Pain shared is pain lessened. Maybe that’s why most sports bettors will readily share their bad beat stories. We’ve put together a list of 10 of the worst bad beats of the year with less than two weeks remaining.
Basketball
The Phoenix Suns are the 8-1 favorite to win the NBA Summer League title game in Las Vegas and the Sacramento Kings and Charlotte Hornets are each 10-1.
Golden State, which will be without Steph Curry in the first round, is a 6-5 favorite to win its third NBA title in four years, and the Rockets are the 13-10 second choice after opening at 30-1 before the season.
Bruce Marshall’s daughter went to Loyola-Chicago, but the handicapper’s wife won’t be rooting for the Ramblers and Sister Jean — America’s favorite 98-year-old nun — in Saturday’s NCAA semifinals.
When Kansas defeated Duke 85-81 in overtime Sunday as a 3½-point underdog, it capped a 16-4 ATS streak for ‘dogs — including 11 outright wins — in the past 20 NCAA Tournament games.
Westgate sports book manager Ed Salmons and Boyd Gaming sports book director Bob Scucci reported taking sharp action on Kansas State, a 5½-point underdog to Kentucky after the line climbed as high as 6½.
Underdogs dominated Sunday, going 7-1 ATS with four outright wins as No. 1 Xavier, No. 2s North Carolina and Cincinnati and No. 3 Michigan State all were eliminated.
A CG Technology bettor lost a $20,000 three-team money-line parlay to win $870 on Purdue, North Carolina and Virginia when the Cavaliers became the first No. 1 seed ever to lose to a No. 16 seed.
Popular favorites Villanova, Kansas and Duke covered double-digit spreads, and there were buzzer beaters, bad beats and countless roars from the crowd on the first day of the NCAA Tournament.
Last year, an estimated $300 million was wagered on the 67-game tournament at Nevada sports books.
Top seeds Villanova and Virginia lead a pack of 10 teams with odds of 15-1 or less to win the NCAA Tournament. But MGM Resorts sports book director Jay Rood said there are better futures bets on the board.
No. 10 Butler, a 1-point favorite over No. 7 Arkansas, was the only lower seed favored over a higher seed when Las Vegas sports books posted the opening lines Sunday for the NCAA Tournament, which opens on Tuesday and starts in earnest Thursday.
If, as expected, a federal ban on sports betting is lifted in the coming months, the NBA wants sports books to pay the league 1 percent of the money wagered on its games as an “integrity fee.”