05/12/2026
by James Pacheco
It’s not long now till the KPMG Sydney Sail Grand Prix gets underway in Sydney Harbour. It’s not the first time that twilight racing has taken place in this beautiful setting, but it’s certainly the first time that SailGP’s F50s have been raced here at this time of day.
But if that’s a first to look forward to, the bookies aren’t expecting a first-time event winner here, far from it.
They’ve made up their minds that Tom Slingsby and the BONDS Flying Roos SailGP Team are very much the team to beat, and there are good reasons for that. And there are no prizes for guessing who they think is the team most likely to chase them home, either.
Here are all the latest betting odds ahead of the third event of the 2026 Rolex SailGP Championship.
The Home Favorites Are Also the Betting Favorites
It’s all about the Aussies when it comes to betting on this event.
They’re the 3.16 favorites to win the final and an extremely short price at 1.11 to just make Sunday’s final. To give you some context, they’re deemed to have an implied probability of 90.1% to be one of the three boats contesting the last race of this Sydney event.
None of this is surprising. They’re top of the 2026 Season standings, with a runner-up and a winner’s spot to their names after two events, and in the past have won here three times in five attempts, making the podium on the other two occasions.
Motivation is unlikely to be a factor here, either. Here’s what Slingsby said after winning the ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix | Auckland event a couple of weeks ago:
“Perth was amazing, but Sydney is really important to us. If you could choose any event in the world to win, it would be Sydney for us. That’s our focus now.”
Not that motivation will be lacking anyway, with the home crowd right behind them on home waters.
Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team Are Their Biggest Challengers
So say the odds, and that’s hardly surprising, either.
Emirates GBR won here in 2020 and 2025, the two years that the Australians didn’t, and are tied on points with Slingsby and his crew at the top of the table for this season, albeit the latter are ahead of them in the standings on a technicality.
They’re only a little bit bigger than the home team at 3.2 to win the event and only a tiny bit bigger to make the final: 1.12. Regarding the latter, 90.1% (BONDS Flying Roos) plays 89.3% (Emirates GBR) in terms of implied probability.
Who Can Win Saturday’s Opening Race?
However, in a strange quirk, it’s the Brits who are favored to draw first blood by winning Race 1. They’re 3.85 with the Aussies 4.02.
But it was neither of those who took the opening race here in Sydney last year. That honor fell to the Switzerland SailGP Team, who beat second-placed Los Gallos SailGP Team, while Slingsby lead his team into third place. The Swiss are at a big price at 12.44 to do it all over again and win Saturday’s first race for a second year running.
The third favorites in this particular betting heat is the ROCKWOOL Racing SailGP Team at 8.9.
But then again, that shouldn’t come as any big surprise either, because they’re also the third favorites to win the event as a whole, available at 8.15 to ensure that we have a third different winner from our first three events.
Next in the betting for a win in Fleet Race 1 are the Artemis SailGP Team, who are fourth overall and have seriously impressed in their debut season.
As pointed out in our ‘Five Things to Watch Out For in Sydney’ article:
“Of course, the team might be new, but their athletes are anything but – the Artemis team is made up of some of SailGP’s most seasoned names.”
The Swedes are 10.27 to win Race 1, with Los Gallos next best at 9.95.
Two Notable Absentees
There are two teams that haven’t been featured in our rundown of the betting odds, and they’re two teams that generally get a mention because they tend to be among the favorites.
Both the Black Foils SailGP Team and the DS Automobiles SailGP Team France are normally in the Top 5 when it comes to the shortest odds for both individual race and event wins.
But neither will feature after a big crash in Auckland, which means their F50s are too damaged to take part here. Here are some more details on what happened. So it’s an 11-boat field rather than a 13-boat one this weekend, and we’ll have to wait and see if the bookies got it right after all.
Starting points for our US readers
Starting points for our UK readers
Starting points for our Global readers
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