CFL Grey Cup Odds 2021: Roughriders Lead

For the first time in over 100 years, the Grey Cup wasn’t awarded as the 2020 CFL season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a full 2021 campaign has begun and the Saskatchewan Roughriders have emerged as the favorites in CFL Grey Cup odds for this season.

The 108th Grey Cup game will take place at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ontario, and could host the hometown Tiger-Cats, who are second on the oddsboard. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the defending Grey Cup champions after beating the Ticats 33-12 in the 2019 Grey Cup, are third.

Online sportsbook Bovada has updated CFL Grey Cup odds for 2021 with Saskatchewan the favorite at +300, Hamilton at +450, Winnipeg at +500, Toronto at +550 and Montreal at +800 to round out the top five teams on the oddsboard.

Looking at the CFL Grey Cup odds for 2021, our sports betting calculator tells us that the Roughriders’ odds of +300 represent an implied win probability of 25 percent.

Who Will Win The 2021 Grey Cup?

Odds as of August 26 at Bovada

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Roughriders Are Your Best Bet

While they didn’t open atop the CFL Grey Cup odds, a 3-0 start to the 2021 season has vaulted Saskatchewan into favorite status. The Riders trounced Hamilton 30-8 in the second week of the season to formally announce themselves as 2021 title contenders and have now outscored opponents 86-47 through their first three games.

Quarterback Cody Fajardo, in just his second season as a CFL starting QB, has elevated the Saskatchewan attack to one of the best in the league. Fajardo won the Grey Cup as a backup with the Argos in 2017 and led the league in passing yards in 2019 (4,302 yards), tossing 18 touchdown passes in 16 starts. Early in 2021, he has taken his game to the next level, passing for 773 yards through three games, completing 78.9 percent of his passes and tossing just one interception. The Roughriders face a tough slate of games and will have to fend off some of the other top teams, but they have set a great tone early.

Can The Ticats Win At Home?

In 2019, Hamilton ripped through the East Division with a 7-1 record against fellow East teams and had a franchise-best 15-3 record overall, including going a perfect 9-0 at Tim Hortons Field. The Ticats scored the most points in the CFL at 551, 43 more than Winnipeg, and also allowed the fewest points at 344, 42 less than second-ranked Saskatchewan.

However, those numbers were slightly skewed due to the woeful play of division mates Toronto and Ottawa, the only two teams that failed to surpass 400 points scored on the year.

What might cause some apprehension in backing Hamilton this year is the lack of success of the franchise in recent memory. You have to go all the way back to 1999 to find the last time the Ticats lifted the Grey Cup. They have reached the Grey Cup final in three of the last seven years but lost each time. For me, I’d have to see a little more value to wager on Hamilton to hoist the Cup at home this year.

Are The Argos Grey Cup Odds Sleepers?

There is another team from the East Division that grabbed headlines in the offseason and could play drastically different than 2019 and that is the Toronto Argonauts at +550.

Perhaps one of the biggest splashes in the offseason came with reigning Most Outstanding Canadian Cameron Judge moving on from Saskatchewan. The 26-year-old was one of the best linebackers in the league and was brought in to put a Band-Aid on an Argonauts defense that allowed the second-most points in the CFL in 2019.

Toronto didn’t focus only on its defense, as the offense needed a jump-start as well. Former Calgary wide receiver Eric Rogers, who scored the third-most touchdowns in 2019, provides a red-zone target for Nick Arbuckle, who also left the Stampeders to join the Argos. 

New playmakers on both sides of the ball in a not-so-great East Division may be good enough to get into the playoffs and anything can happen if you make the dance.

What Are CFL Futures?

Which CFL team will win the Grey Cup? Oddsmakers set CFL futures every year, and update them throughout the regular season depending on a team’s performance. CFL futures bets are long-term wagers on what team you think will win the Grey Cup, skipping the weekly wagers on individual games and cutting right to the most important battle of the season. Futures bets can be profitable and it’s always fun to predict winners so early in the season.

While the most popular CFL futures wager is betting on which team will win the Grey Cup, you can also place futures wagers at some sportsbooks on individual awards, conference winners and other long-term prop bets.