NFL fans and bettors are gifted three Wild-Card games on Saturday instead of the usual two because the league added an additional playoff team to each conference for the 2020 season and going forward. Thus, only the top seed in the AFC and NFC is off on Wild-Card Weekend.
Saturday’s schedule starts with the AFC No. 7 seed Indianapolis Colts at the No. 2 seed and AFC East champion Buffalo Bills. The Bills won the division for the first time since 1995 but in a way picked a bad year to do it considering no first-round bye for the No. 2 seed these days.
Buffalo QB Josh Allen had a career season and will get some MVP votes, possibly finishing third. Trade acquisition Stefon Diggs led the league in receptions and receiving yards. That offense improved so much this year that coordinator Brian Daboll likely is lured away as a head coach somewhere.
La Vida Baseball, the nation’s leading multi-language Latino baseball lifestyle media company, is gearing up to launch its newest show Mas Que Un Juego, on Thursday, January 7, 2021 via La Vida Baseball’s (@lavidabaseball) social media platforms. The new show celebrates the Latino experience through unfiltered conversations with some of the biggest names in baseball including current and former Latino MLB players. This announcement is the first of several new content initiatives and distribution partnerships planned for 2021.
“As Latinos, it is important that we continue to shape our own narrative. Opportunities like Mas Que Un Juego help us do that,” says Luis Tiant, former Boston Red Sox pitcher.
The first captivating episode features a candid and compelling conversation on culture and identity with Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez, Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero and former MLB great, pitcher Luis Tiant.
Mas Que Un Juego is an opportunity for fans to hear the most revered figures in sports openly talk about their experiences and stories. The half-hour long episode features authentic and passionate discussions about the game of baseball and the issues that are important to Latinos and their communities. Listeners are granted unprecedented access as these players share intimate stories about their lives outside of baseball and what it means to be Latino in professional sports in the United States.
“La Vida Baseball is launching Mas Que Un Juego to reflect a time when we’re celebrating all things Latinx and taking a hard look at the lack of inclusion in the United States,” says Jesse Menendez, La Vida Baseball Managing Director. “It’s important to continuously engage the growing Latino audience in authentic ways by sharing our stories and journey – from how we arrived in the U.S., to how our upbringing in our país has shaped who we are, uplifting stories about our beloved communities and hearing how the struggles of being Latinx and immigrants applies to all of us, including pro athletes.”
La Vida Baseball host and producer Jennifer Mercedes (@LaChicaDeportes) is at the helm of this roundtable discussion. Mas Que Un Juego will air on La Vida Baseball’s (@lavidabaseball) social media platforms and LaVidaBaseball.com. The series will run throughout 2021.
For more information about La Vida Baseball and Mas Que Un Juego, please visit lavidabaseball.com.
The NFL regular season is in the books and the playoffs are set to begin this weekend. With the final lineup of teams now established, it’s time for sports gamblers to dig in and place their bets on who will make it to the Super Bowl. There were certainly plenty of futures bets made throughout the season that, if they hold up, will have awesome payouts, but the picture is now clearer and the final race to hoist the Lombardi Trophy on February 7 is going to be a good one.
The Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV last year and entered this season ready to defend that title. They’ve done a good job, too, and are favorites to win their second consecutive title. William Hill is giving them +150 to be crowned champs again, while the Westgate SuperBook is giving them +175. Bodog is giving them +200, PointsBet has them at longer odds, at +220, and BetMGM lists them at +240. The Chiefs, with their AFC-leading 14-2 record, get a first-round bye in the postseason and home-field advantage, and are getting a lot of support from gamblers.
On the NFC side of the house, the Green Bay Packers are receiving a lot of attention and, should they make it to the Super Bowl, could give the Chiefs a hard time. The Packers took the top seed in the conference after a 13-3 season and William Hill has them listed at +500 to win the big game. PointsBet is a little more confident, giving them +450, and the SuperBook puts them way out there at +600. Bodog thinks the Packers have a chance – although not as good as the Chiefs – and puts the line at +433 and BetMGM has them at +550.
The Chiefs have a lot of talent on the roster that was carried over from last year. However, they have also run into a little difficulty at times this year, which could be an issue in the postseason. PointsBet Senior Sports Content Analyst Andrew Mannino told Casino.org, “The Packers have an easier path through the NFC than anybody in the AFC, with the Chiefs having to deal with the Bills and the Ravens and the Steelers. In the NFC, Seattle’s a very good team, New Orleans is a very good team. But I think this is shaping up to be Green Bay’s conference.”
The marquee matchup on a busy Wednesday around the NBA is Boston at Miami, and the last time the Celtics “visited” the Heat it was it was Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals about 250 miles north of Miami in the Orlando bubble. Young Heat star Bam Adebayo dominated in that game with 32 points and 14 rebounds as Miami won 125-113 to reach the NBA Finals – which it would lose to the Lakers. It was the third time in the past four seasons in which Boston lost in the East Finals.
It’s quite possible both get back to the East Finals next summer. Boston isn’t quite full strength right now as All-Star point guard Kemba Walker has yet to play this season due to offseason knee surgery. He’s not expected to debut by Wednesday, either. Miami is -2.5 for the contest and 5-2 ATS in the past seven meetings.
Wednesday will also complete an unusual Florida Swing for the Celtics as they played “at” the Toronto Raptors on Monday with the Raptors’ temporary home in Tampa due to COVID border restrictions in Canada. This has to be the first Tampa/Miami swing in NBA history considering Tampa has never had an NBA team.
Over the course of the current 2020/21 Premier League season, there have been plenty of cases of players testing positive for COVID-19. Despite the protection of protocols that have been put in place to insulate players and staff at the 20 Premier League clubs, modern football heroes such as Kyle Walker, Gabriel Jesus and Ederson at Manchester City have all contracted the virus.
In the last seven days, positive cases in the Premier League have doubled, and with U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnston instigating a third national lockdown, should elite football such as the Premier League go ahead?
West Bromwich Albion manager Sam Allardyce thinks that a two-week ‘circuit breaker’ period where Premier League football stops is the solution.
https://youtu.be/LWC1P-f0YR8?t=154Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Should Premier League pause season for two weeks? (https://youtu.be/LWC1P-f0YR8?t=154)
Some sports are born for the television. In football, that applies to clubs too. But when should the light be shone on a football team? In their darkest hour, such as the Netflix documentary Sunderland Til I Die, or in their moment of glory, like the Amazon Prime series Manchester City: All or Nothing?
In the 2000 documentary, Manchester United: Beyond the Promised Land, the cameras go behind the scenes at Old Trafford, Carrington and even the plains of Brazil as the world’s biggest football club at the time moves into a new future having just won a prize – or rather three prizes – that have not been gathered in the same season before or since by an English side.
In the 1998/99 season, Manchester United won the English Premier League, F.A. Cup and UEFA Champions League. Not only has no other team done exactly that in football history, no-one has come close. In that respect, this documentary which follows the action in the following season of 1999/2000, everything was set up for United to fail. Any team would find it virtually impossible to achieve the same level of success, but United lost one of their key players in the months between that treble victory and kicking off the new season – Peter Schmeichel.
With pressures of the FIFA Club World Cup added into the mix, it was a season unlike any other, with United failing to take place in the F.A. Cup for that reason. That caused a deal of controversy at the time, but the documentary frustratingly swerves the debate for completion of including the footage of United in Brazil. While the Red Devils would eventually miss out on the latter stages, losing to Vasco da Gama to crash out at the group stage, the hullabaloo about United pulling out of the F.A. Cup as arguably a storm they didn’t need and it affected the rest of the season.
