This Fourth of July, you can root along and, maybe win some cash, by participating in DraftKings’s freeplay competition while watching rapid frankfurter ingesters in Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest on ESPN.
The infamous contest isn’t going belly up due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, it’s taking place at an undisclosed private location rather than at its usual spot outside Nathan’s Famous in Coney Island, New York.
Win Up to $500 Guessing Hot Dog Contest Stats
DraftKings will offer a free pool with $25,000 in total prizes, including $500 to first. Rather than drafting players in the contest, as would normally be the case in DFS contests, DK tasks participants with answering a series of eight yes or no and over or under questions. These include who will finish second in the men’s division, whether Joey Chestnut will eat more or less than 9.5 hot dogs in the first minute, and whether anyone will eat 80 or more hot dogs.
Given that Chestnut has won the competition 12 times, first beating Takeru Kobayashi in 2007, it’s no surprise that participants in the pool won’t be drafting players. What would Chestnut’s salary even be in such a scenario?
Chestnut ate 71 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes last year, three shy of the world record of 74 he set in 2018. He bested second-place finisher Darron Breeden by 21 in 2019. Chestnut last lost the title in 2015, eating just 60 hot dogs and buns vs. Matt Stonie’s 62.
Chestnut and Sudo are Heavy Favorites
DraftKings’s sportsbook is also taking bets on the contest where allowed, making Chestnut the heavy favorite to win. In New Jersey, the odds for Chestnut were -1,250 compared to +650 to the field.
Miki Sudo seeks her seventh straight women’s title on Saturday, and DK set her as a -850 favorite. She won her first title in 2014 by defeating Sonya “The Black Widow†Thomas. Sudo consumed 31 hot dogs and buns in 2019, defeating Michelle Lesco by 4.5.
