How The Bookies See It
As the summer-lull endlessly and painfully drags on, there is a shimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. The bookies have put out there preliminary odds on who they think will reign victorious this year for the Overall World Cup Title. If you enjoy watching the races on Eurosport like me, you’ll be accustomed to David Goldstrom making a point of giving out the odds of who he thinks will finish in the top three of the day. Why don’t we take a closer look for this year’s Overall Crystal Globe shall we?
World Cup Overall
| Men | Odds | Women | Odds |
| Petter Northug | 2.30 | Justyna Kowalczyk | 1.70 |
| Dario Cologna | 9.00 | Marit Bjoergen | 5.50 |
| Dario Cologna | 9.00 | Marit Bjoergen | 5.50 |
| Dario Cologna | 9.00 | Marit Bjoergen | 5.50 |
| Marcus Hellner | 9.00 | Charlotte Kalla | 11.00 |
| Lukas Bauer | 26.00 | Aino Kaisa Saarinen | 11.00 |
| Maxim Vylegzhanin | 26.00 | Petra Majdic | 11.00 |
| Maurice Manificat | 26.00 | Astrid Jacobsen | 26.00 |
| Tobias Angerer | 26.00 | Natalia Korosteleva | 34.00 |
| Axel Teichmann | 34.00 | Anna Haag | 34.00 |
| Jean Marc Gaillard | 34.00 | Arianna Follis | 34.00 |
| Emil Jönsson | 41.00 | Marthe Kristoffersen | 41.00 |
| Ola Vigen Hattestad | 41.00 | Irina Khazova | 41.00 |
| Simen Oestensen | 41.00 | Therese Johaug | 41.00 |
| Giorgio Di Centa | 41.00 | Kristin Stoermer Steira | 51.00 |
| Alexander Legkov | 41.00 | Kristina Smigun | 51.00 |
| Eldar Roenning | 51.00 | Marianna Longa | 67.00 |
| Vincent Vittoz | 51.00 | Ritta-Liisa Roponen | 67.00 |
| Tord Asle Gjerdalen | 51.00 | Vibeke Skofterud | 101.00 |
| Pietro Piller Cottrer | 51.00 | Hanna Falk | 101.00 |
| Martin Johnsrud Sudby | 67.00 | Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle | 101.00 |
| Vassili Rotchev | 67.00 | Stefanie Boehler | 151.00 |
| Franz Goering | 67.00 | Evgenia Medvedeva | 151.00 |
| Jens Filbrich | 81.00 | Olga Rotcheva | 151.00 |
| Devon Kershaw | 81.00 | Katrin Zeller | 201.00 |
I don’t want to analyze this too much, but here are some interesting points I see.
On the women’s side, the obvious big miss is one Kristina Smigun-Vaehi who I seem to recall retired in July. 51/1 seems very generous for an athlete that won’t even hit the start line this year and only finished 32nd overall last year. The other big one is Jacobsen. She’s been riddled with injuries the past couple years, but to see her ahead of the likes of Johaug, Haag, and Roponen is quite flattering by the oddsmakers considering she was 49th overall last year. I realized she won the sprint gold in Sapporo, but Björn Lind won the Olympic sprint gold in Torino and he isn’t even on the Swedish sprint team this year.
On the men’s side, some names not on the list include Matti Heikkinen who had that great win in Davos but then hit a slippery slope and never recovered for the rest of the season. Another skier who impressed me last year but didn’t make the list is the Swedish giant Daniel Rickardsson who was a very respectable 17th last year. I expect him to climb the list even further this campaign. Franz Goering is the unknown quantity in the list for the year. After missing the entire season last year due to a broken leg, he will definitely strengthen the German squad, but will he be able to bring the consistency that is needed to make a serious run at the Crystal Globe for the overall title?
If you wanna pimp out your desktop with some NX stuff, you can now get even more excited for the upcoming season with this wallpaper featuring Ivan Babikov.
Til Next Time.
P.S. To those of you that visited this post early, apologies about the mess of the post, but it’s fixed now.
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Thx for posting this. I agree with the previous poster that I’d also like to know exactly how they arrived at those odds.
Also, will there be a “Pick the Podium” thing for this season? I missed the last one. Thanks
I’d love to know how these bookies arrive at numbers like these, at least for xc skiing. I mean, it seems like odds for the WC overall would have to depend very strongly on the number of races each athlete is planning on doing. For instance, is it even possible to win the WC overall without doing the TDS? (Perhaps it’s numerically possible, but it seems unlikely to me.)