avatar Written by Graeme on Wednesday, May 27th, 2015

The CFL 2015 season is almost upon us.

In this article we’ll be looking at the futures market and sharing the latest odds, and also noting some rule changes. As of now there are no prop bets. Just the odds to win the Grey Cup.

2015 Grey Cup Betting Odds:

Calgary Stampeders: 4.30
Edmonton Eskimos: 6.00
Saskatchewan Roughriders: 6.00
B.C. Lions: 7.00
Montreal Alouettes: 7.50
Hamilton Tiger-Cats: 7.50
Toronto Argonauts: 9.00
Winnipeg Blue Bombers: 11.00
Ottawa Redblacks: 21.00

Despite keeping all of their draft picks, the Redblacks are still bottom of the list.

The sportsbooks expect the Calgary Stampeders to win the Grey Cup again this year. The Stampeders went 15-3 in the regular season last year, and then defeated the Tiger-Cats in the final in a tight game.

This year, the grey cup is held in Winnipeg. Yet the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are 2nd last in the odds list. Not a real surprise as they have been poor. But man – usually the host team, no matter who they are, are usually near the top of the odds list.

If you’re into trading, this might be the time to get on the betting exchanges. The reason is you can back the Blue Bombers at 11.00 right now, and then trade off closer to the season at around 8.00. Yes it’s tiny profit – but from talking to the sportsbooks they rarely see CFL action until the pre-season begins. So we expect their odds to drop.

Funny to see how strong the West odds are. Of course, last season the East were a disaster but that’s one where we have to look at that. At least one of those teams will make the Grey Cup – and that’s something key to remember. It only takes one game. So we will have to analyze that. Right now we are not sure but our betting preview before the season begins will cover that.

CFL 2015 Rule Changes:

You might have heard about this on the sports networks – but here are the rule changes for the CFL 2015 season:

Limiting Contact: One big thing is the limit of contact a defender can have on a reciever. Now contact will be permitted only when it’s 5 yards off the scrimmage. Anything longer than that and it’s only the hand that can do anything. Going to be very interesting how that changes the passing in the first few weeks. This is clearly to allow more scoring after 2014 was such a big year for the D.

Special Teams: One big change is that the inside five lineman will not be allowed to leave the line of scrimmage until after his team – the kicking team – has kicked the ball. Previously they were allowed to go just after the snap. This is expected to lessen the amount of penalties given.

Modified Convert: This is an interesting one. It’s going to be a 32 yard kick now, while before it was 12 yards. This is expected to change things drastically as 99.4% of converts were made last year. Reading the analysis, they expect that to go down to 85% or even lower. It’s a way to make teams go for the 2 point instead.

There are a few other rule changes but those are the major ones.