Each Friday, we’ll comb through as many articles, tweets and podcasts as we can find related to the world of sports betting and daily fantasy sports, and publish the good stuff here.
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The Wofford Terriers took down North Carolina for the biggest upset of the college basketball season.
North Carolina was a 25-point favorite to beat Wofford on Wednesday night. If you were betting on the moneyline, you would have had to wager $3,750 to win only $100, which someone apparently did as it implied a 97.4 percent chance of victory.
NFL favorites went 14-0 last weekend.
According to ESPN Stats and Information, favorites had won every game during an NFL week twice previously since the 1970 merger — Week 9 of the 2005 season and Week 5 of the 2006 season.
Favorites went 11-0 straight-up and 7-2-2 against the spread Sunday, resulting in a costly football week for some Las Vegas sportsbooks. Parlays and teasers — many of them filled with favorites — fueled one of the best Sundays of the NFL season for bettors.
“Teasers were particularly bad,” Bob Scucci, sportsbook director for Boyd Gaming books, told ESPN.
If a bettor had used a 14-team money-line parlay of all favorites from the closing lines of the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook, a $100 bet would have won $12,584.40.
Oddsmakers are having a difficult time with the Golden State Warriors this season.
“It’s a headache,” professional bettor Erin Rynning told ESPN. “You do all this research, and you want to think you’re going to get 100 percent effort. That’s the frustrating thing with the Warriors. They are bored. They have bigger fish to fry.”
Statistically, the Warriors are among the NBA’s most unpredictable teams this season. On average, their final scores land 10.5 points away from the point spread, according to Rob Nelson of ESPN Stats & Information.
“The one-seed means nothing [to them],” Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook head NBA oddsmaker and manager Jeff Sherman said. “The regular season is the preseason to these guys.”
Golden State began this year by covering just one of its first seven games. Following that, it covered six straight, only to lose the next five against the point spread. The Warriors have lost twice outright as double-digit home favorites.
“What everyone forgets is they’re one of the top defensive teams,” Rynning said. “Sometimes you get their full throttle effort, and that is tough to beat.”