The 2018 season has arrived, and there isn’t a legal bookmaker in sight, unless that is, you’re in or traveled to Las Vegas. Legal sports betting is very likely on its way to baseball and other professional sports, even college football and basketball, but it still has a couple of hurdles to clear.
First, the United States Supreme Court has to rule unconstitutional the existing law that limits legal betting to Nevada or tell Congress to give other states the same right as Nevada has. Then the states have to enact legislation creating sports betting at casinos and race tracks.
The high court has been expected to take its step in the process in its current session, which runs into June. At least half of the 50 states have been working on legislation that would take a handoff from the Supreme Court and create betting guidelines.
A Major League Baseball official told me recently that baseball has been working on contingency plans to be ready when legal betting arrives: who, for example, will and won’t be allowed to bet on games?
MLB initially opposed the idea of allowing legalized betting on baseball games but recently joined the National Basketball Association in aggressively lobbying state legislators to adopt a bill permitting betting on sports. The leagues and states see the huge amount of money that could be gained from legal betting and like what they see.
With no way of measuring how much is bet on sports illegally, it has been estimated that at least $150 billion and as much as $400 billion is bet on sports annually.
Not being a bettor myself (I’ve seen too many baseball games to think I could make money picking winners), I am not foolish enough to think I could be successful. But to recognize what is coming, I am willing to acknowledge it with a look at the season-opening odds on teams winning the World Series. These odds were established by Bovada, an on-line gambling site.
I don’t know how odds makers operate; over the years I have found it difficult enough to select winners without adding odds to the mix. But I am told odds makers often choose teams that won the year before. That’s what Bovada has done here, making the Houston Astros a 9 to 2 favorite to win the World Series again. Presumably that would come once again at the expenses of the Dodgers, who lost to the Astros last year. The Dodgers are 11 to 2 to win the World Series this year. The Yankees are 6 to 1, the Indians 7 to 1 and the Cubs 15 to 2.
Presumably like other odds makers, Bovada gives odds on individual achievements, inviting bettors to place a few dollars on any variety of players. Mike Trout, for example, is 9 to 4 to win the American League Most Valuable Player award, which he won in 2014 and ’16 and finished second in the Baseball Writers’ voting in 2012, ’13 and ’15.
Closest to Trout in lowest odds is Jose Altuve, the 2017 winner, at 6 to 1. Carlos Correia, Altuve’s double play partner in Houston, is next at 12 to 1. Then comes another intriguing pair, the Yankees’ outfield mates, Giancarlo Stanton at 12 to 1 and Aaron Judge at 18 to 1.
Bryce Harper of the Nationals is 3 to 1 to win the National League MVP award while Kris Bryant of the Cubs is 4 to 1 and Nolan Arenado of the Rockies is 5 to 1.
Probably the most interesting name on the odds list is Shohei Ohtani, the Angels’ Japanese rookie, who pitches and hits. He is 100 to 1 to win the AL MVP award and 30 to 1 to win the AL Cy Young award.
In the Cy Young competition Ohtani has Chris Sale 9 to 4, Corey Kluber 5 to 2, Carlton Carrasco 8 to 1, Justin Verlander 8 to 1 and Luis Severino 12 to 1 in front of him.
Lowest odds for National League pitchers are Clayton Kershaw 7 to 4, Max Scherzer 9 to 4, Noah Syndergaard 13 to 2, Madison Bumgarner and Stephen Strasburg each at 15 to 1.
In addition, Bovada offers Over/Under plays for individual achievements, including:
