Tag Archives: #sportsgambling

This year’s NFL Draft to produce the largest handle ever

It was already expected that this year’s NFL Draft would attract a lot of attention from sports gamblers. The coronavirus pandemic has temporarily shut down virtually all athletic competitions, leaving gamblers without much direction. As a result, they’re going to channel their energy (and money) into the draft, and most sports gambling analysts predict that this year will see the most activity ever witnessed in a draft. The handle taken by sportsbooks could be at least five times what was received last year or as much as 20 times higher.

Bet-NJ expects that $5 million will be wagered on the NFL Draft, which will get underway today and run through Saturday. Last year, the handle was just $1 million and, combined revenue for states where the practice is allowed will be about $500,000. Not much compared to what sportsbooks had been hoping for with sports contests, but it’s better than nothing and a step toward recovery. Fox Bet predicts an even greater amount, asserting that the market might reach as high as $20 million.

William Hill’s director of trading, Nick Bogdanovich, discussed the draft with Forbes magazine a couple of weeks ago, asserting, “This year’s draft will be by far the biggest handle we’ve seen. As an isolated event, there is more interest. Had the NFL Draft been held in Las Vegas as originally scheduled, there’s no telling how much would have been bet but we would have written an insane amount of money.”

William Hill US CEO Joe Asher is just as convinced as Bogdanovich, telling The Associated Press, “There’s no doubt this will be the biggest-bet draft ever. The draft is a time of renewal, and I think people are looking forward to a bit of fun after all of the tough news we’ve had recently. Betting on the draft is small in context, so this is no silver bullet, but it’s something positive for sure.”

Novak Djokovic faces ATP backlash over COVID vaccine refusal

With tennis on an indefinite hiatus, there have been many questions about how and when the game will return at the highest level.

One question that may yet need plenty more debate for it to find an answer has emerged this week as Serbian tennis legend and 16-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic has said that he wouldn’t want “to be forced by someone to take a vaccine” in a chat between Serbian athletes on Facebook.

To date, there has been uniformity across tennis, with players, officials and commentators saying that when the game returns, all players should be given any vaccine that is available.

World number one Novak Djokovic, however, does not agree.

NFL Draft odds – Spotlight on the quarterbacks

Let’s face it: Every NFL Draft is about the quarterbacks. It’s the most important, high-profile position in all of sports. Even in the rare years where a signal-caller isn’t going to be the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, it’s still all about the quarterbacks.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Barring an absolute stunning trade offer from someone like the Miami Dolphins (think multiple first-round picks), the Cincinnati Bengals are going to take LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, the 2019 Heisman Trophy winner, at No. 1 overall on Thursday night. He will be the third LSU player to go first, following running back Billy Cannon in 1960 (to the Rams) and quarterback JaMarcus Russell in 2007 (to the Raiders). Russell was arguably the biggest bust in draft history.

Oddsmakers are so sure that Burrow will go first that he’s priced at -10000 to do so. That’s just to go first overall, not to a specific team. That’s an important designation to keep in mind on those props for a guy being selected at a certain spot. Trades are going to happen. Burrow will be the third straight Heisman Trophy-winning QB to go first, following Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield in 2018 (to the Browns) and OU’s Kyler Murray last year (to the Cardinals).

Five Super Bowl betting upsets no-one saw coming

The NFL Draft is just three days away, but for anyone dreaming of being in the pre-season favourites, we featured evidence recently about how that might be a poisoned chalice. If you wanted further evidence of this, you only have to look at these five Super Bowl finals, where the favourites fell at the final hurdle.

Super Bowl III – New York Jets 16-7 Baltimore Colts

18-point underdogs New York Jets somehow got the better of the Baltimore Colts after a scoreless first three quarters and a field goal early in the final period saw The Jets surge into a 16-0 lead.

That the Colts then scored seven points was nothing but a consolation as 1969 saw over 75,000 fans inside the Miami Orange Bowl stunned by the American Football League winners triumphing against the NFL’s finest. It remains one of the biggest shocks ever seen in the sport.

EPL Invitational Tournament Takes Place This Week

The Esports crossover with Premier League football continues this week as more superstars of the modern game go head-to-head with each at FIFA20, with the sportsbook already available in the U.K.

Just over a week ago, plenty of England’s best players went against each other on the PlayStation pitch rather than the Wembley situated in North London under the famous arches. That was a very good thing for anyone wishing to make a profit from betting on these latest Esports fixtures, as it hinted at the form of players about to do battle.

