The NFL Draft, usually a spectacle of the offseason, is marching ahead in the only way things can right now: with an online draft. As the league’s General Managers figure out the same technology that fantasy sports fans have used for decades, and sports bettors speculate on which talented youngsters will go highest in the draft, Bodog’s sports book is asking the most pertinent questions, and we have their odds.

First up, with the first ever attempt to draft future NFL stars entirely online, Bodog is asking how many times they will screw up.

How Many Times Will The Broadcast Experience Technical Difficulties?

Over 4.5 -130

The coronavirus body slammed the sports world in a way that would make most professional wrestlers cringe. Fortunately, though, athletes are resilient, and this is nothing more than a hurdle to be jumped. With virtually all sports action having come to a grinding halt for the time-being, sports gambling fans haven’t had many options for release, but the upcoming NFL Draft is providing the perfect solution. With just a week to go before the big event, some sportsbooks are witnessing greater amounts of action than ever before.

The exact figures aren’t in, and draft wagers will continue to be placed until the event draws to a close. However, Jared Smith, a sports investment analyst with Sportsgrid, said during an episode of CBS’s After Hours with Amy Lawrence, “What we’re seeing is a major uptick in NFL Draft betting. This is only the second year that it’s been legal here on the East Coast in the New Jersey books, but I’ve seen a massive uptick in the amount of bets in terms of the amount of prop bets that are offered and also just the movement in the NFL Draft marketplace. It’s been very volatile. To me, that means there’s a lot of action being thrown around and I think people are very excited for next week’s NFL Draft. I think it’s probably going to be not only the most watched sporting event of this year so far, but probably also the most bet on.”

The draft is going to be held April 23-25, and is going to be the first draft in NFL history to be managed almost entirely through remote connections – no large gatherings of players and teams, no massive celebrations and no fanfare. COVID-19 has forced the league to take measures to keep everyone healthy and the three-day event, which should have been held in Las Vegas, will find coaches, team representatives, players and more connecting from their respective homes through videoconferencing equipment to discuss their picks.

It’s going to be the largest conference call the NFL has ever seen, and the league is still trying to work out the kinks. Some of those kinks include personnel – individuals who have shied away from technology over the years and who aren’t familiar with terms like bandwidth, pixels and even digital imaging. That should make for an interesting experience during the draft.

The sportsbetting market for the NFL Draft is always one that lights up anywhere with a gambling licence. Experts make their top picks, rumours abound and the players themselves are caught up in a whirlwind of excitement and probably no few nerves as they await the final decisions that will shape their careers.

When it comes to looking for value on the betting platforms you know and love, everyone loves an outside picks, but you might want to even up your risk by looking at one of the most favourable odds-on picks. We’ve broken down the top five for you so that you can make your selection.

1. Chase Young to be drafted by the Washington Redskins (1/5)

When it comes to the Washington Redskins, it’s an open secret that Ohio State edge rusher Chase Young is in the centre of their radar, beeping and flashing. In fact, so much so that last night, a photshopped image of Young already wearing the famous burgundy and gold went viral on Twitter:

While America is still in the midst of the Coronavirus outbreak, sport cannot go on, but that doesn’t mean sport can’t schedule itself hopefully for the future, which is exactly the attitude NFL have employed over the last few days and weeks.

If it seems like a long time that the Kansas City Chiefs wrote Superbowl history by beating the San Francisco 49ers, it was less than two months ago. The highlights of that stunning 31-20 victory already look like the celebrations of a bygone era:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVV80kTudSM?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

That incredible comeback that saw the Chiefs score 21 unanswered points in the final quarter to win from nowhere have made all sports fans yearn for more Superbowl action. Well, in a way, there will be, as the NFL teams owners voted overwhelmingly in favour of the playoffs being extended to one more team being added to both the the AFC and NFC in the 2020 season.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

The oldest player to win the NFL MVP Award was Tom Brady in 2017 when he won it for the third time in his career. Of course, those all came as a member of the New England Patriots. Last week, Brady left New England in free agency for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They have never had an NFL MVP or really even come close – shoot, they have never had a true franchise quarterback until now.

Could Brady in 2020 become only the second player to win the award four times, joining former rival Peyton Manning (5)? Considering Brady will be 43 when the season begins, that’s very, very unlikely but he’s only +1400 to do it. Brady will have arguably the best receiving duo he has ever had in Pro Bowlers Chris Godwin and Mike Evans, both of whom exceeded 1,000 yards receiving a year ago with a much more inaccurate quarterback in Jameis Winston.

