Tag: underdog

BetMGM: Saints are heavy home favorites against injury-riddled 49ers

BetMGM Sportsbook heavily favors the New Orleans Saints to defeat the San Francisco 49ers during Week 10 of the 2020 NFL regular season.

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That’s quite a mountain for the San Francisco 49ers to climb: the oddsmakers at BetMGM Sportsbook opened up their Week 10 NFL lines with the New Orleans Saints as 9.5-point home favorites over the visiting 49ers, projecting another Saints blowout with the over/under set at 49.5. That suggests a final tally around Saints 30, 49ers 20.

And it follows a dominant performance from New Orleans on the road against the experts’ favorite Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which the Saints won 38-3. San Francisco is coming off a 34-17 Thursday night loss to the Green Bay Packers on Nov. 5, which doesn’t add much clarity. The Packers beat the Saints by a touchdown early this season 37-30 and later lost to the Buccaneers 38-10, so none of this is really informative.

It doesn’t help that the 49ers have been decimated by injuries, in the truest sense of the word. While they got a couple of wide receivers back from the COVID-19 reserve list, they didn’t field a single player who touched the football in their NFC championship game win over the Packers last season when Green Bay met them for a rematch.

So the Saints are probably rightly favored to bulldoze San Francisco. But anything can happen in the NFL, and this isn’t a game New Orleans can afford to overlook as the NFC playoff picture begins to take shape.

Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services.  Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

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Saints open as 7.5-point favorites over the Panthers in Week 7

The BetMGM Sportsbook opened up its Week 7 NFL odds, favoring the New Orleans Saints to handle their business with the Carolina Panthers.

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Teddy Bridgewater is set to make his return to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome against his old team, but his Carolina Panthers appear to be in for a tough time versus the New Orleans Saints.

The BetMGM Sportsbook opened up with the Saints as 7.5-point favorites at home against the Panthers, with an over/under set at 50.5. That suggests a final score in the neighborhood of Saints 30, Panthers 22.

That’s very pedestrian, but we’ll take it. The Saints defense hasn’t held an opponent to 22 points or fewer all season (coming closest in their season-opening 34-23 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), averaging more than 31 points allowed in four of their first five games.

Conversely, Bridgewater’s offense has struggled to turn up the heat: the Panthers have been limited to 22 points or fewer in half of their games so far, including Sunday’s 23-16 loss to the Chicago Bears. They’ll hope to keep that from becoming a firmer trend against the Saints.

Elsewhere around the NFC South: the lowly Atlanta Falcons are favored by a field goal while hosting the Detroit Lions with the highest over/under of the week (56.5), while the Buccaneers are narrow 2.5-point favorites on the road with the resilient Las Vegas Raiders in another maybe-high-scoring game (over/under of 53.5). The Saints are ranked second-best in the NFC South right now, but a win over Carolina and a Buccaneers road loss would help New Orleans’ case.

Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

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Saints are the 1st team favored to beat Tom Brady in 5 years

Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Tom Brady is finally an underdog again, with the New Orleans Saints favored to win Week 1 of the regular season.

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It’s taken five long years and a move away from the New England Patriots, but Tom Brady is finally an underdog again. The new Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback isn’t forecast to win his Week 1 game against the New Orleans Saints, breaking a 74-game regular season streak of being favored by oddsmakers. The last team favored to beat him were Rex Ryan’s 2015 Buffalo Bills, favored at home by a single point (Brady’s Patriots won, 40-32).

That’s backed up by the BetMGM Sportsbook, which has the Saints as 3.5-point favorites. Taken with their over/under of 49.5, that projects a final score in the ballpark of Saints 27, Buccaneers 23.

For the curious, neither of the other NFC South teams taking the field in Week 1 are favored to win their games. The Atlanta Falcons are 2.5-point home underdogs versus the Seattle Seahawks, while the Las Vegas Raiders are 3.5-point road favorites against the Carolina Panthers.

Whoever wins this season opener between the Saints and Buccaneers could have a real leg up on the race for an NFC South crown. The Saints have won that title three years in a row, but Brady’s impact on Tampa Bay is sure to make things more competitive than usual.

Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services.  Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

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Redskins open 2020 season as home underdogs to Eagles in Week 1

The Redskins have a chance to make a statement in the first game of the year as they face off against the Eagles at home.

For the second year in a row, the Washington Redskins will open up their 2020 regular season with a game against the division rival Philadelphia Eagles. Last year, Washington had a great chance to steal a win in the first week of the season, going up 17-0 before it all came crashing down.

So with the same matchup on tap to kick off the 2020 season, only this time at Fed Ex Field, what can we expect? Early oddsmakers have already set a betting line for the game, listing the Redskins as a home-dog, giving them 4.5 points. 

