So much sports betting is done online or via mobile these days, but that doesn’t mean retail sports betting doesn’t still have its place. For the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), providing a quality in-person experience has arguably never been more important for those who can offer it.

Amid stiff competition for customers’ money both online and on the ground, giving people an experience they will remember — and want to have again in the future — can be a differentiator. 

“Everything is online-focused, that’s where a lot of the competition is,” BCLC’s Senior Manager of Sports, Aaron Myette, tells Canadian Gaming Business. “But we have a significant advantage in having these retail spaces that others don’t. It’s about how successful we can be in our province in providing the best sports experience for British Columbians.

“We’re competitive by nature, so we want to compete, but our passion is our players and their experience. They go hand-in-hand.”

“We have a significant advantage in having these retail spaces that others don’t.”

BCLC launched its new PROLINE retail sportsbook on the eve of the last NFL season, a revamped digitized offering that replaced the Sports Action product that had been operational for more than three decades. 

The upgrades have included offering retail singles bets for the first and expanding what was a small basic set of markets into a much wider and deeper range. Among the new additions is in-play betting, the first time that has been available in-person.

It’s paid dividends. The crown corporation projected it would finish the 2024-25 fiscal year with higher retail sports betting sales than the previous year, despite in-person sports wagering being unavailable for four months last year prior to the retail PROLINE launch.

“It’s outperforming Sports Action already,” Myette says. “We want to create an awesome sportsbook and we’re very pleased with how it has been performing.”

Proof is in the pudding

Part of the overhaul also included making sure that BCLC’s casinos offer an experience that British Columbian bettors would be hard-pressed to get anywhere else.

The lottery opened its first two PROLINE-branded sportsbook lounges, at Chances Casino Kelowna and Parq Casino in Vancouver, in time for sneak previews on Super Bowl day. The third, at Chances Maple Ridge, will open this Saturday, May 24, and a fourth is scheduled to open later next month at Casino of the Rockies in Cranbrook.

The lounges host huge television screens to broadcast games and events, hospitality booths with food and beverage service and numerous betting terminals that give players the ability to place a broad range of pre-game and in-game wagers, including parlays and live markets.

At Vancouver’s Parq, BCLC’s retail sports betting leader, the official opening on the night before the Super Bowl yielded traffic that was 600% above average for a Saturday night. That momentum continued strongly through the wildly popular 4 Nations Face-Off hockey tournament and the March Madness college basketball tournaments.

The hope is that will continue into the summer, despite the warm season typically being a quiet time for Canadian sportsbooks after the Stanley Cup has been lifted and the NBA has been won. BCLC is committed to hosting continued events at its sportsbooks, such as appealing UFC cards or other big sporting moments.

Casino sportsbooks as destinations

The crown corporation has been thoughtful in where it has begun opening refurbished PROLINE sportsbooks. “Our players are province-wide, so we want to start creating experiences where they are at,” Myette explains. “We didn’t want to just throw them all in the same spot and have competing sites.”

Each site will cater to its own audience. At Casino Rockies, for example, a significant proportion of the clientele tends to be golfers, so building an experience around that will be important.

That word is key: experience.

“If we can create that mindset that you don’t need to cross a border or an ocean for a destination, that’s what it’s all about … We want our B.C. players to know they can find a world-class gambling experience in their own backyard.”

Casinos rely on a combination of regular visitors, passing trade, and visitors from further afield. As a new summer heralds the arrival of tourism season in B.C., the BCLC wants to ensure its casino resorts are top of mind for residents and vacationers.

“We want a sports viewing experience, that’s number one,” adds Myette. “But the sportsbook lounges aren’t limited to sports. What can we do for our fans? What’s the experience we can create? Come to Parq, you can watch a game in the sportsbook from your own booth, you can have some food and drinks, you can experience the casino, you can play a round of golf, you can visit the Seawall. 

“We want to look beyond what the sports calendar provides to what our partners can provide and what our city can provide. That, to me, is not only a unique advantage but the next step for really giving added value to our players.”

A one-stop shop on the doorstep

BCLC is also acutely aware of the competition it faces. 

It unveiled a campaign this spring titled “What’s played here stays here” that aimed to inform and remind players that the money spent on PROLINE and PlayNow goes back to the province.

As part of the announcement, the crown corporation referenced not only unregulated grey market sites in its own jurisdiction that offer their services to British Columbians but also licensed and regulated casinos in nearby U.S. states such as Washington which “aggressively” market to west-coast Canadians. That’s even without mentioning the obvious allure of heading further down the west coast to the bright lights of Las Vegas; BCLC also cited Vegas casinos as legitimate competitors who look to appeal to B.C. residents.

“There is appeal in going down to Washington State,” Myette acknowledges. “They’ve got some beautiful properties there and they’re great people. Rightly, they’re marketing to our folks up in British Columbia. For us, it’s about creating those destinations here. People from the States, from elsewhere in Canada, even from other parts of B.C. are coming to Vancouver for that destination experience. 

“If we can create that mindset with British Columbians that you don’t need to cross a border or an ocean for a destination, that’s what it’s all about. We want our B.C. players to know they can find a world-class gambling experience in their own backyard.”

A version of this story appears in the Summer 2025 issue of Canadian Gaming Business magazine.