Canada’s lotteries keeping players interested with alternative sports bets and greater incentives.
All over the world, businesses are suffering. Many have shut down, while others are forced to accept the minimal revenue they’re still pulling in. Canadian lottery corporations are operating at a mere fraction of their previous capacity. All retail sales are suspended until further notice, but online sales remain active.
That’s good news for the provincial governments who rely heavily on gambling revenue to supplement their budgets, but bad news when you consider at least 75% all gambling revenue came from land-based sales, video lotteries and casinos. The news gets worse when you calculate in sports lotteries that drew the vast majority of their revenue from North American and European sporting events.
Every major athletic sports league on the planet has suspended activities until further notice. There are no NBA basketball games, no MLB baseball games, no MLS soccer games. The revived XFL spring football league wasn’t just postponed halfway through the season, it filed for bankruptcy this week. Suffice it to say, there are no team sports worth betting on.
Canada’s Lotteries Inject Greater Incentives, Alternative Sports Bets
The British Columbia Lottery Corp (BCLC) and Atlantic Lottery Corp (ALC) have been brainstorming new and interesting ways to increase player interest. BC residents can now play online bingo games with significantly higher prize pools, while residents of the Atlantic provinces (Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island) will find some unique sports to place their wagers on these days.
BCLC Promotes Daily $500 GTD Bingo Jackpot
BCLC officials announced the increased bingo jackpots on Playnow this week with the intent of making stay-at-home life a little less mundane for the citizens of B.C. Social distancing has resulted in a steady rise in interest in the provincial iGaming website. Regulators have been encouraging continued use by upping the promotional aspect over the past few weeks. The latest promo comes as a $500 GTD bingo jackpot game to be played every evening.
“Join us in the Suite 75 room, where we will be giving away $500 in additional prizes nightly!” reads the new headline on the Playnow Bingo website. That brings the total nightly guarantee to $1,500, adding onto the existing $1,000 guaranteed bingo jackpot.
ALC Adds Unusual Sports to Pro-Line Tickets
With little else to bet on in the sporting arena, gaming regulators at the ALC are scouring the planet for what little remains. What they found were some rather unusual events that no one would likely bet on under normal circumstances. But when a sports fan has nothing else to watch – well, it just might work.
The most obvious choice was eSports, which now makes up nearly half of the available picks, but involves no traditional form of athletics. Other eligible betting opportunities include things like the Taiwanese Super Basketball League (SBL), the Chinese Pro Baseball League (CPBL), Belarus Premier League Soccer, Moscow Liga Pro and Ukraine’s Setka Cup table tennis, and Arizona’s Outlaw Tour golf tournaments. Over in the novelty betting section, you’ll now find competitive eating, thanks to the famous Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest coming up in July.
“Many of our customers have remained active,” explains ALC Senior Communications Counsel, Jennifer Tulk in an email statement. In these unusual times, she says one of the ALC’s primary goals has been, “maintaining a long list of events to keep our players entertained.”
