2014 Olympic Hockey Futures

2014 Olympic Hockey Futures

The attention of the entire sports world has shifted to Sochi, Russia and the 2014 Winter Games and for many hockey fans, this will be the highlight of the sports calendar as Olympic Hockey is renowned for it’s high level of play and brings back fond memories like the incomparable 1980 Miracle on Ice.

This year the Canadians and hometown Russians were considered the co-favorites to bring home the Gold, with the Americans ranking fourth according to a majority of oddsmakers. Group play is now over and Canada and Russia remain the favorites to win it all, but USA looks to have proven the most over the first three games.

The table below compares the Olympic Hockey futures from three prominent offshore sportsbooks from pre-tournament odds to current odds.

Updated 2/17/14

Leading up to the tournament, Canada emerged as the public favorite to take home Gold while seemingly every other country’s odds increased to bigger underdogs. At CRIS, the USA was once at +650 and one of the few teams not affected by injuries yet moved to +705 even after receiving the highest percentage of future bets. Now with a 2-seed and a Bye in the next round, USA has shown their a real threat to win it all, but would potentially face Canada before the finals. Russia, as a 5-seed, will have to play an extra game if they’re to get into the Gold Medal game yet they remain the second favorite ahead of both USA and Sweden. The chart below from CRIS shows the current future odds and betting percentage breakdown for each country.