“To have a 15, two 11s and a 10 left right now speaks volumes. That just shows the parity of college basketball,” Red Rock Resort sportsbook director Chuck Esposito said.
Basketball
Bettors that slept in on the second day of the NCAA Tournament missed out on another fast start by favorites, who started 5-0 ATS for the second straight day.
The first day of the NCAA Tournament was a blessed one for Las Vegas sportsbooks, which won big when No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s knocked off No. 2 Kentucky.
I asked three professional sports bettors for tips on betting March Madness and one piece of advice from Cris Zeniuk is not to shy away from favorites.
Multiple Las Vegas sportsbooks took sharp money on Murray State, a 1-point favorite over San Francisco after it opened as a 1½-point underdog.
About 15 minutes after the NCAA Tournament bracket was revealed, the South Point sportsbook posted lines on the first 32 games, and sharp bettors promptly fired away.
The Los Angeles Lakers (27-31), the +350 second choice to win the NBA title in the preseason, soared to 50-1 on Wednesday, their longest odds of the season.
BetMGM, which took a $20,000 wager to win $80,000 on the Lakers to win the franchise’s 18th NBA championship, is on the hook for multiple six figures if Los Angeles wins it all.
BetMGM took a $10,000 bet to win $1.5 million on the Hawks, who were as high as 500-1 to win the NBA title. Atlanta is a slight favorite over the Knicks in the first round.
In a span of 11 days that began Thursday, fans and bettors can feast their eyes on a smorgasbord of baseball, the Final Four and NCAA championship and the Masters.
If a bettor had placed a $100 money line wager on Oregon State and kept rolling it over during its six-game winning streak, the bankroll would be a little more than $250,000.
Bettors bank on Syracuse’s Buddy Boeheim to help No. 11 Orange cover as 6½-point underdogs to No. 2 Houston at Hinkle Fieldhouse, site of the movie “Hoosiers.”
The NCAA Tournament games couldn’t have gone much better for Las Vegas sportsbooks, as underdogs went 24-15 ATS with 16 outright upsets Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Las Vegas sportsbooks welcomed back the NCAA Tournament on Friday after a one-year hiatus, and the biggest betting event of the year did not disappoint.
Sharp bettors and the betting public are banking on Ohio to cover the spread against Virginia, which opened as a 10½-point favorite but is down to -7.