Betting interest waning with NBA, NHL Finals lacking marquee matchups

LAS VEGAS(AP) — The NBA Finals could’ve featured glamour teams like theBoston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, and conventional thinkingbefore the NHL playoffs stated the dominant Boston Bruins andstar-studded Edmonton Oilers were on a near-collision course tomeet in the Stanley Cup Final.

All fourteams are out, and what could’ve been enormous betting interest haslargely waned.

On the NBAside, No. 8 seed Miami Heat will face an NBA Finals newcomer in theDenver Nuggets, an enormous minus-460 favorite, accordingtoFanDuelSportsbook.

ChristianCipollini, BetMGM trading manager, said a Celtics-Lakers matchupwould have created much more betting action, but the sportsbook wason the hook for many futures bets on those teams.

“ACeltics-Lakers series is nine times out of 10 going to be a losingseries for the book,” Cipollini said. “Everyone bets theLakers-Celtics. Our Lakers money was bad. We didn’t want the Lakersto go any farther than they did.”

A Celticsappearance in the Finals, however, wouldn’t have been bad for allsportsbooks. David Lieberman, who oversees NBA betting for Caesars,said the Celtics didn’t attract a lot of futures action, limitingthe book’s liability. Like BetMGM, though, a Lakers championshipwould have proved a nightmare scenario.

“It would’vebeen quite the sweat if they had the chance to win it all,”Lieberman said.

The StanleyCup Final matches up the last team into the Eastern Conferenceplayoffs in the Florida Panthers against a Vegas Golden Knightsteam that, in six short years, is making their second championshipappearance.

Adding LasVegas to the NHL was an initial betting boost for the league, butthat effect is less noticeable with the spread of legalized sportsbetting. The Knights are minus-125 favorites, accordingtoFanDuel.

“People kindof fell off this Golden Knights bandwagon this season,” Cipollinisaid. “We take a little bit less bets than we have in the past.When they started, people were all over them.”

Minnesota-based Alex B. Smith, one of the top NHL handicappingexperts, said the Knights’ effect on elevating the league’sstanding among bettors should not be minimized. The NHL isnoticeably behind the NFL and NBA in betting interest, but is inthe next tier, largely thanks to the Knights’ run to the 2018Stanley Cup Final.

“Now it’ssomething they’re really watching and kind of follow, especiallyfrom a betting aspect,” Smith said. “That started off of the backwith that season of Vegas. That season really kind of changed theway the betting landscape would open up and adapt.”

OT,REGULATION DRAW THE SAME, NOT THE SAME

Smith saidNHL bettors should be aware that many books offer bets on whethergames will go into overtime or have a regulation draw, which is thesame thing. Because bettors tend to look for the prop bets offeringwhether a game will reach OT, the other better-priced wager isoften ignored.

He tookSaturday’s Game 1 at plus-320 to end in a regulation draw, and saidthat prop can go as high as plus-345, while an overtime bet tendsto be around plus-300 or plus-305.

“You shortyourself anywhere from 20 to 40 cents on a given day,” Smith said.“There’s literally no difference. It’s just how it’s worded. Idon’t know how the books are allowed to do this.”

SOUTH FLORIDASUCCESS

First, it wasMiami Hurricanes making college basketball’s Final Four, and nowthat region’s NBA and NHL teams are playing for championships inthose leagues.

It would makesense for some kind of South Florida proposition bet to tap intothe excitement there, but sports betting is still not legal in thatstate. Hard Rock Sportsbook is owned by the Seminoles tribe and hada monopoly in Florida, but a federal judge tossed that agreement in2021.

THE VEGASNONEFFECT

Whenlegalized sports betting was limited to Nevada during the Knights’first Stanley Cup Final run, the lines were skewed to Vegas becauselocals jumped in on the action.

“We’re in somany states now, we have to go with what we think will be the rightline for for everyone,” Lieberman said. “Sometimes we’ll take alittle more action on certain teams from certain states. Like NewYork, there are quite a few bettors there that bet with us, so someNew York teams are usually popular on daily games or futures pricesand stuff like that. But, ultimately, we’re trying to put out thebest odds and not worry as much about that.”

HISTORYLITTLE GUIDE

Comparingbetting numbers on the NBA and NHL championships from year to yearis tricky because legalized sports wagering has moved far beyondNevada’s state lines.

The COVID-19pandemic also skewed the numbers because it forced both leagues toalter their playoff schedules to be in more direct competition withother sports.

“I expect(the betting handle) to be slightly down,” Cipollini said. “Butthere’s also perspective that we’ve gone into more than states, sothe numbers might tell me that it’s up from last year when reallyrealistically, it might not be.”