With the whole tournament taking place between April 21st – 25th inclusive, 10 Premier Leagues will be represented. Here are the full fixtures (with the only odds currently available applying to games on Day 1):

Tuesday April 21st

MLB approves league furloughs, pay reductions, but not for players

Just as Major League Baseball (MLB) was preparing for Opening Day, along came the coronavirus, preventing the league from even entering the batter’s box. That was almost two months ago, and there is still no clear picture about when, and if, the 2020 season will be allowed to resume. Ideas on resuming play, such as holding all games in Phoenix, Arizona, have been floated, but the odds of that happening are about as good as Hillary Clinton winning this year’s presidential election (since she’s not even a candidate, the result should be clear). Still, MLB was willing to recognize the efforts being made by its employees across the country to keep the league ready for action, and agreed to cover certain salaries for a while. However, all good things must come to an end, and MLB brass is giving teams permission to make cuts where necessary – players excluded.

About a week ago, MLB announced that it would pay its employees through the end of May and that the top league officials were going to reduce their pay by an average of 35%. It also said that players would be eligible to receive some type of compensation from a $170-million fund that was being created. As of today, though, teams could have the green light from MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred to temporarily lay off employees or reduce their salaries if they feel it’s necessary. The only exemption, as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic points out, is that players cannot be touched.

Nothing would be better than to see all sports leagues back in action. Ideas of games in different sports beginning in May or June are still being discussed, but nothing definite has been, or will be, decided quickly. According to Stephanie Apstein of Sports Illustrated, “[According] to the experts—medical experts, not the money-making experts in league offices—we will not have sports any time soon.”

Still, others in the medical community believe that something could happen soon. Most notably, the top coronavirus fighter in the U.S., Dr. Anthony Fauci, said last week, “There’s a way [for players to play]. Put them in big hotels wherever you want to play. Keep them very well surveilled and name me a surveillance. But have them tested, like every week and make sure they don’t wind up infecting each other or their family. And just let them play the season out. People say, ‘Well, you can’t play without spectators. Well, I think you’d probably get enough buy-in from people who are dying to see a baseball game, particularly me. I’m living in Washington. We have the world champion Washington Nationals. I want to see them play again.”

Teams of the Century: Chelsea (2009/10)

To say that the 2009/10 English Premier League season was entertaining would be to understate to a huge degree. Chelsea’s victorious campaign under newly-appointed Carlo Ancelotti was to be one of the watershed seasons in the Premier League as the West London side denied Manchester united a fourth Premier League title in a row with a record-breaking display of attacking football.

The season began with a nice run of fixtures for Ancelotti’s side, who beat Hull City, Sunderland, Fulham, Burnley and Stoke City in their first five fixtures, as they eased in new signings such as Yuri Zhirkov, Nemanja Matic and Daniel Sturridge, who as it would transpire, would hardly feature at all other than in substitute appearances.

After that opening run of comfortable wins against lower-half opposition, Chelsea showed in their next four fixtures displays that would come to define their league season. After beating Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea then lost away to Wigan. Right back at it in the next game, The Blues beat Liverpool at home, before again losing on their travels at Aston Villa. A frailty on the road to teams who were prepared to try to open Chelsea up was emerging, but Ancelotti persevered with an outrageously attacking formation. Flair players such as Florent Malouda and Joe Cole had a field day, wing-backs like Ashley Cole flew forward in cavalier fashion.

During a season in which they scored a record 103 Premier League goals, Chelsea didn’t just beat teams, they beat them up. The Blues smashed seven goals past Sunderland, Aston Villa and Stoke City during the second half of the season. They would win their final game at home to Wigan, a game that they had to win to seal the title, 8-0.

Will profit outweigh politics as Vegas embraces Esports betting?

The advent of online gaming as a sportsbetting franchise is one that isn’t new and, in many ways, has always been there. From virtual gaming to pre-game betting, much of the money that has been staked on sporting events over the course of the last century has been done so in a world of imagined sporting acts, before the first horse has broken the tape or the first football has been kicked.

In modern society, Esports bettors were, for years, having to push for sportsbetting on their particular favourite game to be acceptable within the traditional hubs of sportsbetting. They don’t get bigger in that sense than Las Vegas, which has been something of a ghost town recently rather than the neon-lit gamblers’ paradise that it has been known for over many years.

Last week’s manic demand that casinos need to reopen because the COVID-19 restrictions are ‘killing’ the industry by the Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman sparked much discussion and comes at a time when many Americans are making similar demands for the country to reopen, despite rapidly rising numbers of the population Stateside being infected with Coronavirus and almost a quarter of the current death toll falling victim to the disease in the U.S.A.

