Older sports like tennis are being plagued by gambling scandals, with various matches at the 2017 Wimbledon championships being investigated for fixing. Globally popular team sports like basketball have seen NBA owners like Mark Cuban say gambling should be legalized and regulated for his sport, since it’s happening anyway. One thing’s for sure: you can get a good idea of the interest a sport is generating with the public by the interest there is in gambling on it. This year you can wager on the CrossFit Games. And not just with your pals but with bookmakers. Defending men’s and women’s champs Mat Fraser and Katrín Tanja Davíðsdóttir are where much of the smart money is going.
Whoever wins this year’s CrossFit Games champion title of “Fittest On Earth” will also win their backers some real money. Venerable William Hill Race & Sports Book isn’t offering CrossFit odds — or at least they’re hard to find at the US site. But the Bookmaker.eu site is taking action on the CrossFit Games. Most of the odds are either for or against Mat Fraser and Katrín Davíðsdóttir. You can have the rest of the field against the defending champs, but picking individual competitors besides Fraser on the men’s side isn’t available. At gamblingsites.com, they list Fraser at -400 against the entire field. It’ll be harder, according the odds, for Davíðsdóttir to win her third “Fittest On Earth” in a row. She’s listed at +240. On the women’s side, bets can be made on her rival Sara Sigmundsdottir too. The 2017 CrossFit Games are at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin
