star Game that was hosted by Toronto earlier this year as well as to the fact the Toronto Raptors have had their most successful season.
Mr. McKenzie added that they are extremely happy to be providing Ontario gambling customers with the chance to wager on NBA games, thus improving significantly their experience and giving them a wider choice of betting options.
The NBA partnership is seen as OLG’s attempt to attract more sports fans to its PRO-LINE sports betting platform as the gambling corporation is looking for ways to generate additional revenue at a time when casinos are not in their profitability peak.
Betting on NBA games will become part of PRO-LINE’s gambling offering after more than a 20-year hiatus. It was in 1994 when former NBA Commissioner David Stern insisted that the league be removed from the OLG sports betting brand’s offering. Mr. Stern has long indicated that he did not wanted it to be associated with gambling.
About a decade ago, NBA’s position towards Ontario sports fans being able to bet on basketball games warmed a little and it has been working with the OLG on the league’s return to PRO-LINE ever since, with negotiations having their ups and downs over the years.
The OLG is authorized by the Ontario government to provide gambling options across the province in a socially responsible way. The corporation offers land-based and online casino games, lottery options, bingo, and is currently working actively on the addition of horse racing to the options offered to gambling customers based in the province. The OLG annually contributes substantial amounts of money out of the revenue generated to causes related to Ontario residents’ welfare. Since 1975, the corporation has granted almost C$42 billion for the purpose.