While casinos look destined to remain closed for the foreseeable future, throwing the idea of the World Series of Poker and other forthcoming festivals into extreme doubt at the very least, Las Vegas has approved four new Esports games for sportsbetting. Overwatch League, League of Legends European Championship and the North America League of Legends Championship will all be able to be wagered on in Nevada over forthcoming weeks, and as a recent look at Esports betting in the Washington Post surmises, the Nevada Gaming Commission can often “act as a barometer for much of the sportsbetting world”.

Nevada allows wagering on WNBA draft, Call of Duty League

The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) continues to roll out new gambling options for Las Vegas sports books to offer, but a recent addition might have come a little too late. The regulator announced on April 16 that the WNBA draft and Call of Duty League are now permitted for wagering.

For punters looking to bet on basketball, any basketball, even the idea of basketball, Vegas sports books have been cleared to offer lines on the 2020 WNBA draft scheduled for April 17 at 4:00 pm. But there’s a limit to what can be offered. Any player specific props had to be taken off the board 24 hours before the start of the draft.

As the Las Vegas Review-Journal pointed out, no such wagers were offered before the deadline came. In fact, none of the casinos with mobile offerings had made any WNBA draft lines yet, raising the possibility that this approval could have come a little too late.

Even if those lines do show up at the last minute, esports fans will still have plenty of time to jump on wagers for the 2020 Call of Duty League. Approved along the same lines as the 2020 Overwatch League, punters will be able to bet on head to head, winners, and winner of the overall league.

PGA Tour tees up to get back in the swing of things

Sports fans were given a little good news by the PGA yesterday. After golfers were forced to store their clubs and spikes because of the coronavirus, the PGA has put together a new schedule of events and will be ready to resume the PGA Tour this June. While the world waits and watches to see if the NBA, MLB and others will be able to pick up where they left off, it’s a little comforting to see that progress is being made and that the light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to grow brighter.

The first event in the newly-updated schedule will be the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, which was initially planned for May 18-24. It will run from June 8-14 at the Colonial Country Club, and will be the first of five invitationals on the tour. Next up, Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island in South Carolina will host the second event, the RBC Heritage.  Having been forced out of its May 25-31 slot, the event will take place July 2-5. These two events, as well as the Memorial Tournament, which will take place July 13-19, will have their fields opened up to 144 golfers in order to give more opportunities to PGA Tour members.

Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, explains of the schedule relaunch, “The health and safety of all associated with the PGA TOUR and our global community continues to be our No. 1 priority, and our hope is to play a role – responsibly – in the world’s return to enjoying the things we love. Today’s announcement is another positive step for our fans and players as we look toward the future, but as we’ve stressed on several occasions, we will resume competition only when – working closely with our tournaments, partners and communities – it is considered safe to do so under the guidance of the leading public health authorities.”

It’s not too surprising that golf would be able to bounce back sooner than other sports. It’s an individual’s game, in most cases, and doesn’t have to be concerned with close physical contact between groups of athletes – social distancing is essentially integrated into the game. However, it isn’t clear from the PGA Tour’s announcement if any type of quarantine, health precautions (such as mandatory facemasks) or coronavirus testing will be implemented in connection with the events.

Betting on the mishaps of the 2020 NFL Draft

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

Premier League Clubs to Vote on 30th June Deadline

With a hiatus of five weeks already having passed, the Premier League teams will meet on Friday April 17th to discuss the possibility of either ending the season on 30th June or declaring the current season to be complete by that date.

With the Premier League suggesting earlier in the week that they won’t have a fine of over £300 million applied to them for reneging on games being broadcasted, there has been some suggestion that the lifting of this potential punishment makes it more likely that one of two options will be used as the summer approaches with no apparent end in sight to the cessation of the suspensions put in place by the threat of COVID-19.

A deadline of June 30th would see several contractual situations come to a head, with several Premier League players such as Chelsea wing-forward Willian being out of contract by that time. A rolling contract to finish the season was one suggestion for players in such contract run-off situations, but how long can that rolling situation go on? Would the players need to be paid throughout that time if football has been declared unsafe to play in the current conditions.

Public movement towards the possibility of Premier League football taking place behind closed doors has changed slightly, with the overall feeling that ‘proper football’ would only comprise of fan-attended games looking like more and more of a forlorn hope in recent weeks.