The NFL regular season is now officially in the books and, with it, the last push for sports gamblers before taking a look at who is in the playoffs and who has a shot at winning the Super Bowl. The Bodog sportsbook continued to see a lot of wagers on both NFL and college football games this past weekend as the final games were played but, with its season just getting started, the NBA is slowly gaining more ground. By this time next month, with only the Super Bowl remaining, NBA wagers will rule the charts.
The NFL gave Bodog 33.67% of its action this past weekend, followed by college football and its 25.8%. The college football championship game is going to be played next Monday, pitting the Ohio State Buckeyes against the Alabama Crimson Tide in what is going to be a rematch from several years ago. This game is certain to find a lot of wagers, with both teams enjoying nationwide support.
The NBA accounted for 15.74% of the wagers on Bodog this past weekend, slightly lower than what was seen a week ago. This was undoubtedly due to the final push in the NFL regular season. Men’s college basketball wasn’t too far behind, at 15.48%, a hint of what’s to come once the NFL and college football seasons wrap up. Following on the heels of football and basketball, soccer continues to grab some of the action, but not a whole lot. Spain’s La Liga picked up 1.97% of the Bodog wagers, Germany’s Bundesliga followed with 1.87%, England’s Premier League was next with 1.55% and eSoccer and the GT G-26 League rounded out the soccer segment with 1.39% and 1.31%, respectively. Table tennis continues to hang in there, capturing 1.21% of the wagers.
When the Buckeyes met the Clemson Tigers to find out if they were good enough to make it to the championship game, they found bettors giving them a lot of attention. That game was the top-ranked game on Bodog this past weekend, getting 19.13% of the action. The NFL managed to claim the second spot, with the game between the Washington Football Team (WFT) and the Philadelphia Eagles grabbing 16.82% of the wagers. Washington won that game and are headed to the playoffs after demonstrating what determination and stubbornness in the face of adversity can deliver. From an owner being called out for sexual harassment to a head coach battling cancer, the WFT has had a difficult season.
The first trophy of any domestic football season is always fiercely competed for, but in particular in England. The big clubs see it a way of putting down a marker, smaller less successful teams want to book a trophy win of any sort to buy time. Minnows dream of breaking the hierarchy to claim a precious piece of silverware.
Who’ll prevail in this week’s semi-finals? Of the four teams, each of those types are represented, with the holders, a big rival, a sleeping giant and a minnow all going into battle.
Tottenham Hotspur vs. Brentford (Tuesday, 7.45pm GMT kick-off)
This match-up pits Jose Mourinho’s Spurs against West London club Brentford in a David vs. Goliath fight to the death… well, a one-legged semi-final at Spurs’ home ground. It’s likely to be the Lilywhites who make the early moves as getting to the Wembley showpiece would be massive for Mourinho and a club in general who have been starved of trophies in recent decades.
Now sixty years after Hal Richman launched the first set of Strat-O-Matic (www.strat-o-matic.com) baseball cards, the market leader in sports simulation is set to celebrate its Diamond Anniversary (how appropriate!) with a full lineup of new items, including upgraded seasons, updated popular series including Hall of Fame and Negro League sets, and branded 60th Anniversary merchandise that longtime fans and newcomers alike will enjoy.
Strat-O-Matic, which has become legendary in the gaming industry and in sports, particularly in baseball, since Richman launched that initial set in 1961, will be upgrading the 1972 and 1956 seasons, two hugely popular years based on fan feedback, to Super Advanced status, for board and digital game play, as a highlight of new products for 2021.
The company is coming off a landmark year, which saw baseball board and Windows platform sales, game product sales, Baseball 365 sales and membership all saw steep increases. The 2020 Strat-O-Matic daily baseball season simulation also brought the company unprecedented attention from popular sports and entertainment personalities and media outlets. Basketball, football and hockey board, Windows, and 365 products also saw increases in sales and interest.
“It is hard to believe that it has been 60 years since we launched our first set of baseball cards,” said Richman, Strat-O-Matic founder. “This year’s offerings will be exciting for our fans, and I’m particularly pleased to be upgrading our first-ever ‘classic’ season of 1956, as it holds a special place for me.”