Speaking of receivers, one has never won the NFL MVP Award, which is moderately surprising considering some of the historic seasons put up by the likes of Jerry Rice, Calvin Johnson and Julio Jones

By far the biggest news around the NFL so far this offseason came last Tuesday when it was reported that arguably the greatest quarterback in league history, Tom Brady, was leaving the New England Patriots for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He officially signed a two-year, $60 million deal on Friday.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Yes, Brady left a team he had led to nine Super Bowls and six championships since his first season as a starter in 2001 for a franchise that has six all-time playoff victories, one Super Bowl, and hasn’t made the playoffs since 2007 – the second-longest current drought in the NFL behind the Cleveland Browns. Shocking isn’t a strong enough word.

Even though Brady will be 43 by the time the season kicks off – assuming there is one in the wake of the coronavirus crisis – and that he regressed a fairly significant amount in 2019, the Bucs took a huge jump in the odds to win Super Bowl 55, and now sit at +1200.

The NFL and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) are in the middle of trying to figure out if football in the US is going to move forward, or if it will face a temporary shutdown. The two sides are debating terms of a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that has been somewhat contentious, and the players are set to vote on the matter within the next couple of weeks. There are a couple of items they would prefer not to see included, but one particular entry has found a great deal of support by the athletes. They want a larger piece of any sports gambling revenue the league receives.

The NFL has made several deals as it looks to, slowly, embrace sports gambling. It is going to begin distributing official league data to sportsbooks and has agreed to allow teams to seek sponsorships from sports gambling operators while acknowledging that sports gambling lounges will most likely be coming to stadiums across the country.

If the league is going to profit from the activity, the players want a piece of the action, too. There are already in place revenue-sharing agreements across the board that see players receive a percentage of the revenue, and the NFLPA wants to make sure expanded league revenue means expanded player revenue, as well. The players union said in a recently disseminated list of possible changes to the proposed CBA that it wanted the agreement’s language changed in order to ensure that it included “Gambling definitions that ensures [sic] money is included in players’ definition of All Revenue, including portions of non-football activities.”

The current CBA doesn’t officially end until after the upcoming season comes to a close next year. However, there are certain provisions in the contract that could start as early as this year as the NFL gears up for the 2021-22 year. Team owners want to expand the regular season to 17 games, up from the current 16, and this is proving to be a major issue with the players, most of whom are concerned about the impact the expansion will have on their health.

Hell, much like the tundra of Lambeau Field, has officially frozen over as the National Football League goes looking for its first sports betting executive.

On Thursday, Legal Sports Report broke the news that the NFL was quietly putting out feelers for its first vice-president of sports betting. Yes, the league that worked hardest to stall New Jersey’s multi-year quest to overturn the federal betting prohibition is now looking for someone to help them capture those sweet, sweet betting bucks.

According to the report, the NFL’s new hire will have four main areas of responsibility, only one of which is related to preserving the integrity of its product, while the other three are primarily about (surprise!) maximizing revenue.

Those last three items include growing the NFL’s brand and reputation, growing fan engagement not just in the US but internationally, and boosting the value of the NFL’s official data and intellectual property. The new VP will also work with the NFL’s media department to distribute “content for gaming purposes and the integration of gaming products into the NFL’s platforms.”

The betting public has had a week and a half to consider their wagering opportunities on Super Bowl LIV, and plenty has been wagered so far. While the odds of the biggest lines haven’t changed much, some of the deeper cuts have seen plenty of movement, and we got some insight from our Bodog insider on where the action is.

When we first looked at the moneyline, spread and total, Kansas City was a 1.5 point favorite. That hasn’t changed much at all. The line has stayed steady at KC -1-.5 since we opened after the NFC Championship game,” our insider said. “Betting is split 50/50 so far on the point spread and ML (KC -120/SF EVEN). The O/U has moved from 53 to 54.5 with 82% of bets so far on the over.”

Where the real line movements are happening is on prop bets and specials, and the Chiefs star player is a big part of it. “Mahomes is the most popular player with the most money bet on to win MVP (+115) and the largest bet disparities between passing and rushing yards O/Us,” our insider revealed. “80% of all money is on o305.5 Passing Yards and 90% of all money is on o31.5 Rushing Yards. The liabilities on various Mahomes player props mirrors the liabilities we would have for college basketball and even some NBA game lines.”

But the fun lines, and the ones seeing the biggest shifts, are in the special props, and the one that almost always results in nail-biting is the national anthem. “The national anthem by Demi Lovato opened at 1m58s but with 90% on the over on that, 75% on the over of new price, 2m0s, we finally settled on the current price of 2m4s which has received balanced betting action,” he told us.