The Saskatchewan Roughriders will have the crowd and the oddsmakers on their side on Sunday as they take the field at Mosaic Stadium in the Grey Cup against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Sportsbooks have the Roughriders listed six-point favourites for this weekend’s 101st Grey Cup game, with both home-field advantage and recent CFL betting trends working in their favour for the contest.
Saskatchewan played Hamilton twice during the regular season, winning both those games and paying out on the betting lines on both days. And over the past dozen years, Saskatchewan has absolutely dominated Hamilton against the spread (20-6 ATS, according to the OddsShark.com CFL database).
“Underdogs have also done well in recent Grey Cups; favourites have failed to cover in five of the last six title games,” said Jack Randall of OddsShark.com. “That angle favours the Ticats, who are also riding a hot 6-0 ATS run as an underdog.”
The Roughriders easily beat the Tiger-Cats at Mosaic Stadium back on July 21, winning that game 37-0 as an eight-point favourite in an under result for totals bettors.
The Tiger-Cats put up a bit more of a fight in the rematch on July 27 in Guelph, falling just 32-20 as a 3.5-point home ‘dog in another under result. The over/under for the Grey Cup sits at 53 points.
And sportsbooks such as Bodog are also offering up a series of Grey Cup betting props for Sunday’s game, including odds on which player will be named the MVP of the game. Roughriders running back Kory Sheets sits as the 2/1 favourite on those betting lines; Sheets ran for 177 yards and a touchdown in Saskatchewan’s 35-13 win over Calgary in the West final last week.
Riders quarterback Darian Durant, who passed for 280 yards and three touchdowns in that victory over the Stampeders, is next at 11/4 on the Grey Cup MVP odds, with Tiger-Cats counterpart Henry Burris set at 7/2 odds.
Burris threw for 371 yards with three touchdowns and an interception in Hamilton’s 36-24 win over the Argonauts last week in the East final.
Roughriders’ Weston Dressler (8/1), Chris Getzlaf (12/1), and Taj Smith (12/1), and Tiger-Cats’ Andy Fantuz (20/1) and C.J. Gable (20/1) round out the top tier of the Grey Cup MVP odds.
The passing yards over/under on Burris is 270.5 for Sunday’s game at Mosaic Stadium, with a touchdown passes over/under of 1.5. Durant’s passing yards over/under for the Grey Cup is 265.5, and his over/under for touchdown passes is also pegged at 1.5.
Finally, Sheets is the 9/2 favourite to score the first touchdown, with Dressler at 7/1, and each of Fantuz, Gable, Getzlaf, and Smith set at 8/1. Durant and Burris are both holding down 20/1 odds to score the first touchdown of the game.
Kickoff for the 101st Grey Cup between the Roughriders and Tiger-Cats is set for 6:00 p.m. EST.
