Weekly Q&A With Sports Interaction (May 11)

The Jonas Valanciunas injury has made Raptors bettors nervous in Round 2 of the NBA 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 May 11, 2016)

 

We’re coming off a busy sports weekend packed with the Kentucky Derby and a high-profile boxing match on Saturday to go along with the usual grind of the NBA and NHL playoffs. How did the Derby go at Sports Interaction?

We usually see a nice handle here and the 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby did not disappoint. We took a good deal of novice bets on this high-profile race and Nyquist, named after the Detroit Red Wings forward, put on a strong push down the backstretch to win as a 2-1 favourite. Maybe the hockey connection swayed some of the rookie horse bettors out there because we definitely saw a lot of action on the winner!

The Toronto Raptors are in a real dogfight with the Miami Heat right now. What do you expect from the rest of this series?

At times this has been an ugly series to watch and it’s made it very difficult for bettors to get a read on it. The Raptors still hold the edge with a potential Game 7 at home, but their bettors have to be nervous. Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan are banged up and have had trouble scoring, while Jonas Valanciunas is out for the remainder of the series with an ankle injury. So, while the majority of bettors are still siding with the Raptors, we haven’t seen as much support for Toronto as we did in the first round.

Now that Steph Curry is back for the Golden State Warriors, isn’t every other team just playing for second place anyway?

Well, the Warriors are -152 favourites to repeat, but there are a lot of games left to be played yet. LeBron James and his Cavaliers haven’t lost a game in the playoffs and will head into the Eastern Conference Finals very well rested and whichever team comes out of the Spurs vs. Warriors won’t be a pushover either.

 

NBA Championship Odds SIA

 

The Pittsburgh Penguins proved to be too much for Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals and will now face the Tampa Bay Lightning next. What’s the early betting forecast for that matchup?

It’s going to take a lot to slow down the Penguins right now after they pushed aside the Caps in six games. Tampa Bay is back in the final four for the second straight year, but it’s no surprise to see Pittsburgh open as a -213 favourite in the series. We expect to see more strong support for the Penguins in the next round. Why would any hockey bettor jump off such a hot team now?

 

Stanley Cup futures odds