In addition to the classic baseball seasons, Strat-O-Matic will introduce numerous new products to commemorate the occasion. The popular Heroes series returns for a third edition, along with the 2021 Career Historical Update, Hall of Fame 2021 for Windows and three new Negro League seasons for Windows (1918, 1928 and 1943).
And Strat-O-Matic enthusiasts can show their fandom even more and help celebrate the anniversary with hats, t-shirts bearing the new 60th logo and the classic red game box, available in limited quantities.
Pre-orders for these products, as well as the 60-game and imagined full 2020 season sets, will begin on January 26. The Strat-O-Matic Headquarters will be closed to the public, and while pick up will be available “curbside” beginning on March 5, the company strongly encourages ordering via the strat-o-matic.com website for delivery this year.
“While it’s disappointing to not have our annual Opening Day activities that thousands have enjoyed as tradition for years,” added Richman, “we hope that making available the new seasons and products that so many have been requesting will renew everyone’s excitement for the new year as they help us celebrate.”
At a time when cryptocurrencies are seeing massive gains that could rival those of 2017, one exchange specializing in digital currency wants to become a more diverse platform. Eris Exchange (ErisX) wants to give its users more than just crypto options and has asked (pdf) the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for permission to include NFL futures contracts among its list of available options.
ErisX reportedly reached out to the CFTC in December, submitting a request to be able to offer “fully collateralized and financially settled contracts” that would be generated off NFL wagers, including moneyline, Over/Under and point spread futures. It explained that its target for the futures contracts are sportsbooks, vendors and stadium owners, adding, “Contrary to popular belief, licensed sportsbooks do not seek to make money based on the outcome of sporting events; rather they seek to maximize their revenue from the collection of fees.”
It all comes down to risk management for sports gambling operators and ErisX has a solid argument for its futures contracts. Sports gambling lines can, and sometimes are, skewed by the markets they serve – a sportsbook in Louisiana, for example, could have different lines than a Colorado sportsbook for a home game for the New Orleans Saints. Many industries, including airlines and large food stores, play the futures game with their prices on a daily basis, so having it come into sports gambling an outrageous concept.
Currently, most sportsbooks try to balance the odds based on different data points, but this sometimes falls short. As ErisX points out, “One notable example of an imbalanced book relates to the 2019 Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams, when an imbalance in the books caused New Jersey Licensed Sportsbooks to lose more than $4.5 million based upon the outcome of the Super Bowl. Similarly, Rhode Island Licensed Sportsbooks reportedly lost $2.3 million on a total of $6.5 million wagered on that same game – more than a third of the total volume wagered.”
2020 was an interesting year for sports, with COVID-19 causing all kinds of grief for leagues everywhere. At the same time, though, sports fans were also kept entertained with some unexpected outcomes. The NFL season is close to the finish line, having survived a couple of coronavirus scares, with the Super Bowl coming up in just about a month. The final lineup for the postseason was cemented this past weekend as Week 17 games concluded and football fans can now get busy wagering on who’s going to advance in the playoffs and who’s going home.
There was some doubt whether the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would be able to survive to make it to the playoffs this year, despite the fact that they brought on five-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady to lead the charge. They made it, but showed yesterday that they still have work to do in order to become a championship team. The Bucs, at times, looking like they might lose to the Atlanta Falcons, who were able to rebound and come to within three points with just over eight minutes left in the game. However, relying on the veteran QB, the Bucs kept it together and ended up clinching the fifth seed in the NFC as Brady pushed his team to a 44-27 victory. It was good enough for an NFC wild-card spot, and the Bucs will meet the Washington Football Team (WFT) in the wild card game next week.
