Weekly Q&A With Sports Interaction (April 27)

The Crosby/Ovechkin battle in Round 2 might end up being the most bet-on series in the entire Stanley Cup playoffs.


Each week, we talk to Sports Interaction to get their thoughts on what’s going on in the sports betting world.

Here’s our Q&A with them for this week.

(Posted April 27, 2016)

With the first round of the NHL playoffs almost in the books, how did hockey bettors get along?

Seeing the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks as well as the Los Angeles Kings bounced in the opening round of the playoffs hurt a lot of bettors. They were two teams we saw a lot of action on to win the Stanley Cup.

Now that they’re out of the picture, which teams do you expect bettors to get behind?

The Washington Capitals remain the Stanley Cup favourites at +350 and they’ll continue to see a lot of action, as will the Pittsburgh Penguins. Right now the Pens are at +375 to win the Cup, so there isn’t much to choose from between these two teams in their second-round series.

Anytime you have superstars like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin facing off, that has to be good for the sportsbook, right?

It’s good for everyone, really. We may see more action on this series than any other in the playoffs – including the Stanley Cup Final. Bettors will be all over this matchup, especially if it goes six or seven games. Right now Sidney Crosby is a -175 favourite to have more points in the series than Alex Ovechkin (+125).

A number of NBA superstars have hit the shelf recently with Steph Curry going down for the record-setting Golden State Warriors and Chris Paul and Blake Griffin sidelined for the Los Angeles Clippers. How have those injuries affected NBA Championship odds?

Well, the forecast isn’t good for the Clippers, but Curry could play again in a couple of weeks, so all is not lost for the Warriors. They’re still +150 favourites to win the title, although that’s a far cry from when they opened the playoffs at -161. From there, it’s a lot tighter on the odds board. The Spurs are seeing some support at +180, as are the Cavs at +300.

Any love for the Toronto Raptors?

Lots of love but they haven’t been the best bet in the opening round. About 78 percent of our Game 5 bets were backing the Raptors at home when they made their amazing comeback in the fourth quarter. However, that comeback didn’t do much to help Toronto bettors who had them as 7-point favourites.

Switching gears to baseball, the Toronto Blue Jays haven’t gotten off to a great start this season. Is Blue Jays betting support tapering off?

Not really. Depending on the matchup, it’s isn’t uncommon to see more than 70 percent of bets backing the Jays lately. They opened as one of the favourites to win the World Series, so their supporters won’t jump ship this quickly. There are a lot of games left to be played.