Early on the first morning of legal single-event sports betting in Canada, Dave Pridmore sat in one of three war rooms with 20-plus employees and others at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation offices in Toronto and Sault Ste. Marie. They had been working through the night to make sure the new ProLine+ was ready to open for business.
The first wager was placed at 5:03 a.m.
“Ten dollars on the over-under (9.5 runs) for Brewers-Twins,” said Pridmore, OLG’s chief digital and strategy officer, chuckling at the randomness of the groundbreaking bet.
After almost 30 years of being able to only offer parlay wagering…OLG and other lottery corporations across the country were first out of the gate to offer sports fans and bettors legal wagering on games and matches, along with in-game or prop bets, with the federal Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act coming into effect Aug. 28.
