A lot of people are throwing money down on Canucks to win Stanley Cup
Sports fans across British Columbia will be thrilled if the Vancouver Canucks win their first Stanley Cup this season. But the victory is going to mean a little more for a certain subset of fans: those who have risked their hard-earned cash on the outcome.
If the Canucks manage to win it all this summer, BCLC will pay out approximately $3 million to local sports gamblers who placed a bet on that outcome.
A BCLC spokesperson told Daily Hive that the number of wagers made on the Canucks to win the Stanley Cup at the halfway point of this season exceeds the total made on any other team over the entirety of last year.
It was also confirmed that this year’s total number of bets on the Canucks to win the Stanley Cup is the most placed on the team since 2021. However, this season is expected to surpass the 2021 total by the time the playoffs roll around.
This means the $3 million that BCLC is on the hook for will increase even more as we get closer to the playoffs and more wagers are made.
“Every year we see diehard Canucks fans make a small bet on their team to win the Stanley Cup on PlayNow, no matter the odds. This year’s surprising performance from the Canucks has translated to our BC players placing even more bets on PlayNow to win the cup,” said Dan Beebe, BCLC’s chief operating officer, in a press release.
Since the Canucks are currently first place in the NHL, their odds have changed quite a bit compared to the start of the year.
Back before the season started, the Canucks were given odds as high as 61.00 to win the Stanley Cup. That means a successful $10 wager would net a return of $610. As of today, the Canucks’ odds have moved to 14.00 on PlayNow, meaning a successful $10 wager would return $140.
BCLC confirmed that only 4.5% of the wagers on the Canucks to win it all were placed during preseason with those juicy 61.00 odds. The majority of the wagers placed thus far came in November, when the team’s odds had dropped to around 31.00.
The team’s current odds give them an implied probability of a 7.1% chance to win the Stanley Cup.
There are nine teams that have better odds to win the Stanley Cup than the Canucks at the moment. Those are the Colorado Avalanche, Edmonton Oilers, Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, New York Rangers, Dallas Stars, Winnipeg Jets, and Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Canucks have never won the Stanley Cup since joining the NHL in 1970. They have made it to the finals on three separate occasions, losing in Game 7 twice.
BCLC operates the province’s only legal sportsbook through the PlayNow platform.
“As BC’s local sportsbook and the only whose profits goes back to support programs and services in our communities,” said Beebe, “this is one bet we’d love to be able to pay out to our players.”