Tag: BetFTW

The 2024 NCAA men’s tournament bracket: Get in on March Madness fun

Get your bracket for the 2024 NCAA men’s tournament!

Happy March Madness season, everyone!

Selection Sunday has officially come and gone, which means March Madness is set to begin in full in just a few days. We now know all of the 68 teams set to take the field ahead of the first round on March 21 and 22 so now it’s time to fill out those ever-important March Madness brackets!

IT’S BRACKET MADNESS: Enter USA TODAY’s NCAA tournament bracket contest for a chance at $1 million prize.

If you’re looking to fill out one of your own, here’s a printable blank bracket — courtesy of USA TODAY — for you to use as you see fit! You can download the blank PDF file here.

SURVIVOR POOL: Free to enter. $2,500 to win. Can you survive the madness?

NFL picks against the spread, Week 18: betting on backups, incentives and playoff hopes

The final week of the NFL regular season just might be the hardest one to bet on

Somehow, someway, we made it to Week 18.

By Sunday night most of the league’s fans will be looking forward to draft season while the rest focus on the postseason. We just don’t know what that full picture looks like yet.

It’s an odd week to bet on the NFL overall as teams with plenty to play for matchup against teams looking to play spoiler. Backups and third-stringers line up across from starters looking to hit their contract incentives. All of that is taken into consideration as we pick against the spread one last time in the regular season.

Name Last Week YTD
Christian D’Andrea 7-9 131-118-7
Carolina Darney 12-4 129-120-7
Prince Grimes 10-6 127-122-7
Blake Schuster 11-5 120-129-7
Charles Curtis N/A 118-115-7
Robert Zeglinski N/A 116-117-7

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Iowa bar offering free beer until the Hawkeyes score in the Big Ten Championship

Folks looking to drink in Cedar Rapids might be rooting against Iowa’s offense.

In the opinion of a lot of folks, the best beer is often free beer.

If you live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, zero-cost booze will be available to you at one bar.

You might be asking, why? And for how long? Let’s just say a similar giveaway couldn’t happen with Caitlin Clark and Iowa’s women’s basketball team.

X-Golf in Cedar Rapids is running a promotion offering up free beer Saturday night from 7 p.m. CT until Iowa’s football team scores in the Big Ten Championship game against Michigan.

The bar might be handing out free draft beers for a while, considering that several online sportsbooks set the over-under on Iowa points scored at 7.5 for the game and 0.5 for the half. Michigan is favored at most books by 22 points. Iowa has scored more than 15 points in a single game just once over its past five outings.

Jordan Spieth’s caddie made a beer bet that he probably regrets, but worked perfectly

Jordan Spieth seems like a great friend…who would still pull a devastating prank on you

What’s a bet between a couple of friends, right? It’s generally harmless. That’s probably what Jordan Spieth’s caddie, Eric Leyendecker, thought when he made a ridiculous bet with Spieth at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.

Leyendecker is a close friend of Spieth’s and a former high school golf teammate. He subbed in for Spieth’s usual caddie, Michael Greller, at Hero for the weekend, according to Golf.com’s Dylan Dethier.

Because Spieth and Leyendecker are so close, Leyendecker felt comfortable making a bet that, well, let’s just say it might be a little rough on him.

Leyendecker made a beer bet with Spieth that required him to drink one beer for every birdie Spieth hit during the opening round of the Hero while they both watched the Cowboys game later.

Here are the details from Dethier.

“How to best pump up his player? On the first hole, Leyendecker tested his motivational tactic. For every birdie Spieth made, Leyendecker would drink one (1) beer that night while he and Spieth, both massive Dallas Cowboys fans, watched Thursday night’s game against the Seahawks. That was a dangerous proposition; betting on Spieth’s golf is like using a stick of dynamite as a candle. But maybe it’s a caddie’s job to light a fire under his player.”

Seems innocent enough, right? What could go wrong here? Spieth could start cooking. That’s what could go wrong.

And it absolutely did.

Spieth started hitting birdies on top of birdies. He even hit an eagle following this insane stroke here.

He wasn’t done with the Eagles. You can’t tell me Spieth wasn’t trying to cook his friend here. Look at this put. From 60 feet away? Are you kidding me, Jordan Spieth?

Dude. That’s unreal. Imagine being Leyendecker here. There’s no way to properly prepare for all the beer headed his way.

All in all, Spieth hit six birdies and two eagles, which pushed Leyendecker’s reward (or punishment?) up to 12 beers.

Luckily, Spieth is a good friend and didn’t make him drink all of it, Dethier writes.

“Post-round, Spieth added that he’d even picked out the brand — Kalik, a local lager known as “the Beer of the Bahamas” — but admitted that he didn’t think Leyendecker would — nor should — pay his debt in full.”

What a pal you are, Jordan Spieth. What a pal.

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Dez Bryant had $10,000 on the Cowboys’ Thursday Night win over the Seahawks

Dez threw up the X and dropped a 10K

As the clock kept creeping closer to midnight on the east coast, football fans everywhere were holding their breath to see if the December Dallas Cowboys would show up on Thursday Night Football.

Turns out Dallas not only beat the Seattle Seahawks, 41-35, in the best Thursday tilt of the year by far, it got it all done before the calendar turned. There was never a doubt.

Especially not from former Cowboys great Dez Bryant, who was feeling extra confident in Dallas Cowboys before kickoff.

Like $10,000 worth of confidence.

The wideout claimed in a post that’s how much he wagered on the Cowboys to get the W.

Warning: NSFW Language

The only question is whether or Bryant took the Cowboys against the spread as 9.5-favorites or on the moneyline at -360. If it was the former, he can kiss that 10K goodbye, but at least Dallas got the win.