The WFT gets to head to the playoffs in spectacular fashion. The team has had to deal with major adversities this season, from its owner being blasted for sexual misconduct to its head coach going through treatment for cancer. It survived all of it, though, taking the NFC East yesterday against the Philadelphia Eagles, 20-14, for its first playoff appearance since 2015. Not bad for a team that finished the season at 7-9. The WFT is the first team ever in the NFL to hit the postseason after starting the regular season 2-7.
The Miami Dolphins were on the verge of making it to the playoffs, but fell apart yesterday against the Buffalo Bills. Several interceptions and bad plays, coupled with an outstanding performance by Bills QB Josh Allen, left the Fins on the sidelines as they fell 56-26. The Bills will hope Allen, who is in contention for an NFL MVP award, will keep up his performance in the playoffs, as the number-two AFC seed take on the Indianapolis Colts in the wild-card round.
Rather amazingly, the NFL is going to be able to complete its full regular season during a coronavirus pandemic, something that Major League Baseball, the NBA or NHL couldn’t do. Week 17 is upon us, meaning every game is played Sunday and is an intradivisional matchup.
Some spreads will look a bit unusual this week where perhaps an inferior team is favored over a clearly better one. That’s because some playoff-bound teams have nothing to play for and likely will rest starters. For example, when the Los Angeles Chargers visit the Kansas City Chiefs.
Kansas City has wrapped up the top seed in the AFC, and Coach Andy Reid already has acknowledged he’s going to rest some key guys – a list that starts with quarterback Patrick Mahomes. It concludes a fabulous season for Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, who should win NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. Los Angeles is a 3.5-point favorite despite winning just once in the past 13 in the series.
Great sports movies require a few critical elements to be present. They need some bona fide celebrities, someone who can play the sport in question and – possibly most ideally – a brilliant script. 1981’s Escape to Victory arguably has all three in place… but does that make it a great movie?
The film’s title reflects how much the plot owes to The Great Escape, which was released in 1963 and is about prisoners of war escaping from the Germans’ clutches. In Escape to Victory, the Allied prisoners of war attempt to escape the Germans’ clutches when… hang on, that’s exactly the same idea.
The crucial difference, of course, is football. The Allies don’t go for the same escape route that was blundered by Steve McQueen et al. Instead, they centre their attempts (or perhaps centre-half might be more appropriate) on an escape during a football match. Organised from a rabble into a rousing football team, the squad rely on the coaching and captaincy of two army Captains, Hatch and Colby, who are played by Sly Stallone and Michael Caine respectively.
With the Allied team due to escape the PoW camp at half-time in the game that has been arranged against their German captors, when half-time arrives they are unjustly 4-1 down. Quite against logic, they decide to play on during the second half (“But we can win this!”) and go on the attack in order to try to win the game.
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The Test Series between Australia and India is evenly poised after India claimed an eight wicket win over the home side in Melbourne. The two sides head to Sydney with the series tied at one Test apiece.
India will feel that they have Australia’s measure, and the stats don’t lie; no Australian batsman passed 50 in Melbourne, the last time that happened was against the West Indies, in the 1988/89 season.
Australia’s batsmen have been exposed by a fired-up Indian bowling attack over the first two Test matches. No Australian batsman has made a century against India over the last two series played in Australia. Tim Paine’s innings of 74 in Adelaide, remains the top score for the Aussies so far in the series.
Indian stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane led from the front in the absence of Virat Kohli. Rahane’s innings of 112, was his second century in consecutive appearances in Melbourne. Expect Rahane again to be amongst the runs in the spin-friendly conditions of the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
New Year’s Day is the signature day of college football’s bowl season, and there are four games on the holiday to kick off 2021, including the two College Football Playoff semifinals.
The first game at noon ET is the Peach Bowl from Atlanta as No. 9 Georgia visits No. 8 Cincinnati. The unbeaten and American Athletic Conference champion Bearcats seem to have gotten the shaft from the College Football Playoff selection committee as they were dominant this season, especially on defense (16.0 ppg allowed) but were penalized for playing a relatively week schedule. Frankly, if this year’s Cincinnati team didn’t make the playoff, no Group of 5 school ever will unless it expands.
