"So gambling makes a good thing even better."
These words of wisdom are from Lisa Simpson during an episode of The Simpsons when Homer rode her ability to correctly pick football games.
Apparently Canadians agree that gambling makes good things better.
A press release from the Responsible Gambling Council, a non-profit organization dedicated to problem gambling prevention, reports results from a poll of 1,012 Canadians conducted March 3 to 7 that Canadians are expected to bet about $210 million on the Stanley Cup playoffs. It also suggests 18 per cent of adults are expected to participate.
That comes as no surprise. Fantasy sports, from which I am now retired, usually come with some sort of buy-in. The lion's share of the prize money is given to the winner. Second place usually gets a nine per cent of the pot. Finally, the third place owner usually gets their money back.
According to the RGC's study, participating in a hockey pool was the most popular choice for Canadians.
Personally, I can see the attraction to playing in pools. With bragging rights already at stake, the prospect of winning a friend's money makes things more intriguing. Not only can you say "I won the championship," but you can gleefully add, "I took your money, too!"
The fact hockey is the sport most Canadians bet on at 12 per cent is slightly surprising. I believed NFL football, which is the second most popular sport at nine per cent, would come in first place. However, the study does state that football is by far the most popular sport on which to bet.
During football season, the majority of talk revolves around the point spread of the game. Those types of conversations never seem to follow NHL games. Learning how to decipher the point spread for two-dollar PROLINE tickets makes for some interesting playoff games in Week 15 in the NFL season once your team - and in recent years the team I support - has been reasonably or mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.
When it comes to playoff totals, the NFL is miles ahead of the NHL. An Associated Press report from February stated there was a record $119.4 million bet at Las Vegas, Nev. on Super Bowl XLVIII. That figure doesn't include money bet on any other playoff games.
One of the reasons the number is so high is a gambler can bet on anything happening in the Super Bowl. What will the temperature be at kickoff, how many times will Peyton Manning say "Omaha" during the game and will Michael Crabtree mention Richard Sherman in a tweet during the game between kickoff and the final whistle were just three of the hundreds of things people were able to bet on.
Also, football has more ability to fabricate ways to bet on their game. Want to bet on what the first kind of scoring play is? It's easy to put your money down on a touchdown, interception or safety.
When you add in the type of toonie bets at Super Bowl parties, it raises the bar even more. Buy a square with a predicted final score of the big game to take home the pot at the end of the night.
The major part that makes it easier - and potentially more lucrative - to bet on the NFL is the type of playoffs. The NFL has single-game elimination. With the NHL playoffs, there is no guarantee, other than a game seven, that one game will end a series.
This situation makes the NFL into gambling on an event rather than a game. There is one game to focus on, rather than worrying about a potential seven-game series. Having a one-game final raises the stakes, not only for the athletes, but for the gamblers. So much being won and lost in a three-hour span makes the atmosphere exhilarating and intimidating at the same time.
For a game when only two of the league's fan bases are represented, all of the available bets can make it a more interesting experience for fans of the remaining 30 teams. Without bets, there is nothing on the line for those fans whose teams were knocked out earlier in the run to the Lombardi Trophy. It gives these people hope they can still win something on a night when their team has already lost out on by not even being able to participate.
The $210 million spent by Canadians on the NHL playoffs is a staggering number. It just pales in comparison to what is bet on the NFL playoffs. The NFL has total wagers on one game worth more than half of the NHL's tally.
Just remember this when betting - do it responsibly. You don't want to have Gamblor, The Simpsons' personification of a gambling addiction, get his neon claws on you.
