Show of hands: Who else nearly shed some tears when the NCAA
basketball tournament was canceled back in March?
If you raised your hand, maybe you were one of those who
began placing bets on Russian ping-pong leagues in the four months since as the
sports landscape has remained mostly dormant.
Seriously. Russian ping-pong.
“I was pleasantly surprised how many people were betting on
it. That was interesting,” Josh Byerly, the Sports Wagering Manager at French
Lick Casino, said with a laugh. “We took several bets on it, and I couldn’t
even find a channel to watch it. That was something that was unexpected. That
just shows you, you can bet on almost any sport imaginable.”
We deserve some good news, and it’s finally arrived: Big
sports are back.
Major League Baseball officially launched Thursday, and by
the time the NBA and NHL are up and running by next weekend on August 1, “I
expect us to start picking back up,” Josh says of the bet volume and foot
traffic at the sportsbook.
Open and ready
The big screens in French Lick Casino’s sportsbook lounge
will finally have live action again, and chairs are still set up for
watching — just with a little more distance between them now.
If you’re placing a sportsbook bet, head to one of the 24/7
self-service kiosks and choose
from dozens of different sports — anything from Aussie Rules Football to
darts to sailing. In-person betting at the sportsbook counter is temporarily
unavailable, but you can obviously still wager through betrivers.com, French Lick Casino’s online
partner, and place those socially distant bets from anywhere.
More to think about
So, is Pacers star Victor Oladipo playing or sitting out? No
one has a clue. Could a championship contender be undercut by a rash of positive
virus tests or mandatory quarantines at a crucial time?
Stay tuned, as there’s a ton of new storylines independent
of the sports themselves. From a new absence of home-court advantage in the NBA
Bubble in Florida, to players opting out of the season for health concerns,
there’s suddenly a lot more variables to stay apprised of before laying down
your wagers.
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| Find scrolling odds for upcoming games on the screens at the sportsbook window, while futures odds are on the opposite wall to the left of the viewing lounge. |
Those old bets are still valid
Just in case you were wondering: If you placed a futures bet
at the sportsbook back in January, those wagers are still valid.
“Even though the season got paused midway through, if you
had bet on the Lakers to win it all six months ago, that ticket’s still valid.
Don’t throw it away, it’s still good, it’ll still be honored and paid out
whenever the season ends,” Josh said. “That would be the same way with the NHL
and MLB.”
The favorites
Speaking of the Pacers, they open the season’s restart as
the 12th favorite to win the NBA title (+10000) while the Lakers
(+240), Bucks (+250) and Clippers (+333) are the betting favorites.
And if you’re a fan of the Cardinals, Reds or Cubs? This
60-game regular season looks like an entertaining sprint. The Cubs start as a
slight favorite to win the National League Central (+225) just ahead of the
Reds (+230) and Cardinals (+240). The Cubs and Cardinals share the same odds to
win the World Series as the ninth favorite (+2200) with the Reds at +2500. The
top odds to win the World Series belong to the Dodgers (+375), Yankees (+400)
and Astros (+800).
No shortage of options now
This July spot in the sports calendar used to be a lull for
sportsbooks. Not the case in this upside-down 2020.
With NBA/NHL playoffs and the Indy 500 pushed to late
summer, bettors won’t have a shortage of major events to wager on. Maybe it
won’t rival the popularity of football bets, but if the last few months are an
indication, sports fans are eager for anything.
“We’ve seen record handle on every U.S. sport that has
resumed its season, including UFC, NASCAR and PGA golf, which has showed that
there is a great appetite for sports and sports betting in the US,” says Mattias Stetz, COO of Rush Street Interactive which operates BetRivers.com. “NBA has always
been one of the most popular betting leagues, and we expect it to hit the top
spot immediately once it is back in action on July 30.”
Added Byerly: “I expect it to come back very well, because I
think we’re all just starved for sports. We took it for granted how often we
watch a sporting event as an escape from everything else in the world. I’m
certainly ready.”
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