BCLC's Sports Action

Want to bet inside Canada’s most western province? Well, there's only one option — the British Columbia Lottery Commission. The government-owned company has a monopoly on the betting industry in British Columbia. Sports betting, casino, slots, it all goes through BCLC.

If you're reading this you're likely interested in the online betting aspect of things. For this, BCLC offers the betting site PlayNow (the former Sports Action website has been closed down). This online bookmaker offers betting odds on all the top sports and an easy-to-use interface that allows you to place your wagers from a phone or computer.

This article will prime you on how to bet at PlayNow. Let's start with the types of bets you'll likely come across:

How to Bet on BCLC’s PlayNow

One thing is for sure: betting options are abundant on PlayNow. This isn't a comprehensive list by any means, but here's the most common betting types on-site:

Oddset 3-Outcome

While this title is a little self-explanatory - we prefer to call these wagering types parlays. Parlays are multi-leg wagers where you select multiple outcomes of games to increase your odds.

With the PlayNow Oddset 3-Outcome, you are doing just that - you are selecting three or more games you want to bet on and select whether you think the visitor will win, the home team will win or a tie. You will mark the options you want to bet on, V for a visitor, H for home, and T for the tie. You then place your wager, and if all of your predictions are correct, you will win your bet.

Different sports have different rules when it comes to tie games, like in hockey a tie is including overtime, so your game essentially needs to go into a shootout for your tie wager to cash. In terms of football, a tie is a game decided by three points or less, so be wary of that wager. Baseball ties are decided by one run, and basketball a tie is decided by five points or less.

Oddset 2-Outcome

Another popular betting option on PlayNow is the Oddset 2-Outcome wager. It follows the exact sample principles as the Oddset 3-Outcome, just two options.

Oddset Combo

Oddset Combo allows you to play multiple sports on one slip. These are just other parlay options essentially, you just will have all of your wagers on one betting slip. You could see a “Go for 2” option on your bet slip, and you just select that to combine your wagers into a combination bet.

Point Spreads

Point spreads are fairly common in the sports betting industry and well known around the world. PlayNow point spreads even the odds between two teams so that the underdog team has a fighting chance. The underdog will have odds with a positive number next to it, and the favored team will have a negative number next to it.

If we’re looking at an NHL matchup between two Canadian Teams:

• Toronto Maple Leafs +2.5
• Vancouver Canucks -2.5

These numbers mean that the oddsmakers believe the Vancouver Canucks will beat the Leafs by more than 3 goals. This means that you will need to decide if you think that the Toronto Maple Leafs will lose by less than 2 goals, or win the game entirely. If you think that is the case, you should pick the Leafs. If you are with the oddsmakers and think that the Canucks will beat the Leafs by quite a bit, you should pick the Canucks - they only have to win by 3 or more goals for your bet to win.

Totals (Over/Under)

If you’re playing the over/under, it’s a pretty standard and safe bet to make. If you aren’t a huge sports fan and don’t know a lot about the teams playing, it is a great option because you are betting on the final outcome of both teams combined.

If you’re looking at the same matchup as above, you will need to predict the total number of goals scored by both the Leafs and Canucks collectively. If the Canucks are favored to win by more than 3 goals, we might see a total set at 6.5 by the PlayNow oddsmakers.

Your job is to determine if you think that both teams will score more or less than 6.5 collectively. If you pick the over and the final score is 2-1, you will lose your wager. If you picked the over and the score was 5-3, you will win.

Toto

Toto wagers are very risky and not for the faint of heart. You will be choosing the outcomes of 13, 12 or 11 games, and you will need to be correct on all predictions to win the cash prize. PlayNow has this option, and while you can create 13 game parlays at any sportsbook to win a huge prize, not many sports bettors do this successfully.

Props

PlayNow has some prop bets available, not as many as you’d see on an online sportsbook, but you can get some decent value from their menu if you already have an account.

Prop bets are events or instances in the game that have nothing to do with the final outcome of the game. Anything under the sun that you didn't bet on above, is up for grabs. For example, you can bet on if there will be power-play goals, who scores next, or any player props they might have available.

If you’re betting on power-play goals, and the line is set at 0.5, and you choose the over, you will need one team to score at least one goal in the power play for your bet to cash.

Betting on PlayNow

PlayNow is a big step up from the former Sports Action site, which was as dated as can be. Things were so bad that we used to recommend bettors to just bet at physical gambling establishments rather than trudge through the online site.

Just visit the PlayNow site to get started. You'll quickly get bombarded by all of its betting options that are listed on the front page, including a multi-million-dollar jackpot. That's in the casino, of course, but bettors can jump around between the other platforms too — the sportsbook, the virtual slots, poker room, and even bingo. It's all there for the taking!

Though, PlayNow does have come competition in the form of offshore sportsbooks. While not licensed via BCLC like PlayNow, these offshore sites do work — and really well too. We advise you to read our sportsbook reviews to determine if these alternative sites are worth your time and money. We've linked up-to-date reviews in the underneath table!