Betting buzz: Barkley among most-bet celebs at golf tournament
Everything that happens in sports has some additional context when viewed from a sports betting perspective. From season-changing injuries to record-setting moments and so much more, the sports news cycle will constantly and significantly affect the sports betting industry.
Our betting buzz file, with contributions from David Purdum, Doug Greenberg and others, aims to provide fans with a look at the sports betting stories that are driving the conversation.
Key links: Sports betting home | NFL odds page | College football odds page | ESPN BET
July 11: Charles Barkley, celebs draw betting action at golf tournament
Doug Greenberg: A current NFL stalwart, a former professional tennis player and a country music star will play a round of golf together on Friday. During the summer, this wouldn’t usually be a big deal — but this weekend, Adam Thielen, Mardy Fish and Jake Owen will be among the many athletes playing in the nationally televised American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe.
The annual event has invited former and current athletes, as well as actors, musicians and other entertainers, to compete in a professional-style golf tournament since 1990 — and sportsbooks in Nevada have accepted action on the celebrity affair since 1995.
“You’ve been able to bet on this tournament going back 25 years at least, if not almost to the very beginning,” NBC Sports president of acquisitions & partnerships Jon Miller told ESPN; NBC Sports has run the event since its inception. “There are multiple sportsbooks here and sports betting has been legal in Nevada, so it was not even a question of whether or not you could do it.”
While the tournament is contested under USGA rules and has PGA officials running the event, no other states have authorized sportsbooks to offer betting.
“It’s a celebrity event, so it’s looked at as more of a novelty. I suppose it’d be the equivalent of awards or politics, kind of falling into that realm,” Caesars lead golf trader Anthony Sallerolli told ESPN. “I wish I could open the floodgates up and see what kind of handle we can really get.”
Sallerolli estimates that the American Century will get comparable money in Nevada to some of this weekend’s professional golf tournaments.
Despite his infamously bad golf game, Barkley is annually one of the tournament’s biggest betting draws and, this year, Caesars has him slotted at the very bottom of the odds board with an astounding 7500-1 price.
Sallerolli says this outright market is very popular and leads to the highest ticket hold of anyone in the field. The book is also offering a prop on Barkley to finish top 75 in the 90-player competition (at +125 odds, with the over 75.5 finishing position juiced to -155), but that bet has been less popular than outright.
Another player seeing considerable action is Owen, who opened at 28-1 and has since moved down to 12-1 at Caesars after taking a lot of handle. One of the more intriguing options on the board is tournament newcomer Austin Reaves (+500), who shot a 76 in a Korn Ferry Tour qualifier in May, and has the third-shortest odds to win behind Tony Romo (+375) and Fish (+350).
Fish will look to claim his second American Century Classic title after controversially falling short in 2023. A spectator yelled during Fish’s backswing on the 18th tee on Sunday last year, causing him to shank his drive into the gallery. The spectator allegedly bet on Steph Curry to win the event. Curry, the 2023 champion, is unable to defend his title this year because of his obligations to USA Basketball ahead of the Olympics.
Tournament officials said that security will be on high alert this year, especially around the tee boxes and greens, but are counting on spectators to show common courtesy regardless of how much money is on the line.
“You can’t account for somebody being a jerk and this guy was a first-class jerk,” Miller said. “That’s one of the risks that are out there with sports betting on golf being so available and golf being a sport that is so fan friendly and fan accessible.”
July 10: U.S. men, women commanding favorites for Paris Olympics
David Purdum: The United States men’s and women’s basketball teams are commanding odds-on favorites to win gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The U.S. men are -550 to win at ESPN BET, while the U.S. women are even stronger favorites at -1,500.
The U.S. men have won four consecutive Olympic tournaments and head to Paris as bigger favorites than they were in 2021, when they marched through the field to win gold at the Tokyo Olympics, going 8-0 with an average margin of victory of 27.9 points per game. The U.S was around a -350 favorite in 2021. The U.S. has claimed 16 gold medals in men’s basketball overall while all other countries have combined to win four.
Canada has the second-shortest odds to win gold at 11-1, followed by Victor Wembanyama and France at 15-1.
The U.S. men open Olympic play July 28 as consensus 12.5-point favorites over Serbia.
The U.S. women are seeking an eighth-straight gold medal, which would set an Olympic record for most consecutive gold medals for a country in a team sport.
Oddsmakers aren’t expecting the U.S. women’s basketball team to face much competition. No team outside of the U.S. has shorter than 20-1 odds to win gold at ESPN BET. Belgium has the second-shortest odds at 20-1, followed by Australia, Canada, China, France, Japan and Spain, which are each listed at 28-1.
The U.S. women open July 29 against Japan and are 16.5-point favorites.
July 9: WSOP main event sets attendance record, prize pool tops $94M
Greenberg: For the second year in a row, the World Series of Poker main event has set new high bars.
The 55th iteration of the WSOP main event, a $10,000 buy-in freezeout held in Las Vegas, registered 10,112 entrants to create a total prize pool of $94,041,600, breaking the previous records of 10,043 players and $93,399,900 set last year, according to Caesars Entertainment, which hosts the annual tournament series.
This year’s event also set a new single-day registration record by welcoming 5,014 entrants on July 6. Players were able to register through July 8 with late registration remaining open until then.
