MILAN (AP) — Hockey is the top Winter Games sport among gamblers, but curling with its sliding stones, spirited sweeping and cheating allegations has surprised oddsmakers.
Bettors are showing significant interest in the quirky sport, which piques viewers’ curiosity every four years at the Winter Olympics.
“There’s definitely a stronger curling-hockey split than what was expected,” said Chris Pearce, a senior trader at Caesars Sportsbook.
It’s expected that the handle — the total amount wagered — on this Olympics will far exceed that of the 2022 Beijing Games mainly because legalized sports betting has expanded in the U.S. and these Games are easier to track live because of the time zone.
“The curling alone is going to take seven figures overall — it’s going to take a million dollars overall,” Pearce said. “If you would have told me at the start that that we’d turn over a million on curling, I wouldn’t have believed you, but there’s a lot of interest there.”
