While ice hockey may be the most popular Winter Olympics game among sports bettors, another ice-based activity is attracting plenty of attention. Curling has emerged as a popular option among Americans seeking Olympic action.
On-ice controversy involving cheating allegations has fueled some of the interest this year. That, and a growing legalized American sports betting landscape.
“There’s definitely a stronger curling-hockey split than what was expected,” Caesars Sportsbook senior trader Chris Pearce told the Associated Press. “The curling alone is going to take seven figures overall – it’s going to take a million dollars overall.
“If you would have told me at the start that we’d turn over a million on curling, I wouldn’t have believed you, but there’s a lot of interest there.”
Before the sports betting expansion in 2018, wagering was limited to Nevada. Silver State regulators didn’t approve the Olympic Games as a betting option until 2015.
Inside The Numbers
Curling games are drawn out over a few hours and can have frequent lead changes. In the US, most matches are shown live and offer easy wagering opportunities, Pearce said. He estimated the handle on one of the games to be equivalent to a mid-tier college basketball game.
Overall, wagering on the quadrennial games is expected to greatly surpass betting on the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.
While betting is usually heavier on the summer events, the International Olympic Committee estimates that betting on the Winter Games will reach a record $13 billion and is projected to top the total bet on the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. Pearce noted that betting handle passed the 2024 total within five or six days.
For comparison, the American Gaming Association estimated Americans wagered $1.76 billion on this year’s Super Bowl.
U.S.A, U.S.A.!
Most viewers don’t necessarily have a deep knowledge of many sports featured in the Winter Games. Consequently, many Americans default to betting on athletes and teams representing their home country.
“Basically, any event for us, if USA is listed, that’s the one that has the most amount of bets in it,” BetMGM Sportsbook senior trading manager Christian Cipollini told the AP. “Hockey is a little bit different because Canada is the favorite.
“If we get a men’s U.S.-Canada game, we think that will be our biggest bet-on hockey game of the year, including NHL Finals, all the regular-season NHL games.”
Americans’ penchant for betting on Americans can be seen in Olympic downhill skiing. Lindsey Vonn, 41, began as a favorite at around +175 in the event, despite not competing since 2019. The three-time medalist ultimately crashed and did not return to compete.
“There’s no way that the general public has any kind of affinity towards three, four other skiers,” Caesars trader Karry Shreeve told ESPN. “So, it’s still going to turn into a ‘You know what, let’s bet on her anyways.'”
USA-Canada On Track To Play For Gold On Sunday
Ice hockey is a bit different as the games feature NHL players and many American sports fans may be more familiar with the squads. The action has now reached the semifinals. The US is set to take on Slovakia Friday, with Canada battling Finland. The gold medal game is set for Sunday.
Canada opened the Games as the favorite to win gold at +120 and remain so at -120 now. Team USA began just behind at +175 and that has now reached +115.
Sweden was initially the third favorite at +600 but was eliminated by the US on Wednesday. Finland now sits at +1,500, with Slovakia at +3,500, according to DraftKings.
Prediction Markets Left Out In The Cold?
As sports betting operators face another competitor now in the form of prediction markets, these platforms don’t seem to be generating the same kind of numbers as the books are generating.
The Closing Line reports that Kalshi had only seen $17 million in trading on the Olympics, just 0.6% of volume. Other prediction market platforms are also seeing similar results.
