Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest: Can Joey Chestnut break his own record, again?

Joey Chestnut competes and wins the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest in Coney Island's Maimonides Park on Sunday, July 4,  with 76 dogs eaten in 10 minutes.
Joey Chestnut competes and wins the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest in Coney Island's Maimonides Park on Sunday, July 4, with 76 dogs eaten in 10 minutes.
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There’s the foregone conclusion of the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, and then there’s the mystery.

With 14-time champion Joey Chestnut, 38, returning to participate in the Fourth of July event, betting sites are siding heavily with the man whose rapid-eating greatness seems to improve each year.

Last year, Chestnut broke his own world record by consuming 76 hot dogs on the Coney Island, N.Y., stage where he’ll return as a prohibitive favorite.

Sportsbooks, including Caesars Sportsbook, have established Chestnut as the staggering -3000 favorite to win — despite his foot injury — against an entire field that is posted as the +1100 second choice.

Much of that has to do with Chestnut’s years-long reign and the fact that his victory last year came against a second-place finisher, Geoffrey Esper, who ate 26 fewer hot dogs.

FanDuel Sportsbook lists Esper as the -140 second choice.

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The day’s great intrigue centers on how many hot dogs Chestnut can consume. Caesars sets his over-under total at 74.5, listing the over as a -130 favorite and the under as a +100 underdog.

Esper’s over-under at FanDuel is 52.5.

The last man to defeat Chestnut was Matt Stonie in 2015.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest odds favor Joey Chestnut again