Ontario Lottery's PROLINE Sportbooks Offer a Silver Lining to Losing Bets

Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) has dropped a provocative new campaign for its PROLINE and PROLINE+ sportsbooks. The campaign was timed to coincide with the launch of the NFL, NHL and NBA seasons. The new work positions PROLINE as ‘Not Just Another Sportsbook’ and proves the point by going where no other sportsbook has gone before by acknowledging that losing bets happen, but when you bet with OLG there is a silver lining.  

The hero video in the campaign features a group of friends watching a hockey game with bets in hand. The voice inside their heads asks the simple question: ‘But what if I lose’. The video examines various ways their sports bet could go sideways, before reassuring the viewer that even if the bet isn’t a winner, with PROLINE 100% of profits go back to Ontario. 

“Ontario sports fans have been inundated with messaging from newly legalised sports betting sites” says Dustin Rideout, chief strategy officer at The Hive. “Now that PROLINE has a fully competitive digital platform offering, the biggest difference between PROLINE and the rest of the category is where the money goes. When you bet with PROLINE, 100% of the profits are reinvested to make Ontario better.  

The video is supported by a campaign of sport specific shorts and digital, OOH and retail messaging reassuring bettors that, with PROLINE, all profits go back to Ontario.  

Creative strategy and development was led by the The Hive, with MediaCom managing the media planning and buying. 

Coinciding with the launch of the new campaign is another TV commercial with supporting OOH, digital and in-store assets, all announcing PROLINE’s new brand ambassador the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, John Tavares.  

“John Tavares was the perfect partner for PROLINE. He’s a hard working, lead-by example player who came back to Ontario to play for his hometown”, says Maxine Chapman, VP, brand and marketing officer at OLG. “The video introduces the partnership along with the idea that both Tavares and PROLINE are playing for the ‘home team’”.  

Associate creative director Ryan Speziale explained the thinking behind the new campaign for PROLINE:, “From where the money goes to being available online, on app and in retail, to the signing of a hometown hero like John Tavares, PROLINE truly is substantially different from all their new competitors. We believe that sports bettors are  also Ontarians who care about these things, and when all things are equal, will support the sportsbook that supports them back.”