Olympic Betting Odds & Analysis
It’s raining in Vancouver. That wouldn’t normally draw headlines, but the 2010 Olympic Winter Games are fighting the elements, and the online sports betting marketplace is getting a little antsy. Events are being postponed. Training runs are being cancelled.
Even the speedskaters at the Richmond Olympic Oval (an indoor venue) were left twiddling their thumbs for over an hour while officials dealt with too much water on the ice.
To fans in attendance and viewers at home, these delays are an inconvenience. To bettors and athletes, they mean considerably more. The 500m skaters who got in their first of two heats before the Great Zamboni Incident got to rest longer than those who skated after the ice was finally ready. That’s the kind of competitive advantage that can change the final outcome of an event.
As a handicapper, you might feel a bit more emboldened to take a longer shot whenever the weather is bad. Some events are more competitive than others; bad conditions might not be enough to derail, say, the Canadian men’s curling team (8-11 favorites to win gold), but could easily affect the men’s Alpine combined with three skiers tied atop the Olympic betting odds at 5-1.
The weather reports from Vancouver have the rain tapering off by Wednesday, followed by clear skies right through the weekend, so the worst of the administrative crisis should be over. Meanwhile, those bettors concentrating on men’s hockey are wondering what the fuss is all about. The top ice-makers in Canada have been taking care of the three rinks in use, including Canada Hockey Place (aka GM Place). The sheer number of games played will have some effect on the ice, but aside from another broken Zamboni, this should be a minor concern at most.
The ice is just fine as far as Canada’s women’s hockey players are concerned.
They laid a 16-0 beating on Slovakia on Day 1, then crushed Switzerland 10-1 on Day 3. Women’s hockey is one of a handful of sports (like curling) where one or two teams dominate the field. In this case, either Canada or Team USA has won the World Championships every year since their debut in 1990. The U.S. has won three of the last four competitions to break Canada’s 14-year reign as the undisputed queens of hockey.
The Swiss do much better at the alpine events, as we saw on Day 4 when Didier Defago took gold in the men’s downhill. This was a huge upset at 22-1 odds; Defago is in 12th place in the FIS Alpine World Cup standings, but he ran a flawless race on Monday to beat Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal (the defending Cup champion at 10-1) by 0.07 seconds. Bode Miller of the United States (9-1) won bronze to ease the sting of getting shut out at the Turin Olympics. Lindsey Vonn is the 1-1 favorite to claim the women’s downhill for the U.S. after putting in the fastest training runs on Monday.
China might have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to the Alpine events, but the progress this country has made in other winter sports has been phenomenal. Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo won the pairs figure skating event Monday night as 11-10 favorites, giving China its first-ever gold medal in figure skating. China is also the favorite in women’s curling at 7-4, just ahead of Canada at 15-8. China has become a curling powerhouse in just a few short years by sending its athletes to Canada for coaching and competition. All that Soviet-style government spending gives China a considerable boost in betting value.
One of the challenges for curling handicappers is that countries send their best rinks (five players from the same curling club, including an alternate) to tournaments rather than create a Dream Team. Canada fell to fourth place at last year’s World Women’s Curling Championship, but that rink isn’t in action in Vancouver; Cheryl Bedard’s Calgary rink has replaced the Jennifer Jones team (and 2008 world champions) from Winnipeg. Meanwhile, the reigning world champions from China are back, skipped by Wang Bingyu. If picking between Canada and China is too difficult, the Canadians are available at –225 in their Round Robin matchup against Switzerland (+160).
