Benzinga - by Chris Katje, Benzinga Staff Writer.
Here's a look at the top stories for the week, top bets cashed and what's next in the world of sports betting.
NCAAF Playoffs Near: This weekend will see several NCAA Football conference championship games that will decide the four teams to make the playoffs and compete for the league championship.
Odds at DraftKings Inc (NASDAQ:DKNG) for the NCAA Football Championship currently have Georgia and Michigan tied at +190. Ranking third is Oregon at +500, fourth is Texas at +900, fifth is Alabama at +1000 and sixth is Washington at +1800.
Georgia and Alabama play each other in the SEC Championship.
Oregon and Washington play each other in the PAC-12 Championship Friday night. In the regular season matchup, Washington won 36-33 giving Oregon its only loss on the season. Sportsbooks have Oregon as a nine-point favorite in the rematch and the game will have a big impact on the postseason.
New NBA Rookie of the Year Favorite: One of the bigger storylines of the 2023-2024 NBA season has been number one overall draft pick Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs. The rookie is averaging 19.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.
Starting the season as the favorite to win the Rookie of the Year with odds of -145 at BetMGM, Wembanyama now ranks second. Leading the betting odds at odds of -150 is now Chet Holmgren of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Holmgren, who was the number two pick in last year's draft but was injured, is averaging 17.9 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. Wembanyama follows closely behind at odds of -105.
Shoehei Ohtani Next Team: Major League Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani is one of the biggest storylines of the offseason as teams compete to sign the free agent.
The current favorite to land Ohtani on DraftKings is the Los Angeles Dodgers at -105. The Chicago Cubs have jumped to second in the odds at +370 followed by the Toronto Blue Jays at +500. Ohtanti's last MLB club, the Los Angeles Angels, ranks seventh of 12 teams in the betting odds at +1800 to re-sign the MLB star.
Taylor Swift Off Tour, Kelce Odds Could Be Impacted: Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce could see his betting lines impacted going forward with rumored love interest musician Taylor Swift off tour and potentially coming to more NFL games.
For this Sunday Night Football game against the Green Bay Packers, Kelce to score a touchdown is -105 with his player props set at 69.5 receiving yards and 6.5 receptions. As shared by Benzinga previously, Kelce has better stats on average at the games Swift attends.
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Big Bets: Previously shared on Benzinga, a bettor took advantage of the Monday Night Football game between the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears that had only one touchdown as the Bears won 12-10.
One bettor placed a two-leg parlay on Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson being the first touchdown scorer in the game and the last touchdown scorer in the game. The bet would usually take two touchdowns in an NFL game, but in this case one touchdown cashed the bet. The $5 bet had odds of +10,000 and paid out a profit of $500.
Another bettor placed a 19-leg same game parlay on the NBA contest of the Los Angeles Lakers and Utah Jazz for Tuesday night's game. The Lakers won with a score of 131-99 and many star players were benched late in the game due to it being a blowout. The parlay included mostly unders on player bets, which cashed thanks to the blowout nature of the game. The $166 wager had odds of +600000 and netted the bettor a profit of $996,000.
An NFL bettor correctly predicted the outcomes of multiple NFL games on Sunday, betting on seven moneyline winners, four games against the spread and one total over/under. The 12-game parlay bet with Flutter Entertainment (OTC:PDYPY) owned FanDuel turned a $40.27 bet into a profit of $45,238.89.
And speaking of FanDuel, the sportsbook offered a popular parlay for the Thursday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks. The four-leg parlay of touchdowns from Tony Pollard, CeeDee Lamb, Brandin Cooks and DK Metcalf cashed for over 20,000 people who bet on the parlay with odds of +3,919. FanDuel said they paid out $13.4 million for the parlay.
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