Why is Joey Chestnut not competing in the 2024 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest?
The 16-time hot dog champion — who has won the last eight hot dog eating contests — will not compete in this year's competition after a dispute with event organizers.
Chestnut elected to maintain a sponsorship with Impossible Foods — a direct competitor of Nathan's that makes vegan goods — instead of dropping the partnership in order to compete. Despite pressure from Major League Eating and fans, Chestnut maintained his lucrative sponsorship and is off to host his own competition without the help of competitive eating's most famous event.
As a result, Chestnut will face off against former world hot dog eating contest record holder Takeru Kobayashi in a head-to-head matchup that will air on Sept. 2 on Netflix.
Chestnut has been the massive betting favorite for the last several contests, closing as low as -4000 to win 2023's contest. That means a $4,000 wager was required to net $100.
He was as long as -5000 in 2022, -3335 in 2021 and -1000 in 2020's pandemic competition.
This year, with the field wide open — and without Matt Stonie competing, the last champion other than Chestnut — Geoffrey Esper is the slight favorite at +100 at FanDuel.
James Webb has the second-best odds at the sportsbook at +125.
Nick Wehry — whose wife Miki Sudo is the massive -1000 favorite to win the women's competition — is tied with third-best odds at FanDuel at +1600 with Patrick Bertoletti.
Chestnut and Kobayashi have not competed directly since 2008, when the two legends forced a tiebreaker after eating 59 dogs in the allotted time during that year's hot dog eating contest.
While Chestnut won the eventual tiebreaker, it was not without controversy. Competition officials decided the tiebreaker — the first to finish five dogs — in the spur of the moment. Both Chestnut and Kobayashi later complained about the structure of the process.
Chestnut and Kobayashi later met in 2009 in a Pizza Hut eating competition, which Kobayashi won. That's the last time the two hot dog eating luminaries have competed together publicly.
