Rolex Switzerland Sail Grand Prix 2026 Betting Preview: Why the bookies think that the usual suspects will dominate
The win for the U.S SailP Team in Spain shook things up a bit in the Championship standings but the bookies aren’t convinced that we’ll have a fifth different winner of an event this season here in Switzerland. But who are the favorites, and who are the teams to avoid? Let’s see…
Big-priced winners do happen in SailGP
As we discussed a few weeks ago, SailGP bettors come into different categories, some preferring to go for red-hot favorites at short odds, while others love backing outsiders at big odds, safe in the knowledge that you only need a couple of those to come good every season to be in profit.
A good example of the latter was the U.S. SailGP Team last time out, who won at pre-event odds of 18.18 in conditions that the real experts should have seen coming; light winds played into the hands of Taylor Canfield and his crew, and so they secured their second Grand Prix win of the season after also making the most of the lightest of breezes when they won the KPMG Sydney Sail Grand Prix, back in late February.
That win for the Americans, allied with the theory that group racing tends to provide more unpredictable results than in fleet racing, is why the favorites here for the Rolex Switzerland Sail Grand Prix | Geneva are at seemingly big odds of 6.67- that’s the Bonds Flying Roos, by the way- rather than the odds of about 3.5 available on the Australians a few months ago.
Unlucky Canfield sits this one out
It’s a huge shame for that man, Canfield, that he will be missing out here in the Rolex Switzerland Sail Grand Prix after that brilliant performance over in Valencia.
He’ll have to sit this one out due to injury.
Also, the Mubadala Brazil SailGP Team will be without longterm driver Martine Grael, who announced earlier this week she had stepped down amid a team shake-up.
The winner market for glory at the Rolex Switzerland Sail Grand Prix is therefore a fascinating one.
No red-hot favorites, with the Bonds Flying Roos the shortest of the lot at 6.67, followed by the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team at 7.14.
The latter price can’t be considered a good one. You need to go back to the first event of the 2026 Rolex SailGP Championship – the Oracle Perth Sail Grand Prix – for their sole win of the season and they haven’t made the Final in any of the last four, so you can see why that’s a price that the bookies will will be happy to lay given the struggles of Dylan Fletcher and his crew over the last few weeks.
Three teams at 8.33 not be dismissed
Next in the betting after favorites the Bonds Flying Roos and Emirates GBR are the Los Gallos SailGP Team at 8.33, the same price as the Black Foils SailGP Team and the ROCKWOOL Racing SailGP Team, all three available at those same odds and seen as being very much in the mix for glory here in Switzerland.
Sports fans will know that many of the world’s best athletes have a certain affinity for a particular venue.
Whether that’s a cricketer who has scored a few centuries at a particular ground and fancies their chances of doing so again or a footballer who has found the back of the net at a certain ground in the past on various occasions, it certainly helps when you’ve had success somewhere in the past.
So step forward the Germany SailGP Team presented by Deutsche Bank, who were winners at this very venue last year.
They just about scraped their way into the Final on the back of a good Sunday performance that included a win in Race 4 and a third-place finish in Race 5 to book their place in Sunday’s decider, and they certainly made the most of their chances in Sunday’s showdown, beating runners-up the Australians and in third-place the Switzerland SailGP Team to have good memories of their trip to Geneva.
They’re 16.67 to defend the title they won last year here in Switzerland last year but their current form suggests that doing so is somewhat unlikely: they’ve only made one Final all season- at the Apex Group Bermuda Sail Grand Prix back in mid-May – and finished just seventh in their home event in Sassnitz a few weeks ago, so they don’t come into this event on the back of particularly good results.
A new winner? Maybe not.
The change to group racing from fleet racing was meant to bring more unexpected results, and it’s true that there have been some somewhat unfancied teams making the Sunday Final but when push comes to shove, the winners have inevitably come from the elite set of teams so far in 2026.
Only four teams have won an event so far this season – the Bonds Flying Roos (five times), Los Gallos (twice), Emirates GBR (just once) and the Americans, also twice, so it would be a nice change if someone else gate-crashed the party here in Geneva but that’s easier said than done.
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