“10,000 entrants has become the new magic number for the WSOP main event,” executive director of World Series of Poker Ty Stewart said in a statement. “The response has been overwhelming since our move to the Las Vegas Strip.”
Although the overall pot is bigger, 2024’s winner will take home a smaller share of the prize pool at $10 million; last year’s champion, Atlanta’s Daniel Weinman collected $12.1 million for winning. Every player at this year’s final table will win at least $1 million and the minimum payout (1,517th place) will earn $15,000.
Final table payouts:
1st: $10,000,000
2nd: $6,000,000
3rd: $4,000,000
4th: $3,000,000
5th: $2,500,000
6th: $2,000,000
7th: $1,500,000
8th: $1,250,000
9th: $1,000,000
July 8: Caitlin Clark effect: Fever games draw three times more bets than WNBA average
David Purdum: WNBA games involving Caitlin Clark attracted approximately three times more bets than games without her in May, according to recently released results of an analysis by marketing technology firm Optimove.
Optimove, which works with sports betting and internet gaming companies, says it analyzed 15 million WNBA bets placed on 43 games during the month of May, including nine featuring Clark and the Indiana Fever. On average, Fever games saw a 380% increase in the number of bets compared to the baseline game (Washington Mystics–Connecticut Sun, May 17).
The Fever’s season-opener against the Sun on May 14 attracted more bets than any other game during the month, according to the analysis. The Fever were involved in each of the five games that attracted the most bets during the first month of the season.
Optimove also analyzed Clark’s impact on the betting market during the final rounds of the NCAA women’s tournament this spring and found a similar surge in interest. Games involving Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes attracted 540% more bets on average in the Elite 8, Final Four and championship game.
Clark, who on Saturday became the first WNBA rookie to record a triple-double, is a -550 favorite to win Rookie of the Year at ESPN BET, followed by Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky at +300.
July 3: 76ers moves past Knicks in NBA title betting odds
Purdum: As NBA free agency winds down, three of the top four betting favorites to win next season’s title hail from the Eastern Conference – including the rising Philadelphia 76ers.
The 76ers’ title odds at ESPN BET moved from 12-1 to 7-1 this week after signing veteran free agent Paul George on Monday. George, along with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, give Philadelphia three all-stars from last season making them the defending-champion Boston Celtics’ biggest competition in the East, just ahead of the New York Knicks.
As of Wednesday, the Celtics are 3-1 to repeat as NBA champions, followed by the Oklahoma City Thunder and 76ers, who are each at 8-1. The Knicks are +825.
Notable NBA title odds movement at ESPN BET:
Dallas Mavericks: The addition of Klay Thompson had minimal impact on Dallas’ title odds. The Mavs moved from 11-1 to 10-1.
New Orleans Pelicans: New Orleans acquired guard Dejounte Murray from the Atlanta Hawks in a trade, a move that shortened the Pelicans’ title odds from 60-1 to 50-1.
Oklahoma City Thunder: With the additions of Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein, Oklahoma City moved ahead of the Denver Nuggets on odds boards. The Thunder went from 10-1 to 8-1, while the Nuggets have fallen from +650 to +875.
Orlando Magic: Orlando’s odds improved from 80-1 to 50-1, some of the movement the result of the addition of guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
Golden State Warriors: With the loss of Thompson and Chris Paul, Golden State’s odds have lengthened from 22-1 to 40-1.
LA Clippers: James Harden is returning, but with the loss of George to the 76ers, the Clippers’ odds have moved from 20-1 to 40-1.
July 2: Predators move big, Oilers become favorites after free agent frenzy
Doug Greenberg: July 1 is always a big day for the NHL but 2024’s edition was one of the biggest yet, with over $1 billion in new deals handed out through free agent contracts and extensions. Amid all the transactions made by teams in the daylong frenzy, arguably no one made a bigger splash than the Nashville Predators, who saw their future odds and action see considerable activity as a result.
The Preds saw the most line movement of any team in the league at ESPN BET, moving from 35-1 to 18-1 to win the Stanley Cup in 2025. DraftKings reports identical movement, while FanDuel moved Nashville from 31-1 to 20-1. DraftKings also took the Preds from 17-1 to +900 to win the Western Conference.
The thrilling additions of Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei, among others, has the Predators as one of the most popular teams with the betting public: DraftKings says that, since June 30, Nashville has taken 35% of the bets and 76% of the handle to win the conference.
However, there was one team that took more bets (42%) to win the West over the same time period and that was the reigning Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers, who solidified what is likely the best offense in the NHL by re-signing Adam Henrique, Mattias Janmark and Corey Perry, then bolstered it by adding Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson.
Those transactions moved them from 10-1 at their opening odds to +900 on Tuesday morning on ESPN BET, tying them with the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers to win it all; Edmonton became the outright favorites at +800 a short time later. The sportsbook also notes that their odds of winning the Pacific Division shortened as well.
But for the big winners in the betting odds after the first day of NHL free agency, there were also a few losers. The 2023 Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights moved from 11-1 to 18-1, and the Carolina Hurricanes, who were favored to win it all in 2024 at the start of the playoffs, moved from +950 to 14-1 to hoist the Cup in 2025, per FanDuel.
