Now that the NBA’s regular season return is weeks instead of months away, the betting market for who will take home the 2020 NBA championship is growing quickly – and there’s some surprising news about the Boston Celtics in that regard.
Ever since the 2019-20 season was suspended in early March, more bets have been made backing the Celtics to win it all than any other team with 35 % of all wagers going Boston’s way over that period according to popular online sportsbook Oddschecker.
That this is the case even with the Celtics only the fifth-most favored team to win the title at the Disney-hosted restart with odds of +2000, too (the Oklahoma City Thunder are the second-most popular team to win it all, with just over 30 % of betting minds going in for Chris Paul’s new team).
🤫 Ssshhh, don't tell @BillSimmons
😱 Shock as the @celtics are the most-backed team to win the NBA Finals since the league was paused in March
📈 38.5% of bets have been on Boston but who else have bettors been backing?https://t.co/XCVQjNoRno
— Oddschecker (@OddscheckerUS) July 15, 2020
With home court advantage eliminated due to the unique nature of the Orlando-area restart and the extended layoff giving Boston plenty of time to get healthy, they may indeed be better-positioned to win it all than at any point since a decade ago or longer.
And with 20-to-1 payouts available to optimistic (or perhaps canny) fans, it’s not hard to see why they’ve been such a popular bet.
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