CANADIAN SPORTS BETTORS GEAR UP FOR 2022 WINTER OLYMPICS

Dave Schwab Sports Betting Expert

3 minute read

The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing get underway on Friday, Feb. 4 with the Opening Ceremony. They will run through most of the month with the Closing Ceremony scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 20.

While the Winter Games have always been a popular attraction for fans of winter sports, betting on competition is on the rise. This is especially true in a country such as Canada, which excels in many of the events.

For the first time ever, Canadians will be able to legally wager on individual Winter Olympic single events. Prior to Aug. 27 of 2021, the only legal form of sports betting in Canada was tied to parlay plays on multiple sporting events.

The change in the law last year paved the way for legal betting on single games. Professional sports leagues in the US became the main draw when the new law went into effect.

The NBA is represented by the Toronto Raptors and MLB has the Toronto Blue Jays. The NHL is a huge draw for Canadian bettors with seven franchises located in the country.

Canada also has its own professional league for football in the CFL. The most recent season came to a close last December with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers winning the CFL Grey Cup.

The NFL does not have any teams in Canada, but it will be a huge betting draw this month with Super Bowl LVI taking place on Sunday, Feb. 13.

However, over the course of the entire 2022 Winter Olympics, the betting handle in Canada should remain strong on this competition.

The main attraction for the 2022 Winter Games is the sheer amount of betting options on the board. Sports such as ice hockey, curling and alpine skiing should top the list throughout the Canadian market. Yet, there are any number of other competitions that should draw the interest of Canadian sports bettors.

The biggest reason why betting the 2022 Winter Olympics in Canada will be so strong is the country’s dominance in the Winter Games over the years.

Online sportsbooks everywhere have been releasing futures odds for the upcoming Winter Games. As a general consensus of those odds, the OVER/UNDER on total gold medals for Canada is set at 8.5 with the current odds favoring the UNDER at -155. The odds Team Canada wins nine or more gold medals are set at +120.

When it comes to the betting odds for total medals won by Canada, the -130 odds favor the OVER on 22.5. The betting odds Team Canada wins fewer than 23 medals in Beijing are set at an even-money +100.

Going back to the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Canada was second on the list behind Norway with 11 gold medals and 29 medals overall. The US came in third overall with nine gold and 23 total Winter Olympic medals.

Written by Dave Schwab, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert. You can learn more about our author's expertise here.

Dave Schwab

Dave Schwab has been covering the sports betting industry for the past 12 years as the main focus of his specialty marketing company for online content. This endeavor followed a previous career in the field of sales and marketing in the wholesaling sector.Most of his weekly pieces focus on the rapidly expanding legal US sports betting industry. However, he still does extensive work covering betting angles that can provide a competitive edge to avid players. Dave believes that it is always a challenge to take past results and current form to try and correctly determine a future result. Sports brings out the unpredictability in what should be a fairly predictable outcome based on the stats, facts and recent trends in a particular matchup. More from Dave Schwab