Oddsmakers Face Uncharted Territory With Debut of Olympic Breaking

The Summer Games at Paris are the first Olympics since sports gambling became legal in many parts of America. According to a CNBC report basketball, soccer, and tennis were expected to attract the largest volume of action. But what about breaking?Yes, breaking?Commonly known as breakdancing, breaking makes its Olympic debut today when 16 men and 17 women take a street dance born on the sidewalks of urban America to the most prestigious athletic stage on the planet. So how are oddsmakers deciding which dancers to list as favorites to win the competition when the rules and scoring procedures aren’t commonly known?“I’m assuming there’s some sort of breakdancing competitions that occur outside the Olympics, otherwise it wouldn’t have made it there,” an oddsmaker for BetCagesports, Jay Rood, told the Sun. “It’s a judged sport where they’re going to look for certain elements. You just have to compile the statistics on past performances and go with who’s been there and done that.”Many of the major online sites such as FanDuel and DraftKings aren’t offering wagers on breaking. Yet oddschecker, a site based in the United Kingdom, monitors more than a dozen sportsbooks around the world to compare odds on various events. About a half dozen are posting odds on breaking for those looking to wager on the outcome of the two-day competition.Based on Sports Interaction, a Canadian betting site, favorites in the men’s division are Victor Montalvo of America at +120 and Philip Kim (+230) of Canada. Shigeyuki Nakarai of Japan at +400 can’t be overlooked, while Lee-Lou Demierre of the Netherlands and Danis Civil of France are both +1200. Mr. Montalvo, 30, has the credentials. A native of Kissimmee, Florida, he won the gold medal in the B-Boys event at the 2022 World Games. He is also a two-time champion of the prestigious Red Bull BC One, capturing titles in 2015 and 2022. Mr. Montalvo was the first American to qualify for the Olympics.“What I enjoy the most is losing yourself in the music,” Mr. Montalvo told Los Angeles Times recently. “You’re drawing things on stage. You’re basically putting together a puzzle to make a big painting. That’s what breaking is all about.”Mr. Kim, 27, won a gold medal at the 2022 WDSF World Breaking Championship at Seoul. Mr. Nakarai, 22, earned a bronze medal at the 2022 World Games, and gold at the 2023 Asian Games. At age 22, he was selected as a flag bearer for the Japanese delegation at the Paris Games.Each dancer will have three group battles with the cumulative winners advancing to the knockout round on SaturdayMr. Montalvo and Mr. Nakarai battle each other in their opening match of Group A. Mr. Montalvo also battles Ql Xiangyu of Communist China and Ono Hiroto of Japan.Jeffery Louis of Houston at +2000 is the other American B-Boy in the Olympics. He’ll compete in Group C with battles against Gaetan Alin of France, Mr. Demierre of the Netherlands, and Kim Hong-Yul of South Korea.Oddsmaker sees the B-Girls division as much more competitive with Liu Qingyi of China and Ami Yuasa of Japan as the co-favorites at +300.Dominika Banevic of Lituania is +400 and Ayumi Fukushima of Japan is +450. The two American B-Girls in the competition are Sunny Choi and Logan Edra.Ms. Edra, 21, is+1400. A California native now residing in South Florida, she owns three major titles, including the 2021 Red Bull BC One.Ms. Choi, listed at +3300, might be a sleeper. The first American woman to qualify for the Olympics, the 35-year-old Tennessee native won the silver medal at the 2022 World Games and gold at the 2023 Pan American Games. Competing in the Olympics seemed far-fetched in the beginning. “Because it’s born from the streets and so many of the Olympic sports feel very elegant,” she told Yahoo Sports. “It actually took quite a while for me to wrap my head around, like, do I even want to go.”Contestants will be judged on the Trivium system based on three domains. The physical domain includes technique, control, and execution. The artistic domain focuses on creativity and personality. The interpretive domain judges overall performances. Judges will compare the two dancers on an iPad and decide on a winner.

Oddsmakers Face Uncharted Territory With Debut of Olympic Breaking

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