Google has begin showing betting odds in featured snippets in their search results, that are triggered by including “odds” in the search query along with a person, sporting event, sports team or player.

Dan Barker was the first to notice featured snippets being displayed for sports betting odds.

Here are some sport examples as well, for various professional sports teams:

Now it is unclear if this was a deliberate move by Google to enter the sports betting market.  Instead, these seem more like the algorithmically triggered featured snippets we see for all kinds of random searches, especially since it is the spreadsheet formatting we see in the snippet, when Google pulls information from tables and spreadsheets on websites.

One thing that is obvious is the website VegasInsider is a clear winner from the sports betting side, as it seems that team searches all trigger featured snippets from their site. Bing has also moved into the betting prediction market, although through their Bing Predicts program, and they don’t link to outside sources for predictions.

They do not seem to trigger for very many political searches though.

Featured snippets for sports betting will likely be a hotly contested property, with major betting sites wanting to ensure their own sites show up for these searches.  And while it is possible to optimize for featured snippets, not many SEOs are currently practicing featured snippet SEO at this time.  But if Google moves into your market area, it will be something you want to do.

It will be interesting to watch and see if Google continues to serve featured snippets for these queries, and how quickly competition can nab some of those featured snippets.