Athletics’ woeful start bad for sportsbooks, too

It’s uncertain when the Athletics will play in Las Vegas, but local bookmakers are already rooting for the A’s on a daily basis.

That’s because gamblers are betting against Oakland, which entered Monday with baseball’s worst record at 4-18. The A’s also are baseball’s biggest losers at the betting windows. If a bettor wagered $100 on Oakland in every game this season, they would be down $1,072.

“The A’s, unfortunately, are a bet-against team pretty much on a nightly basis,” Red Rock Resort sportsbook director Chuck Esposito said. “From the business side of it, we’re A’s fans just about every night right now.

“The public is definitely betting against the A’s right now. They’re included in almost every parlay and a number of straight bets.”

Oakland, which had lost nine of 10 entering Monday’s game against the Angels, has been an underdog in every game and has yet to win two straight.

“We’ve been needing the A’s pretty much every day,” Westgate SuperBook manager Randy Blum said. “For the most part, they’re taking the other team and laying the price, and they’ll also bet the run line (-1½) to try to get a lower price.

“The A’s have just been horrendous. It’s not pretty.”

Oakland also has been one of the biggest losers on the run line (+1½), going 8-14 to cost a $100 bettor $635. Fourteen of its 18 losses have been by two runs or more, including six by 10 runs or more.

The A’s suffered their most lopsided loss of the season Saturday at Texas in an 18-3 defeat. They were the biggest underdogs of the season, at +320, in Sunday’s 5-2 loss to the Rangers, who were -385 favorites at Caesars Sportsbook.

“There have been multiple games this year where people are laying (-300), if not higher, and those prices will probably go up,” Blum said. “The adjustments were kind of built in from the beginning because we were aware of how bad they would be. But you’ll see books adjust just because of the amount of public play against Oakland.”

When the A’s play at New York in early May, Blum projects the Yankees to be about -450 favorites behind starting pitcher Gerrit Cole.

“And as the season goes along, if nothing changes, it could get even higher,” he said. “The more astonishing numbers are what people are willing to risk against the A’s. We’ve got guys laying $30,000 to win $10,000 against them.”

Blum doesn’t expect Oakland to improve the rest of the season. He said the A’s might actually get worse if they trade any more players.

“There’s not a lot of optimism,” he said. “The pieces they’ve been getting back in trades could work out long term, but they’re just not ready to contribute yet at the major league level.

“At the same time, it’s baseball. They’ll win some games for us, and when they do, it will be some nice wins for us. But we’re not expecting them to win a lot.”

Biggest losers, winners

Baseball’s other biggest losers are the Royals (5-17, -$963), Rockies (6-17, -$885), White Sox (7-15, -$831) and Reds (7-15, -$732).

The surprising Pirates (16-7, +$1,170) are the biggest winners, followed by the Brewers (15-7, +$885), Rays (19-3, +$722), Diamondbacks (12-11, +$498) and Rangers (14-7, +$450).

“Who would’ve thought the Diamondbacks would be sitting on top in the NL West right now, which is a good thing for us, and the Dodgers and Padres would be hovering around .500,” Esposito said. “And that the Pirates would be sitting on top in the NL Central.”

Local draft prop

Station Casinos has posted a prop on the over-under NFL draft position of former Bishop Gorman and UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson.

Under 151½ is a -130 favorite after opening Monday at -115.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.