Sports betting, which is comprised mainly of wagering on football, basketball and baseball with ancillary action from auto racing, boxing, hockey, soccer, tennis, cycling, golf and horse racing, finally has gone to the dogs.
Literally.
Although no one actually sat up and begged for it, some enterprising sportsbooks are offering odds on which canine will walk away with Best in Show at the 135th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York's MadisonSquareGarden, February 14-15.
But if you're looking for a specific dog, you're barking up the wrong tree. With 2,500 entries, bookmakers, most of whom would be hard pressed to tell you the difference between a Leonberger and a cheeseburger, aren't about to provide future book prices for every canine. But the sportsbooks haven't rolled over and played dead, either, listing odds on which of 179 breeds will take the top prize.
The smooth coated Fox Terrier opened as the 6/1 favorite. We're assuming bookmakers have done their homework, checked out the entries, watched every rerun of Dog Whisperer, maybe even barked at the moon and know something we don't which, admittedly, is not a very high standard. Historically, at least, the favorite is defendable, if only because the Terrier Group (one of seven individual groups of several breeds) has won Best in Show 45 of the 103 times that prize has been awarded since 1907, more than twice as often as the next popular group, the Sporting Group, with 19. In fact, a Scottish Terrier won last year (and in 1995), a Colored Bull Terrier took the top award in 2006, a Kerry Blue Terrier was best in 2003, a Norwich Terrier was leader of the pack in 1998 and 1994, and a Wire Fox Terrier won it all in 1992.
If you don't dig terriers, because they certainly dig, Pekingese is the second choice of breed at odds of 7/1, followed by boxer at 8/1. It's 10/1 that an Irish Setter wins Best of Show at Westminster this year and 14/1 that the award goes to a 15-inch Beagle. Bearded Collie (15/1), Whippet (18/1), Standard Poodle (20/1), German Wirehaired Pointer (22/1), Black Cocker Spaniel (22/1), Shih Tzu (24/1), Toy Poodle (25/1) and Old English Sheepdog (28/1) also are considered legitimate contenders by many sportsbooks.
The most popular breed in the country, Labrador Retriever, is a ripe 400/1 to take down the show's ultimate prize. The odds of a Golden Retriever winning are 175/1.
In case you're wondering, the odds of Westminster being won by a Kuvasz (now I'm just showing off) are 175/1. If you're asked, say the Kuvasz is a large, white dog of Hungarian origin.
If 179 breeds still prove too daunting for some bettors or, heaven forbid, you're a cat person, sportsbooks also are offering a far more manageable bet on which of the seven groups will produce the Best in Show winner at Westminster this year. Not surprisingly, the Terrier Group is favored at odds of 3/1 with the Toy Group listed as the 4/1 second choice in the wagering and the Working Group next in line at odds of 5/1. You can get 6/1 on the winner coming out of the Sporting Group or 7/1 that the Hound Group produces the Best in Show winner. Longshot players may prefer the Herding Group at odds of 9/1 or the Non-Sporting Group at 12/1.
Gamblers also can bet on whether a dog (5/6) or a bitch (even money) claims the top prize and whether the winning dog is over 3 1/2 years of age (5/7) or under 3 1/2 years of age (6/5).
Finally, players also can bet whether the gender of the winning handler is male (5/8) or female (7/5).
Sportsbooks are under no illusion that wagering on Westminster will fetch anything more than kibble when compared to action on, say, the Super Bowl, but for sports betting fans, putting the bite on the house and emerging as top dog could be a treat worth savoring.