It’s no surprise that the Redskins aren’t favored to win, as they’ve been getting slighted by handicappers a bunch as of late. In a release of prop bets that came out earlier this offseason, Washington was near the bottom of the barrel in nearly every bet, including Super Bowl contenders, playoff teams, and division winners.

Until they can prove Vegas otherwise, they will likely continue to get the short end of the stick when it comes to betting lines, but if you put some money down on them to win, it could turn into a nice payday.

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9 Best bets for Week 17 of the NFL season

My normal advice would to not bet this weekend. Don’t do it – especially before knowing every teams’ situation since the late games have some large dependencies on the early game results. The problem is that I am two games below .500 and we have to …

My normal advice would to not bet this weekend. Don’t do it — especially before knowing every teams’ situation since the late games have some large dependencies on the early game results. The problem is that I am two games below .500 and we have to get to at least .500. Last year, it was a 59-59-2 finish. This year the standings currently sit at 55-57-2.

The problem is that isn’t a win. Let’s say we put a unit on every bet — a unit is your standard bet and it can be $5 or $500 — then we’d lose the vig or 10 percent. A $100 wager on every bet would mean down at least $570. That’s not the case since we had some big moneyline underdogs hit and a parlay here and there. We’ll be using units next year.

As usual, the home teams are in CAPS, and we are using Bet MGM for our odds. Games will be listed at -110 unless denoted otherwise.

Let’s get to it.

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7 Best bets for Week 16 of the NFL season

It’s the end of the year. There are only two weeks left in the regular season. That means two weeks left to bet on random teams that won’t make the playoffs. There’s only a short time to throw a ton of teams into teasers and parlays. Betting on …

It’s the end of the year. There are only two weeks left in the regular season. That means two weeks left to bet on random teams that won’t make the playoffs. There’s only a short time to throw a ton of teams into teasers and parlays. Betting on Lamar Jack against Bad Team X — this week it’s the Browns — won’t be possible. Also, time is running out to get above .500 on the season.

As usual, the home teams are in CAPS, and we are using Bet MGM for our odds. Games will be listed at -110 unless denoted otherwise.

Let’s get to it.

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6 best bets for Week 15 of the NFL season

There’s always one week at the end of the season when things get turned upside down when it comes to gambling. Hot teams cool off for no apparent reason. Teams that are left for dead try for some reason. Let’s just say that type of week could be the …

There’s always one week at the end of the season when things get turned upside down when it comes to gambling. Hot teams cool off for no apparent reason. Teams that are left for dead try for some reason. Let’s just say that type of week could be the 15th session of the NFL season.

As usual, the home teams are in CAPS, and we are using Bet MGM for our odds.  Games will be listed at -110 unless denoted otherwise.

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10 best bets for Week 14 of the NFL season

There are picks for Patriots-Chiefs, Niners-Saints, Rams-Seahawks and Bills-Ravens.

Don’t get confident. We were on fire with a bunch of big weeks followed by a great Thanksgiving and then went 1-5 in Week 13. That’s the opposite of good. So it’s time to go back to basics. Hit some home underdogs. Take some unders. Moneyline an obvious favorite here or there.

Finishing .500 isn’t the goal because that means lost money. There’s a reason that books take a vig. It’s their fee for taking a bet. That’s why finishing .500 is bad. That vig isn’t made up. It’s not a lot of lost money, but it’s 10 percent of a unit lost generally. So we need some winners. Let’s get some winners.

As usual, the home teams are in CAPS, and we are using Bet MGM for our odds.  Games will be listed at -110 unless denoted otherwise.

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Packers can improve to 3-0 SU as road underdog in 2019

The Packers have won in Chicago and Dallas as road underdogs in 2019.

Twice during the 2019 season, the Green Bay Packers have been road underdogs. And in both games, the Packers covered the spread and won straight up.

They’ll get a chance to go 3-for-3 on Sunday night in San Francisco. The Packers are 3.5-point underdogs to the 49ers, per Bet MGM.

Matt LaFleur’s team were road underdogs in Chicago in Week 1 and in Dallas in Week 5 and won both games by a touchdown or more.

Overall, the Packers are 7-3 against the spread in 2019, including a 4-1 mark on the road.

The 49ers have been a somewhat unreliable team at home, covering the spread in only two of five games. But Kyle Shanahan’s team has won four of five games as a home favorite this season, with the one loss coming to the Seattle Seahawks two weeks ago.

The Packers’ win over the Bears in Week 1 was the team’s first victory as a road underdog since Nov. 2017, a span of nine games.

Last season, the Packers were road underdogs six times and lost all six games, including a game in Los Angeles coming out of the bye week.

Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship, and there is no influence on news coverage.