By KEN MAGUIRE, AP Sports activities Author
MILAN (AP) — Hockey is the highest Winter Games sport amongst gamblers, however curling with its sliding stones, spirited sweeping and cheating allegations has stunned oddsmakers.
Bettors are displaying important curiosity within the quirky sport, which piques viewers’ curiosity each 4 years on the Winter Olympics.
“There’s positively a stronger curling-hockey break up than what was anticipated,” stated Chris Pearce, a senior dealer at Caesars Sportsbook.
It’s anticipated that the deal with — the whole quantity wagered — on this Olympics will far exceed that of the 2022 Beijing Video games primarily as a result of legalized sports betting has expanded within the U.S. and these Video games are simpler to trace stay due to the time zone.
“The curling alone goes to take seven figures general — it’s going to take 1,000,000 {dollars} general,” Pearce stated. “If you happen to would have informed me at first that that we’d flip over 1,000,000 on curling, I wouldn’t have believed you, however there’s a whole lot of curiosity there.”
The Worldwide Olympic Committee says it intently displays betting on Olympic sports activities to guard the integrity of the Video games. The worldwide mixture betting quantity on the 2024 Summer season Video games in Paris was a record 11 billion euros ($13 billion), the IOC stated.
Summer season Video games now have almost 3 times the variety of occasions than Winter Olympics so naturally get increased figures. But it surely’s extensively anticipated that betting on Milan Cortina will far surpass that of the 2022 Beijing Video games.
Pearce stated that they had already exceeded their Beijing mark “5 – 6 days in.”
The curling competitions are being held in Cortina, the place Sweden beat the U.S. to win the gold medal in combined doubles. The lads’s and ladies’s group occasions are in full swing, and the allegations of rule breaking has added a dash of controversy.
“It appears to be one of many extra bet-on winter sports activities beneath ice hockey,” stated Christian Cipollini, BetMGM Sportsbook senior buying and selling supervisor. “It’s kind of relatable, it’s a simple watch, you’ll be able to perceive it in a short time.”
Another sports activities — like speedskating — are over in minutes. Curling takes hours and might embody frequent lead adjustments.
“Curling is one which continues to go stay, in order that’s what finally ends up getting it extra reputation from a deal with standpoint,” Cipollini stated.
The deal with for a curling match, he estimated, is equal to that of a low-to-mid-tier faculty basketball recreation.
Gamblers within the US are betting on People
Olympic athletes in sports activities like curling, ski jumping and biathlon aren’t precisely family names, so U.S. bettors are inclined to default to People, Cipollini stated.
“It does seem the U.S. bettors, very a lot so, are extra patriotic and prepared to wager on their group form of blindly, the place the European nations it doesn’t occur a lot,” he stated, noting the longer historical past of sports activities betting in Europe.
Even when the athletes are well-known, gamblers will be fairly optimistic, like once they wager on Lindsey Vonn regardless of her snowboarding with a torn ACL. The American star crashed within the ladies’s downhill and broke her leg.
Figure skating is a vastly standard Olympic sport however will be tricker with playing as a result of the outcome relies on judges’ decisions.
“Mainly any occasion for us, if USA is listed, that’s the one which has essentially the most quantity of bets in it,” Cipollini stated. “Hockey is a bit of bit completely different as a result of Canada is the favourite.”
The NHL-run 4 Nations Face-Off event one yr in the past proved standard with bettors. The showdown within the ultimate — Canada beat the U.S. in overtime — was seen as an Olympic preview.
“If we get a males’s U.S.-Canada recreation, we predict that might be our greatest bet-on hockey recreation of the yr, together with NHL finals, all of the regular-season NHL video games,” Cipollini stated.
Playing carries dangers
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Courtroom struck down a ban on sports activities betting, however scandals involving athletes and officers have adopted. Recent polling additionally means that People have turn out to be more and more vital of the function of sports activities betting as unhealthy for U.S. society and sports activities.
The National Council on Problem Gambling stories that the “charge of playing issues amongst sports activities bettors is no less than twice as excessive as amongst gamblers generally.”
Public well being advocates just like the Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling warn that drawback playing can result in not simply monetary and authorized issues, but in addition increased divorce and suicide charges, and might harm job efficiency. Playing has turn out to be widespread on college campuses, and Common Sense Media just lately discovered that kids are additionally taking part.
Advocates suggest apps akin to GambBan and BetBlocker, which restrict entry to playing websites externally.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
