The Winter Olympics is coming up, which means a whole month of exciting sports rarely seen during the year. It also, of course, means a whole host of new and exciting betting opportunities. The big sport you’re going to cash in on this month? Curling.

Sport of the Future

Yeah, you heard me right. Curling. And don’t pretend you don’t know what it is either. Don’t tell me you didn’t spend a good 15 minutes on NBC’s fifth cable affiliate trying to figure out what was going on with those brooms and that target four years ago. Whether you think of it as “Ultimate Shuffleboard” or “Chess on Ice,” curling is sweeping the world, and I’m going to tell you how to profit from it.

Winning Curling Bets: Know What’s Going On

Curling consists of two teams of four people. The match lasts 10 “Ends” which are like innings in baseball. In each end, each player on each team throws two “stones” down the “sheet,” alternating shots. While one player throws a stone, two teammates use brooms to “sweep” the ice in front of the stone in order to control its speed and direction. The third teammate, or “Skip,” stands at the far end and directs the sweepers. After the end is complete, the team with the stone closest to the center gets points for every one of its stones that is closer than the opponent’s closest stone, assuming those stones are all in the scoring area, or “House.” If a team is getting shellacked, they can resign before the game is officially over, which will be indicated by shaking hands with the opponent.

Winning Curling Bets: Knowing the Players

Your best chance to win a curling bet is to know which team to bet on. It will interest you to know that in the 21st century, the United States actually has a good curling team. The U.S. men took bronze in Turin four years ago. Another pretty safe bet is Canada, but even your ignorant friends will know that, so make sure they give you odds if they want Team Canada. Your secret weapon in curling bets will be Scotland. They are the current world champions and have the most curling medals of all time after Canada. None of your friends will realize that Scotland is good at curling.

Winning Curling Bets: Getting Action

You probably should just casually flip through the cable channels at a time when you know that curling is on, preferably a men’s Scotland-Canada match. Casually stop surfing and remark to your unsuspecting friend, “Look at this crazy sport! What are they doing?” Your friend will no doubt have no idea. Then say “I’ll tell you what, let’s bet! This is so crazy! I’ll take Scotland! Ha ha!” Your friend will also have a good laugh at you taking Scotland, since even he knows that Canada is good at weird ice sports. Then say “OK, I’m obviously the underdog, even though I don’t know what’s going on, so how about you give me 6 points?” Your friend, who really doesn’t know what’s going on, except that he has Canada, will readily comply. Then you can just sit back and enjoy the carnage.

(Image via helinski)

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