Lots of Betting Buzz Heading into Men’s National Curling Championship
More Canada sportsbooks seem to be jumping on the curling bandwagon.
The Tim Hortons Brier, the Canadian men’s national curling championship, starts this Friday, will be held at Budweiser Gardens in London, Ont., and runs through March 14.
FanDuel Offering Odds for Tim Hortons Brier
According to FanDuel, Team Canada (Newfoundland and Labrador skip Brad Gushue, vice skip Mark Nichols, second E.J. Harnden and lead Geoff Walker) are the favourites at 2.5, with Wild Card 1 (skip Brendan Bottcher, vice skip Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert) second at 3.0.
Most staked teams so far are Wild Card 1, at 3.0, Team Ontario (skip Mike McEwen, vice skip Ryan Fry, second Brent Laing, and lead Joey Hart) at 23.0, Northern Ontario (skip Darren Moulding, vice skip Tanner Horgan, second Jacob Horgan, and lead Colin Hodgson) 51.0, and Alberta (skip Kevin Koe, vice skip Tyler Tardi, second Brad Thiessen, and lead Karrick Martin) 8.5.
A spokesperson says FanDuel has offered curling markets in the past and continues to look at the sport on an “event-by-event basis” – including the Tim Hortons Brier.
PointsBet Canada Continues to Be Bullish on Curling
PointsBet Canada, big into betting on curling (they’re the official sports betting partner of Curling Canada), has the Brier outrights as follows: Gushue 2.25, Bottcher 2.5, Manitoba (skip Matt Dunstone, vice skip B.J. Neufeld, second Colton Lott, and lead Ryan Harnden) 4.25, and Koe 6.5 as the favourites.
A spokesperson from OLG says that while they don’t have betting for the Tim Hortons Brier, curling markets are also on their radar.
This past weekend, in Kamloops, B.C., the Scotties Tournament of Hearts Canadian women’s curling championship wrapped up, with Kerri Einarson’s Team Canada capturing their fourth title in a row, with a 10-4 win over Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones. They’ll now represent Canada in the women’s world championship on March 18-26 in Sandviken, Sweden.
According to PointsBet Canada, Team Canada generated 23 per cent of bets, 55 per cent of handle. Manitoba was a 12.5 per cent of bets and five per cent of handle. Pre-match betting for the finals, on the Moneyline, saw Canada generate 15 per cent of bets, four per cent of money, and on the Spread Canada was at 36 per cent of bets, 17.5 per cent of money.
A PointsBet Canada spokesperson said with the betting action it saw, their confidence in the ability to grow curling from a betting perspective “has not wavered.”
