Betting on the Emmys

Take your seats please as we present your guide to betting on the EMMYS. An Emmy award is a television award focused on entertainment and is considered the television equivalent of the Oscars or the Grammies.  This article will focus primarily on betting on Primetime Emmys. 

For US Players, there’s only one option to bet on the Emmys and that’s at TopBet a reputable sportsbook that accept US players are now taking bets on the 2016 Emmys, with Game of Thrones favorite to take down Outstanding Drama Series.

888sport are one of the only betting sites to offer betting on the Emmy awards this year. You can check out their odds here.

Betting Tips for the 2016 Emmys

Prices for the Emmys tend to become available from sportsbooks after the announcement of the shortlist. For 2016 the Emmy Nominees for the 67th annual award show were announced on July 15th with the ceremony taking place on September 18th. Although we can not get into the minds of the awards ceremony judges we can use previous years to get an idea of what to look for:

1:Since 2000, every single winner of the outstanding drama award has been a serial drama: The West Wing (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003), The Sopranos (2004, 2007), Lost (2005), 24 (2006) and Mad Men (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011) Homeland (2012), and Breaking Bad (2013, 2014), and Game of Thrones (2015).

2: Do not be afraid of backing repeat winners, if it is good enough it will win again. Modern Family won top comedy series from 2009 to 2014, while before that 30 Rock claimed the award for three consecutive years.

3; The best actor awards tend to go North Americans, only Ricky Gervais (Extras 2006 & 07) and Toni Collette (United States of Tara 2008 & 09) have picked up recent awards for comedy series.  While in the drama section not one of the awards this century has been won by an actor/actress from outside North America.

4: Genre is important, Lost (in 2005) was the only winner of best drama series that can be described as sci fi/fantasy/other worldly.  Shows based in reality or on real life industries tend to perform much better (West Wing, Mad Men, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad.) Game of Thrones however bucked that trend again in 2015

5: The Old Guard dominate the comedy, The best comedy series award has gone to one of the big three networks (NBC,ABC,CBS) in nine of the last ten years (except Arrested Development Fox 2004.) The new guard dominate drama, only West Wing and Lost have broken the domination of HBO/FOX/AMC in drama.

6: Look for the type of performance, voters favor actors who demonstrate range, impact and empathy in a role — like Bryan Cranston, who has won four times for playing a chemistry teacher who becomes a meth kingpin on “Breaking Bad.”

Emmy nominations are made based on an entire season of work, winners are chosen in most categories by special panels who view their submissions — single episodes in most categories, and six episodes in outstanding-series fields.

You need therefore to weigh into account not the whole series but the selected body of work, whether a flaw or not, the reward is not for consistent excellency, but standout home run performances.

One aspect of Emmy betting that could prove profitable is focusing in on some of the lesser known awards. By doing your research you will know as much, if not more so than the sports books on certain awards.  Sports books tend to do the bulk of their research on the bigger awards and often price up the smaller awards as a throwaway measure knowing interest will be limited.  By channeling your energies into some of the less glamorous markets, you could make a winning bet or two. 

Hopefully with these hints and tips you two will take home the plaudits and don’t worry you do not have to give a winners speech.