Daily Sports Betting Preview 4/17/2020: Competitive Eating, Tennis, PDC Darts

• Joey Chestnut is -150 over an eight-person field to win the Quarantine Eating Challenge.
• The Russian Liga Pro is hosting tennis matches today, some of the first tennis available to bettors since the COVID-19 pandemic became widespread.
• The PDC darts tour brings six matches to the table on each of the next four days.

LAS VEGAS - Today’s edition of the Daily Sports Betting Preview searches far afield for sports betting opportunities.

It begins with the Quarantine Eating Challenge, featuring eight of the best professional competitive eaters on the planet, going head to head in a competition that is sure to entertain viewers and bettors alike.

After that, the Preview checks in with the Russian tennis Liga Pro, which is hosting exhibition matches today. There has not been much tennis played recently, and tennis bettors have been starving for action.

Finally, the Preview covers the PDC darts tour, as it enters a home tour stretch with multiple matches daily.

Overall, a good day for sports betting, so let’s jump right in!

Quarantine Eating Challenge Betting

The Quarantine Eating Challenge brings a lot of meat to the table, so to speak. There are a lot of betting opportunities available and some of the best competitive eaters on the planet are ready to eat it out.

There are odds on most aspects of the Quarantine Eating Challenge, which falls under the umbrella of entertainment betting, but the most important place to start is the odds to win the whole thing.

Famed competitive eater Joey Chestnut, the reigning champion of many competitive eating events, is the favorite to win the entire competition with -150 odds in a field of eight competitors.

Chestnut is followed by Darron Breeden and Matt Stonie, both of whom have odds under +1000, but nobody else in the field is close.

The tournament takes the form of four rounds. The first round, which happens today, April 17, 2020, is eating two pounds of bologna.

The second round is eating 48 Oreos and drinking ten pounds of milk. The third round involves eating 1.5 gallons of Bush’s baked beans, while the fourth round is eating 10 Nissin cup noodles.

The Over/Under line for the fastest time to complete round 1 (two pounds of bologna) is 69 seconds.

The Under is actually favored with -180 odds, while the over has +150 odds.

The Challenge is produced by Major League Eating in partnership with BetOnline, and can be streamed on Youtube via Major League Eating’s channel.

Russian Liga Pro Betting

The Russian Liga Pro matches today bring one important thing back to the betting slate of many bettors - real tennis.

Many tennis events have been put off, rescheduled, or canceled entirely, with the French Open being the most prominent of those. The Open was rescheduled to September.

The Liga Pro matches will run all day, which makes them the perfect addition to a Friday tennis betting slate. The earliest match starts at 10:00 a.m. EST on Friday, April 17, 2020, and the last match starts at 6:00 p.m. EST on the same day.

Most of the matches look to be competitive affairs, with odds within the 200 range - the largest favorite in the field is -270.

That favorite is Alexey Ksenevich in a match against Ilia Kolobukhov. Ksenevich has -270 odds to win outright, while Kolbukhov is +220 odds.

There is only one other favorite with shorter than -200 odds on the day and that is Ilia Sholomitsky, who is favored at -210 over Anton Bandaryk’s (+180).

Every other match has a very even split of odds and this points to the even level of competition in the matches available today.

This also points to the benefits of live betting - those odds will start to move once results start to come in and that can be to the benefit of live bettors.

Regardless, the return of tennis looks like it should be an excellent time for bettors and viewers alike.

PDC Darts Betting Preview

The PDC weekend tour stop begins today and runs through Monday, with each day hosting six different darts matches.

Each day, the competition kicks off with a match at 2:30 p.m. EST and will run until the last match, which starts at 4:35 p.m. EST, is completed.

Each day features four competitors who each play all of the others in a round robin style format.

Today’s competitors are Peter Wright, Peter Jacques, Niels Zonneveld and Jamie Lewis. Peter Wright, probably the strongest player in the field, is favored over all three of his competitors in their head to head matches.

Wright has -150 odds in his match against Jacques, who clocks in with +120 odds. Against Zonneveld, Wright is a -145 favorite over Zonneveld’s +115 odds. Wright also clocks in with -135 odds to Lewis’ +105.

The remaining two matches are between Jamie Lewis and Peter Jacques, as well as Jamie Lewis and Niels Zonneveld. In the first match, Lewis is a -175 favorite over Jacques who has +145 odds. In the second, Lewis is a -155 favorite over Zonneveld who has +125 odds.

The PDC tour stops are a truly welcome addition to the betting slate, and are a very interesting betting opportunity for both live bettors and those who would prefer to set their bets and forget.