BETTING ON THE 2021 NATHAN'S HOT DOG EATING CONTEST

July 3, 2021

Joey Chestnut has won the last 5 - and 13 of the last 14 - Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest events. His dominance is so thorough that most sportsbooks aren't offering odds on the winner of this year's event. It's assumed Chestnut will win once again and the top wager offered is a total on how many hot dogs he will consume in the 10 minute time limit - Over 73.5 -130 / Under 73.5 +100. (Betonline.ag)

Chestnut's total hot dogs eaten the past 5 years:
2020: 75
2019: 71
2018: 74
2017: 72
2016: 70

This contest can be a real wagering opportunity as evidenced by the winning ticket below from 2020: (courtesy of @MLBksPSYCHIC)


Here are other wagers being offered this year:

Badlands Booker: Under 20.5 -150 / Over 20.5 +110

Badlands, a subway conductor/rapper, is a veteran of the competetive eating circuit going back to 1997. He's competed in contests featuring everything from meatballs to Moon Pies. In 2019 he surpassed this total twice in Natahan's qualifiers - 22.5 on May 9, 2019 and 28 on June 16, 2019. When he made it to the big stage on July 4, 2020 he could only eat 20. Is he on the downside of his long career at 50+ years old or will this be a rebirth for him?

Matt Stonie: Over 44.5 -120 / Under 44.5 -120

Stonie won the Nathan's Contest in 2015 to end Chestnut's 8-event winning streak and has been eating competitively since 2009. He holds the world record for eating 85 Moon Pies in 8 minutes in 2016. Stonie downed 46 hot dogs in his last Nathan's appearance in 2019, 40 in 2018, and 48 in 2017.

Geoffrey Esper: Over 47.5 -135 / Under 47.5 -105

Esper set a world record by eating 83 slices of pizza in 10 minutes at the John's Incredible Pizza World Pizza-Eating Championship in 2018. Competing since 2014 he's entered the Nathan's contest several times, eating 47 in 2019, 41 in 2018, 44.5 in 2017, and 37.5 in 2016. This total seems a bit high considering he's never bested that number in the main contest (he did finish 51 in a June 2017 qualifier) but Esper has a good attitude and may have improved by more than 1 hot dog since 2019.

Nick Wehry: Under 44.5 -160 / Over 44.5 +120

One half of "The Hungry Couple" the husband of 6-time Nathan's women's champion Miki Sudo is a relative newcomer to the field of competitive eating, having started in 2016 with a 2nd place finish in the now-defunct Eddy's Bake House Paczki Eating Contest. Another world record he holds is 50 hard boiled eggs in 3 minutes and 2 seconds in 2018. This total appears entirely too high given his best previous fininsh in the July 4 Nathan's Contest was 39.5 in 2020. Prior to that he managed 36 in 2019, and 31 in 2018.

PETA: Will PETA Interrupt the Competition? Yes +1500

PETA have a history of protesting the Contest, in the video to the left you may see them throwing fake blood on a contestant in 2016.

This year they insist they will not protest. According to Brooklyn Paper PETA "will refrain from its usual tradition of protesting Nathan’s Famous at the annual Hot Dog Eating Contest this weekend and, in a shocking twist, will actually give out free wieners…of the vegan variety."

If PETA decide to interrupt the proceedings let's hope it's in a similar fashion to this protest in Canada or this one in Berlin.

JHK