An opening tie with Nigeria hasn’t dampened betting support for the Canadian women’s soccer team.
According to theScore Bet, as of Monday afternoon over half of Ontarian bettors backed Canada to win the Women’s World Cup despite a scoreless draw with the African country Thursday. The Canadians meet Ireland in their second tournament game Wednesday in Australia (8 a.m. ET).
“Without question, attention and awareness picked up, especially for Canada coming off its Olympic win,” said Aubrey Levy, senior vice-president of content and marketing, theScore. “That momentum and some of this attention picking up, is yielding some really compelling hometown activity.
“Certainly it (tie with Nigeria) was a surprise outcome but I don’t think it dissuaded anybody from thinking that Canada is the team they thought they were. It just wasn’t the outcome they were hoping for.”
Tournament expectations are high for Canada, the defending Olympic women’s soccer champion. The Canadians earned gold at the 2020 Games in Tokyo following consecutive bronze medals in 2012 at London and 2016 in Rio.
Canada is currently a 50-1 long-shot to win the World Cup behind the United States (9/4 favourite), England (6-1), host Australia (12-1), France (18-1) and the Netherlands (20-1). Still, support for the Canadian team remains very solid.
“The hometown love is real,” Levy said. “I think it just further supports, similar to the men’s World Cup, when you get these milestone-distanced events, people really rally and come out to bet their hearts.”
Canada is the favourite (minus-155) to beat Ireland, meaning a Canadian victory and $155 bet would net $100. The tie is plus-240 with the Irish being a plus-425 underdog, meaning a successful $100 bet would net $240 for a tie for $425 for upset victory.
Australia defeated Ireland 1-0 also Thursday. The Aussies play Nigeria on Thursday before squaring off with Canada on Monday.
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