Atlanta's Odds To Get Amazon HQ: Vegas Weighs In

ATLANTA, GA — According to Las Vegas oddsmakers, Atlanta isn't the favorite to become the home of a new, second headquarters for online-retail giant Amazon. But it's not a long shot, either.

On Thursday, Amazon announced a list of 20 finalists for HQ2, a project the company says will bring $5 billion in spending and as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs wherever it is eventually located. As expected, Atlanta was on the list.

Hours later, bookmakers were laying odds on which city or region will come out on top in the heated competition for the new headquarters. And, according to online betting site Bovada, it's Nashville, not Atlanta, that has the best shot.

Atlanta's bid was sized up pretty well, though, coming in with the third-best odds, according to Bovada.

Nashville opened as the favorite at 8-to-1, meaning betters would win eight dollars for every one they wagered on Music City landing HQ2. Washington D.C. was second, coming in at 10-t0-1, and then Atlanta, listed at 12-to-1.

By way of comparison, Bovada is currently offering nearly straight-up odds that the New England Patriots will win the Super Bowl, followed by the Minnesota Vikings at about 2.3-to-1, the Jacksonville Jaguars at 6.5-to-1 and the Philadelphia Eagles at 7-to-1. (Of course, there are only four NFL teams still in the playoffs, compared to the 20 cities vying to host Amazon, so it's not exactly apples-to-apples.)

Columbus, Ohio, Boston and Miami have the longest odds according to Bovada, all coming in at 20-to-1.

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Amazon's 20 finalists were selected out of 238 applications that the Seattle-based company said it reviewed. It's one of four sites in the Southeast to make the list, along with Miami, Northern Virginia and Raleigh, N.C., and one of 11 on or near the east coast.

According to Amazon, the company will work with each of the remaining candidates in the coming months to dive deeper into their proposals, request additional information and evaluate the feasibility of building the new headquarters there. A decision is expected some time in 2018.

Since Amazon announced plans for HQ2 in September, Atlanta has consistently been mentioned by analysts as a likely contender for the new headquarters. Moody's Analytics, the economic-research arm of the business and financial services company, ranked the Atlanta area No. 2 among the many localities striving to become home to a second headquarters for the Seattle-based online-retail giant. Austin, Texas, which is also on the short list, was ranked No. 1 by Moody's.

Photo of Amazon's Seattle campus courtesy Amazon