A two-loss season and a spot in a New Year’s Six bowl would be great for many programs but not for Georgia, which had national championship expectations. However, the Dawgs lost by double digits to both Alabama and Florida. Georgia is a 7-point favorite and is 14-1 straight up in its past 15 as a favorite.
This is it – the last few days of 2020 and the chance to get prepared to start fresh in 2021. Regardless of what has happened this year, it’s now in the past and there’s a whole new world waiting ahead. Professional sports have helped, to some degree, withstand the headaches caused by COVID-19 and the NFL season has proven to be a great way to close out the year. As Week 16, the last full week of the season, is now in the books, football games continue to drive sports gambling on Bodog, and this past weekend’s numbers show it.
The NFL was responsible for 52.39% of the wagers on Bodog this past weekend. It has some competition now, as the new NBA season has now gotten underway with some impressive games, including one that saw the LA Clippers set a record for the biggest halftime deficit, at 50 points, against the Dallas Mavericks. That game helped attract some attention to NBA games on Bodog, with the league’s games taking 27.38% of the wagers on the sportsbook.
College sports continue to find some action, but no one can honestly say that the attention is overwhelming. NCAA Men’s basketball games only took 8.49% of the wagers on Bodog, while NCAA football took 4.5%. With these kinds of numbers, it’s difficult for anyone to assert that allowing wagers on college-level sports is going to drastically alter the sports gambling panorama.
Premier League soccer grabbed 2.12% of the bets on Bodog, followed by eSoccer with 1.29%. Chinese basketball, with the CBA, saw a little attention as it took 1.1% of the wagers before soccer made another appearance. The GT G-26 League found 1.01% of the bets on the sportsbook this past weekend.
It was a busy Boxing Day festive schedule, with the games played on 26th and 27th of December in the Premier League yielding over 20 goals. Who got the better of the drama? Take a look.
Leicester City 2-2 Manchester United
The spoils were shared at the King Power Stadium as The Foxes twice from behind to draw with the Red Devils.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side stretched their unbeaten run away from home but failed to get all three points after Brendan Rodgers’ side showed resilience and quality to twice come back from a goal down to prevent their illustrious visitors leapfrogging them into second place at the top of the table.
Christmas may be a time for rest to many people but for footballers it’s one of the most intensive periods of the whole year. With fixtures crammed in like pigs in blankets over yuletide.
With matches at the top and bottom of the League, who’ll get three vital points to take their team into the New Year with hope for a bright second half of the season?
Chelsea vs. Aston Villa (Monday, 5.30pm GMT kick-off)
A crucial match for the home side, this could be a pivotal game in the managerial career of Frank Lampard too. Villa come into the game in terrific form, which is the complete opposite of a Chelsea side who have lost three in four Premier League games. With defeats to Everton, Wolves and Arsenal, The Blues are in a rotten run of form, and desperately need a win to put themselves back in charge of their own destiny when it comes to qualifying for the Champions League. The title looks out of reach.
The marquee day of the NBA’s regular season each year is Christmas Day because those are usually the only live professional sports events going in the United States on the holiday (there is an NFL game Friday). Thus, the games draw huge television ratings and give the NBA the national spotlight; to make their TV partners happy, the NBA rushed the start of the 2020-21 regular season so that Christmas games would happen.
Only the league’s marquee teams and biggest stars play on the holiday, which means of course LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers will play Friday as the defending NBA champions host early MVP betting favorite Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks at 8 p.m. ET.
The Mavs will be without their second-best player, Kristaps Porzingis, as he recovers from offseason surgery. The Lakers lost their opener at home to the Clippers on Tuesday and LeBron tweaked his ankle, but he says he will be fine for this one. Dallas lost in Phoenix. Los Angeles is a 6-point favorite and 5-1 ATS in the past six meetings.