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Top 5 most watchable college football conference championship games

Conference Championship Week has arrived and its setting up for perhaps the most dramatic finish to a college football season we’ve ever seen.

Conference Championship Week has arrived and it’s setting up for perhaps the most dramatic finish to a college football season we’ve ever seen. A logjam of elite teams at the top has left us heading for a controversial decision by the College Football Playoff selection committee, who are likely hoping and praying for some chaos this weekend that could help make their decision easier.

As it stands now, we’ll have five Power 5 conference champions with one loss or fewer and only four spots in the playoffs. That means every little detail, every chance to make an impression on the committee, counts more than ever this weekend.

Of course, the Group of 5 have their own conference championship games as well this weekend and one of those actually makes our list this week of the five best conference championship games you should be watching. Take a look below for our full rankings, along with where to find each game.

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2023 Heisman Trophy Odds Tracker Week 12: Bo Nix is the favorite, Jalen Milroe is the dark horse

Bo Nix may be the new Heisman Trophy favorite but he’s not in the clear yet

Each week this college football season, BetFTW will take a look at the 2023 Heisman Trophy race and break down the contenders. Check back every Tuesday as the best college football players in the country jockey for position with both oddsmakers and bettors. All odds via BetMGM. Past weeks here: Preseason, Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11.

Anyone who could’ve guessed that Bo Nix would end up the Heisman Trophy favorite late in the 2023 season while Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe mounts a spoiler campaign deserves their own award.

The whole situation would be quite comical if it weren’t so exciting, really.

For years while he was at Auburn, and even early in his Oregon days, Nix assumed the dark horse moniker to a meme-worthy extent while Alabama’s Bryce Young and DeVonta Smith ran away with the trophy. So now that Nix is mounting the best season of his career while becoming the odds-on favorite to win the Heisman in 2024, guess who all the sudden has a pretty straightforward path to a seat in New York?

Yep. Milroe.

Some narratives write themselves.

Let’s dig into it while we count down the top 10 favorites to capture the Heisman heading into Week 12.

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College GameDay: See Lee Corso’s headgear pick for No. 2 Georgia vs. No. 9 Ole Miss

Corso didn’t have to do Uga like that

While most of the college football world was busy focusing on the madness with Michigan at Penn State on Saturday, there were plenty of other intriguing storylines across the sport.

Florida State-Miami, Washington-Utah and Missouri-Tennessee are some of the big games in Week 11. And of course there’s Ole Miss at Georgia.

That’s where ESPN’s College GameDay found itself on a rainy Saturday morning and where Lee Corso came face to face with Uga XI.

Yet no matter how much Corso insulted the sweet puppy’s looks, the coach couldn’t help but fall in love with the Bulldogs against Mississippi in the SEC clash.

We don’t care what Corso says, that’s a good boy right there.

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Here is the projected starting lineup for the Suns after trading Deandre Ayton

This team can compete with anyone.

The Phoenix Suns made two of the biggest trades of the past season, impressively acquiring Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.

These blockbuster moves immediately changed the landscape of the Western Conference. Beal is a three-time NBA All-Star who joins Durant (13-time NBA All-Star) and Booker (three-time All-Star).

Former No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton, meanwhile, was moved to Portland as part of a Damian Lillard trade to help land some depth in Phoenix.

Phoenix also made savvy moves by picking up strong role players like Yuta Watanabe, Drew Eubanks and Keita Bates-Diop. Based on our projections, here is how the starters will look in Phoenix:

The best takes and the sharpest bets on all the hoops storylines you need to know. Sign up for our Layup Lines newsletter, hitting your inbox on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Colorado win against Nebraska leads to another ‘disaster’ for sportsbooks

A $1 million bet on Colorado was just one of many tickets cashed on Deion Sanders’ home debut

Deion Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes are now 2-0, winning the games in very different fashion.

Last week, it was a shocking 45-42 upset of then-No. 17 TCU as a 21-point underdog, which cost sportsbooks dearly because of the +800 odds that were offered on the Colorado ML, and ended up cashing.

The lookahead line on Colorado-Nebraska had been Nebraska around an 8.5-point favorite at sportsbooks; after Colorado won, it re-opened Nebraska -1.5 and quickly moved to Colorado -3.

This week, the public was all over the Buffs against Nebraska, coming out in historic droves. At PointsBet/Fanatics, as of Thursday, more money had been bet on Colorado to cover than on 30 NFL teams, with the exception of the Chiefs and Lions.

Colorado to cover was the most-bet game at multiple sportsbooks, including BetMGM, where 85% of the bets were on Colorado -3, three times the number of bets as on any other Week 2 college football game.

With Colorado winning 36-14, most sportsbooks lost on the game.

“It was a disaster,” Zachary Lucas, retail sportsbook director at TwinSpires texted. “We took a boatload of spread cash today and second-half bets. Worse this week than last week.”

“Ugly!” Chuck Esposito, sportsbook director at Station Casinos, texted. “Late sharp action was on the Huskers, but public was backing the Buffs, We need Nebraska straight, parlays and ML.”

It wasn’t all bad for sportsbooks, though, as many bigger bets from respected players were backing the Cornhuskers.

“We definitely needed Nebraska, but we had some big bets on the dog,” Chris Andrews, South Point sportsbook director texted me. “I’d had results that were much worse. Last week was worse because of the [Colorado] ML.”

“It was mostly Nebraska money here,” Thomas Gable, sportsbook director at The Borgata in New Jersey texted me. “Absolutely a good result.”

The biggest reported bet came at FanDuel sportsbook, which took a $1 million on wager on Colorado -2.5 before kickoff.