TORONTO — It was a good start to the NFL pre-season for seven Proline players.
According to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., the NFL preseason pool had seven players with 11-of-12 correctly selected. The pool players received $1,810.29.
On Thursday night, 70 per cent of patrons correctly selected the slightly favoured Seattle Seahawks to win on the money line versus the Minnesota Vikings. Seattle won the game 24-13.
The Houston-New England game Thursday was the second-most popular contest, which the Texans won 20-9. Roughly half of bettors incorrectly had the Patriots winning on the money line but 75 per cent incorrectly took them to win on the spread.
Tennis was front and centre this week with the National Bank Open events being held simultaneously in Toronto (men's) and Montreal (women's). Defending Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz lost in the men's quarterfinal to 13th-ranked American Tommy Paul, with only 14 per cent of wagers being on Paul to earn the upset.
Seventh-seeded Italian Jannik Sinner beat No. 18 Australian Alex de Minuar 6-4, 6-1 in the men's final, something 65 per cent of customers correctly predicted.
On the women's side, top-seeded Iga Swiatek lost her semifinal contest to American Jessica Pegula, which 59 per cent of customers saw happening. Pegula went on to down 15th-ranked Russian Liudmila Samsonova 6-1, 6-0 in the final, with 78 per cent of bettors correctly predicting that outcome.
The most popular baseball game last week was the Chicago Cubs' 5-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday. Chicago earned the win with a run in the top of the ninth, with 26 per cent of bettors correctly predicting the outcome.
While only 34 per cent had the over of 8.5 runs in the game, over 90 per cent predicted that Chris Bassitt would register 5.5 strikeouts (he had six in the contest).
The CFL's Ottawa Redblacks were part of the two events of the week. Their 26-24 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Aug. 6 was ranked No. 1, with the club's 44-31 defeat Sunday at the hands of the Toronto Argonauts standing No. 2.
Toronto's 5-4 loss to Chicago was third overall, followed by the Jays 1-0 win over Cleveland on Aug. 9. Rounding out the top five was New York Mets' 7-6 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Sunday.
A Proline customer turned a $2 bet into an $1,158 windfall on an eight-leg English Premier League parlay. Another earned $1,247 from a $2 wager on a 12-leg, MLB parlay.
A $5 bet on a two-leg golf parlay netted another bettor a whopping $6,930 payday. The winning wager came on Cameron Smith claiming the LIV Golf Bedminster event and Lucas Glover capturing the PGA Tour's St. Jude Championship.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2023.
The Canadian Press