The upcoming NFL Draft is drawing a lot of gambling action

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.

Major League Soccer moves online for eMLS Tournament Special

With the MLS soccer season showing no sign of starting soon, a five-week eMLS Tournament Special will be broadcast on FOX Sports 1 and Fox Deportes at 7.00pm ET from April 19th.

Taking place on PlayStation, the eMLS Tournament Special will feature players such as former Manchester United pair Nani and Chicharito Hernandez, who are both taking part. With 12 franchises involved, here’s how the full tournament schedule looks:

As you can see, each pro footballer will duke it out with the aid of a pro eSports player, and it is week 1 for the exciting appearance of Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez.

Each week will see one set of winners advance to a final week showdown of the four champion pairs. Camilo Durana, who is the Vice President of Properties and Events for MLS, spoke  with passion on the event in an MLS statement:

Sancho beats Rashford as Footballs Staying Home Tournament reaches quarter finals

An entertaining Round of 16 saw some of England’s finest footballers face off against each other on the virtual pitch for a FIFA 20 Esports event with a difference.

With a fundraising rally the main aim, there was plenty of banter between players from the Premier League, Bundesliga and Women’s Premier League as some of the best players in the Men’s and Women’s (and Under 21’s) England squads did battle for bragging rights in the Round of 16.

The first match-up was a clash between two of the best right backs in the country as Trent Alexander-Arnold of Liverpool took on Max Aarons of Norwich City. While it might have been expected that Alexander-Arnold would take his club form into the game, it was the exact opposite as Aarons put in a convincing performance to win 3-1.

Next up, it was a clash between two of North London’s finest as Tottenham Hotspur left wing-back Ryan Sessegnon took on Arsenal forward Reiss Nelson. The bragging rights would go the way of the former Fulham forward as Sessegnon won out by the same scoreline as in the first game.

Mental Health and Esports: How to cope with coronavirus isolation

There’s never been a more important time for Esports players to stay mentally fit and healthy as during a compulsory lockdown. While much of the world is enjoying the novelty of a government-enforced period of isolation, posting videos, promoting their ability to construct basic homework needs for under 7’s and generally selling how great they are, for many gamers, the everyday life has become an imposed normality.

With no ability to leave the house, however, are gamers more at risk of mental health problems than before the lockdown and perhaps ever before?

If so, it’s a very good thing that the video games mental health charity Safe In Our World which has been around since 2019 World Mental Health Day has launched a hub of information for information, support and advice around the Coronavirus or CVOID-19, however you might refer to the global pandemic. The site has launched with no huge fanfare but with a wealth of help for those affected and can be visited right here.

Safe in Our World is already very well known in the gaming community, with many top Esports players, veteran superstars and ambassadors speaking highly of the positive effects the charity has had around the world.

UFC backs off plan to host event at California tribal casino

UFC 249 will not be held at a California tribal casino this month after broadcaster ESPN reportedly refused to air the event due to COVID-19 concerns.

Earlier this week, word spread that UFC 249 would be held at the Tachi Palace Casino Resort in central California. The event was originally scheduled for April 18 in New York City but was cancelled after the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to large public gatherings.

The California State Athletic Commission had banned all combat sports through the end of May but the Tachi casino’s operators are a federally recognized tribe and thus a sovereign nation able to make its own decisions on what transpires on its land.

That theory came to naught on Thursday as the UFC issued a terse statement saying that while it was “fully prepared” to go ahead with the event, “ESPN has requested the postponement of the event and subsequent bouts until further notice in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.” The UFC said it looks forward to resuming its live events “as soon as possible.”

Footballers launch #PlayersTogether movement to help NHS

After weeks of discussions between politicians, football fans and Premier League players, an agreement has been reached. The #PlayersTogether initiative has been set up to help the National Health Service (NHS) who are battling to keep people alive during this present COVID-19 crisis.

Let’s get straight to the statement in question, and it was one that footballers such as Harry Maguire, Jordan Henderson and James Maddison all shared at the same time on their social media accounts. It’s all about the slick branding.

OK, so if you’re anything like us, you’ve read through that statement looking for the numbers. Because although it all sounds good – and kudos for swapping round the traditional ‘thoughts and prayers’ to the slightly edgier, marketing-toned ‘prayers and thoughts’ – the denial is in the detail.

What exactly is being promised is incredibly vague. A “voluntary initiative”, while paired with the NHS Charities Together (NHSCT) for credibility still very much sounds like footballers deciding to put their hands in their pockets very privately with no reveal of who gives what and why.