For Canadians of a certain vintage, there was something appropriate about watching Toronto mayor Olivia Chow standing at a podium to mark the start of the Blue Jays season while snowflakes fell around her.
The Jays first opening day, in 1977 at the dated Exhibition Stadium, actually featured a Zamboni used to remove snow from the infield before a pair of home runs by the immortal Doug Ault led Toronto to a win over the White Sox.
(Appearing on Morning Joe on MSNBC on Friday, Chow took some ribbing about Canadian winter weather.)
"Tepid summer of betting"
You’ve missed your chance to get 50 bucks down at -10,000 on snow in March in Ontario, and Bill O’Brien, Sportsbook Product Manager for PowerPlay, expects the long odds on the Blue Jays to mean a tepid summer of betting.
“Naturally when a team is deemed to have less chance of winning you will expect to see less money wagered on them. I still expect the Jays to be a popular bet for us in almost every game they play. I guess if their results aren’t good, bettors are going to be getting more enticing odds! When teams go on a roll, we definitely see bettors jump on the bandwagon, but with odds of +4500 currently I don’t think there will be a Toronto Blue Jays bandwagon this season,” O’Brien said, adding that PowerPlay gets action on the Jays from all over Canada.
“I don’t think this is surprising – they are the only Canadian team in Major League Baseball. And of course there are Ontarians living all across the country. There are definitely pockets of fans of other teams in certain areas, the Mariners in B.C. for example. I think any team close to the border that is doing well is going to attract interest, but in terms of popularity the Jays are still number one for us, even outside of Ontario.”
Apart from a pocket of fervent Seattle fans in British Columbia, Canadian fans wager baseball on a variety of teams for a variety of reasons.
“I think also any ‘buzz’ team that is on TV a lot is going to be popular,” said O’Brien. “The Dodgers are that team right now. A couple of years ago we found that the Astros games were getting lots of money bet on them, both for and against – everyone had an opinion on that team! Also, some of the more iconic franchises, such as the Yankees and Red Sox, will always have support.”
Ontario revenue over $2 billion
Three years into embracing regulated gaming, Ontario saw revenue of $2.2 billion in the most recent year for which figures are available, with the arrow pointing up.
Books are looking for ways to increase business, and O’Brien said one of those ways is more creative prop bets.
“Prop bets are popular in baseball and are a great way to get involved if you don’t have an opinion on who’s going to win the game,” he said. “We have plenty of options, like Home Run props, Total Bases props, Strikeouts, etc. We also have a new Same Game Parlay offering that we’re really excited about, with loads of options that be combined within in the one event. There are several options for props on the performance of batters and pitchers in there, as well as lots more.”
