I’ve quickly learned that a life without sports is a life I can do without. But I’ll tell you what, there’s no shortage of things to put your money on despite no sports being played … in the world.
Sure, you can bet on futures in pro leagues and college but who wants to wait for what feels like an eternity at this point.
If you don’t bet horses, don’t follow politics and don’t know anything about table tennis (I mean, who does?), then you can bet on how many pushups Jonathan Bales can do.
The Pushup Challenge
This is not like my Twitter bet I posted on whether I could do 50 pushups. This is way more challenging. Bales will attempt to complete 2,400 pushups in 12 hours. I can’t even imagine. He will start the challenge on Thursday, April 2, whenever he feels up to starting.
According to a Twitter post from Peter Christensen, there will be three judges deciding whether he has proper form. If two of the three judges agree that he completed the challenge, then Bales wins.
The crazy thing: Bales has the option of utilizing performance-enhancing drugs if he so chooses. This will be allowed. Holy heck! What turned into a $2,000 wager between Bales and Peter has now become an actual betting option on Sportsbook.
The Betting Options Available
For the challenge, he has to complete 2,400 pushups, but you can bet on 2,200 instead. Sportsbook posted three options on Tuesday morning.
| Option | Odds |
|---|---|
| NO | -1800 |
| YES | +600 |
Odds as of April 1 at Sportsbook
| Option | Odds |
|---|---|
| NO | -200 |
| YES | +150 |
Odds as of April 1 at Sportsbook
| Option | Odds |
|---|---|
| OVER 2,200 | -175 |
| UNDER 2,200 | +135 |
Odds as of April 1 at Sportsbook
Maybe I’m missing something but +150 does not seem big enough. It just sounds like an insane number of proper pushups. But I can only do 42 in one setting, so what do I know.
The crazy thing is Sportsbook must have received lots of action because Yes at +150 is now locked.
Who is Jonathan Bales?
Bales is an entrepreneur, author and, according to his website, a couch potato. He’s a daily fantasy sports player, sports bettor, founder of two companies (RotoAcademy and FantasyLabs – a Mark Cuban-backed company) and the author of Fantasy Sports for Smart People.
But can he do pushups? Well, he posted a video on Monday showing his form from both a front and side view. I do see muscle definition so he does appear to be in shape. Still though, 2,400?
As of Tuesday, Adam Levitan, co-founder of Establish the Run, previously with Sportsbook, said he was working on setting up a live stream with counter and time overlay on the screen. He will even be onsite to offer up some commentary for a bit.
Most important of all, why is Bales doing this? Is it really because we have nothing else to bet on? I asked him.
“This just started as a fun bet, really, because I was bored and thought it would be a good challenge. I didn’t really think it would blow up.”
My Best Guess
UNDER 2,400. Twelve hours is a considerable amount of time to get it done but let me tell you why I think Bales will fall short.
In my opinion, yes, he is fit. However, I think he is a bit bulkier than one needs to be in order to achieve a bodyweight challenge.
If this was a bench press challenge, I’d be inclined to consider taking the OVER on a given number but bodyweight is a different beast. I think someone who practices more gymnastics-style workouts (calisthenics) is more fit to hit such a high number.
Take the men who hold pushup world records. They are leaner in stature and muscular, but it’s a different type of muscular – think yoga bodies and not weightlifting bodies.
Carlton Williams performed 2,220 pushups in one hour but he’s five-foot-five and 126 pounds. In one interview, Williams said he “doesn’t eat much,” is a vegetarian and doesn’t “indulge.”
Then, you can look at Charlie Hunnam. He tried to do 1,000 pushups a day for his role in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. In one interview, he said there were days he wasn’t able to hit 1,000. Granted, he was also busy learning to fight and do other things but still, he gave himself a full day and at most hit 1,000.
Same goes with Arnold Schwarzenegger. He shared on Reddit that it took him the course of a day to knock out 500 pushups.
I think Bales could possibly hit 2,400 but not in 12 hours. He would need at least a full day. And for what it’s worth, Bales did also say that he’ll be passing up on the PED use.
“I think that was mostly a joke from someone that got out. It isn’t enough money for that.”
Pick: UNDER 2,400 -140 and UNDER 2,200 +135
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