Don’t look now, but 2026 is poised to be a massive year for sports fans and bettors. In addition to all the usual tentpoles like Super Bowl, the Masters, March Madness, and the like, we’ll also be buzzing about the Winter Olympics – which will include NHL players for the first time since 2014 – and a World Cup on North American soil.
There really won’t be a lull on the sporting calendar in 2026. Buckle up.
With that in mind, I’ve made a handful of sports-betting-related predictions for the new year.
Scottie Scheffler goes off as an odds-on favorite at a PGA Tour event
The golf world has been relatively dormant since the Ryder Cup, but things will heat up quickly, and 2026 will be all about whether or not Scheffler will continue his Tiger Woods-like dominance from the previous two seasons.
A quick refresher: Scheffler posted 17 top-10 finishes and six wins in 20 PGA Tour starts in 2025. He won two majors (The PGA Championship and the Open) and finished fourth and T7 in the Masters and U.S. Open. The latter of which is all that stands between him and the career grand slam.
Scheffler was regularly teeing off as a +300 favorite in some big tournaments in 2025, but I think we could see him tip into odds-on territory for a tournament or two in 2026.
A long shot finally wins the World Cup
Long shots do not win the World Cup. They come close, but in the end, it’s one of the heavyweights that lifts the Jules Rimet Trophy. According to Sports Odds History, the last time a team with double-digit odds won the tournament was Italy (18/1) in 1982.
That trend will end in 2026.
There are a couple of reasons to believe that this year’s spectacle will be full of surprises. The most obvious is that the field has expanded to 48 countries, meaning the knockout stages will feature 32 teams. More elimination games equals more chaos.
And it’s not just that the field is expanded, but it’s also as deep as it’s ever been. The gap between the elite soccer countries and the chasing pack has shrunk considerably over the last decade, which should lead to more gatecrashers like Morocco in 2022.
Keep an eye out for Japan, Ecuador, and Senegal as we get closer to kickoff.
Betting on College Football?
College football’s descent into chaos continues
The college football landscape has been forever altered by NIL, the transfer portal, the absurd coaching carousel, and realignment, and 2026 figures to feature even more carnage than 2025, which is hard to believe.
With so many players and coaches changing addresses again this offseason, don’t be surprised if we see another program come from nowhere to replicate what Indiana has accomplished under Curt Cignetti.
UCLA, Virginia Tech, and Houston are three teams to keep in mind when you’re looking for next year’s stunner.
Betting on the NHL?
Sportsbooks win big on Team USA hockey’s failure
The men’s tournament at the Olympics will end up as the biggest betting event in hockey history.
The handle for the National Hockey League lags way behind football and basketball, but this best-on-best tournament should do huge numbers behind the window, thanks to the participation of NHL players.
You can be pretty certain that sportsbooks will be rooting against Team USA winning gold, and I think they’ll get their wish.
Team USA’s best player, Auston Matthews, has been in a slump for a calendar year, and several of their most important players (Adam Fox, Brady Tkachuk, Matthew Tkachuk, Jack Hughes, and Connor Hellebuyck) have dealt with long-term injuries this season.
There are plenty of dangerous sleepers in this field, and bookies around the country will be thrilled when one of them knocks off Team USA in the elimination rounds of the tournament.
Why Trust New York Post Betting
Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.
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