We are still a good few months away from celebrating The Fourth of July, but that doesn’t mean you cannot get in the spirit by placing a wager on the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. And if you have followed the world of competitive eating over the years, then the fact that Joey Chestnut has been designated the odds-on favorite in this year’s contest should come as no surprise.
On Friday Bovada released its first batch of odds for the famous Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, and Chestnut is the runaway favorite out of the gate. Bovada lists Chestnut as a -505 favorite against the field for this year’s competitive eating contest.
And the odds don’t stop there. Bovada sets the over/under on how many hot dogs will be consumed by Chestnut at 70.5. Chestnut has set the record for most hot dogs consumed at 73 during a qualifier for last year’s competition, and he then pulled away from the field by chowing down on 70 hot dogs in the main event. He put away 69 hot dogs in 2013 and 68 in 2009, so the line seems to be in the right neighborhood.
As of right now, there are no other odds for the event, as the focus is solely on Chestnut, which makes sense. He’s probably the only competitive eater the public at large can name, if they can indeed even name him. Q-scores for competitive eaters peaked with Kobayashi back in like 2008.
But Chestnut has won the mustard belt in nine of the last 10 years, with the only blip coming in 2015 when he finished second to Matt “Megatoad” Stonie. Don’t count out Megatoad though. The dude apparently downed 200 Peeps in five minutes…
This guy can eat 200 Peeps in five minutes. https://t.co/g1h2rItm0U pic.twitter.com/SQwQTewjnR
— Washingtonian 🌸 (@washingtonian) April 7, 2017
But how many Peepsas could he consume?
[Bovada]
