Of all the advances brought to sportsbook gambling since the internet, the most revolutionary is live game batting. This option to wager on the outcome of a game or even proposition bets online first became available in 1994 as “in-running betting.” The name became “in-game betting” and later “live game betting” or “live betting.”

Among the earliest sports on which live game betting was available were golf, tennis, cricket and baseball. Online sportsbooks soon got NFL football offerings out there, and naturally the sport’s massive influence in North America changed the concept.

The first forms of live-game betting not only included stuff like over/unders on a given quarter and money lines, but the outcome of discrete events. This betting works exceptionally well in slower-moving games such as cricket and baseball; bettors may wager on the outcome of every pitch.

Some online sportsbooks still offer play-by-play betting for CFL, NFL and NCAA football but the overwhelming majority of bettors prefer the old standbys, i.e. pointspread and over/under betting. And since the overwhelming majority of football bettors also represents the overwhelming majority of bettors at sportsbooks accepting Canadian/US players, the emphasis in NFL and CFL live game betting is on these fundamental offerings.

A couple of sporting events in the 2010s have brought the potential profitability of live game betting into the public consciousness. In Super Bowl LI, the New England Patriots were suddenly getting as much as +1200 on the money line when the Atlanta Falcons had run up a good (or so they thought) lead. And in the 2019 heavyweight championship bout between Andy Ruiz Jr. and Anthony Joshua, Ruiz was getting odds of thousands-to-one after getting knocked down in the 3^rd round.

Tips for live game betting

One could call live game betting “extreme betting”, as the possibility of losing an entire bankroll in a single CFL game is great, indeed. Tip #1 then is to play conservatively: Exercise some portion control and watch the hedging. Too many bets will turn wins into losses quickly. Other tips:

•  Place smaller wagers. Think ½ to ¼ the size of your regular wager. As often occurs at the sportsbook, live game betting can quickly become a battle of attrition which has you chasing losses. You’ll have to accept those early losses so as not to dig a deeper financial hole.

•  Winning streaks are always finite. Sure, you might win four bets consecutively and in short order, but settle down. As folks like to say in a slightly different context, “There’s still a lot of football left to play.” In this way is CFL live game betting like slot machines: Easy come, easy go.

•  And one more time: Hedging is a dangerous crutch. Whereas in standard CFL betting, hedging is an excellent way to cut one’s losses, covering with hedge bets in live game betting can become quite dangerous, providing the bettor with a false sense of security.

So give live game betting a try during this CFL season at one of CFLpass’s partnering sportsbook websites. Grab anywhere from a few hundred to $1,000 with one of the exclusive CFLpass bonus codes to test out live gaem betting. Or simply click on any of the logos or banners on this page to get started with CFL live game betting!