Everything that happens in sports has some additional context when viewed from the perspective of sports betting. From season-changing injuries to record-setting moments and more, the sports news cycle will constantly and significantly impact the sports betting industry.
Our Betting Buzz File, with contributions from David Perdum, Doug Greenberg, Ian Parker and others, aims to give fans a look at sports betting stories to drive conversation.
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June 20: Alabama’s national championship is longest since the beginning of the soap era
Doug Greenberg: Nick Saban’s retirement from coaching is sure to have a profound impact on Alabama and the college football world. Sportsbooks are beginning to measure just how big that effect is.
On ESPN BET, the Crimson Tide are 16-1 to win the 2025 national championship – the longest odds to win college football’s top prize since 2008, Saban’s second season, according to ESPN Stats & Data. Alabama is tied with SEC rivals LSU and Ole Miss for the fifth-shortest streak, and trails Georgia (+325), Ohio State (+350), Texas (+750) and Oregon (+900).
Despite an expanded field for the College Football Playoff, Saban’s loss and increased competition in their conference may account for the higher odds: Alabama and LSU are the first two teams in the field with plus-odds at 115, and they are eight other programs, including Michigan (-120). followed, which notably lost coach Jim Harbaugh to the NFL after the 2024 national championship.
Still, the public is somewhat supportive of the tide, even if the work is a bit top-heavy. Alabama attracted 4% of tickets and 3% of handles to win the next national championship — fourth and seventh in the rankings, respectively. Georgia (30%/20%) and Ohio State (27%/33%) make up the bulk of future national championship action right now.
Alabama’s name recognition combined with plus-odds to make the playoffs is also betting, as they attract 6% of BetMGM’s tickets, fifth, though far behind Deion Sanders’ Colorado. The Buffs have earned a leading 12.3% stake.
June 19: McDavid is now the odds-on betting favorite for the Conn Smyth Trophy
David Purdum: The Edmonton Oilers remain underdogs in the Stanley Cup Finals, but their rising superstar Connor McDavid is now the betting favorite for the Conn Smith Trophy at sportsbooks across the country.
Before Saturday’s Game 4, with the Oilers in danger of losing to the Florida Panthers, McDavid was 18-1 to win the Conn Smythe on ESPN BET. On Wednesday, a day after leading Edmonton to its second straight win, McDavid was a -155 favorite for the award. McDavid has three goals with five assists in the last two games.
Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky emerged as a heavy favorite for Conn Smith, as Florida won the first three games. Bobrovsky’s odds have been as short as -500 on ESPN BET, but he has allowed nine goals in the past two games and now sits at +500.
As of Wednesday, 47% of ESPN BET’s Conn Smythe odds were on McDavid, more than any other player. Florida, leading the series 3-2, is a -350 favorite to win the series. The Oilers are slight favorites, -125, to win Friday’s Game 6 in Edmonton.
June 18: Karjitsu is approved for betting in New Jersey
Doug Greenberg: Have you ever wanted to bet on the outcome of two grown adults fighting each other in a car? now you can
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has approved karjitsu — a sport in which fighters compete in a Brazilian jiu-jitsu match inside a vehicle, usually a sedan — for sports betting, the first jurisdiction in the country to do so.
The founders of the Pro League Network, which serves as the sport’s governing body, said they purposely brought the sport to the New Jersey Betting Commission first because it is seen as the “most structured” and a “main regulatory body.”
PLN co-founder Bill Yukatonis told ESPN, “We wanted to put it out there first, and we felt we could meet all the expectations and requirements in New Jersey, which gave us a flight path to the rest of the country.” PLN has relationships with DraftKings, BetMGM and Bet365 to offer sports in the US.
CarJitsu isn’t the first obscure sports PLN to get through state betting regulators: the company also runs the World Putting League (mini golf) and the Slapfight Championship (slap fighting), which are licensed for sports betting across multiple states. PLN has begun taking its 3-on-3 basketball product, the STR33T, to state commissions.
“We don’t take matters to the commission until we know we have the right rules that have very good integrity; we’ve got approval; our athlete education, anti-betting, and drug and alcohol policies are in place,” PLN co-founder Mike Salvaris said. said “All the things you need with any game are fundamental before we take it to commission.”
Yukatonis said that with such strict requirements for approval, PLN did not seek betting commission approval for CarJitsu until about a year into its existence, only once clips of the sport decided to hit social media in great numbers. He also believes that not all sports are for betting.
“There’s a lot of work involved in preparing a game for betting,” Salvaris said. “We’ve learned that because we’ve been through it several times now, sometimes the hard way, sometimes the easy way. But I think it’s not something that I think a lot of sports can do and it’s important to emphasize. And frankly, it’s It’s worth it to us to do because we have multiple sports leagues, I think if you have a sports league that’s in the middle in terms of popularity, I think it’s hard to do in terms of your value. To do it in terms of resources, but it’s worth it to us because that’s what it is Our business is what we’re banking on.”
June 12: Florida bet wins big in 15-leg MLB long shot parlay
A bettor at Hard Rock Bets in Florida picked all 15 winners from Tuesday’s Major League Baseball slate of $32 parlays that paid more than $245,000. Three underdogs—the Colorado Rockies, Miami Marlins, and Baltimore Orioles—pulled upsets, and the rest of the favored teams playing that night won, including the Tampa Bay Rays’ comeback win over the Chicago Cubs. The Rockies (+165), who beat the Minnesota Twins on the road, were the biggest underdogs to win.
Parley had odds of +766386 and paid out $245,275.64.
According to Hard Rock Bets there were 15 legs and odds:
June 10: Panthers trade Bobrovsky for Conn Smith
Greenberg: Sergei Bobrovsky is already a finalist to take home his third career Vezina Trophy, which, if he wins, would put him in elite company in NHL history. After a stellar shutout performance in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals, he is now the favorite to win one of the league’s most prestigious awards.
Immediately after the first game of the series, Bobrovsky moved to +225 on ESPN BET to win the Conn Smith Trophy as playoff MVP. Heavy action took him down further to +210, where he remains as of Monday afternoon. He follows teammate Alexander Berkov and opponent Connor McDavid, both favorites at +275.
According to ESPN BET odds, Bobrovsky entered the Stanley Cup playoffs at 20–1 to win the award and was 25–1 before the Florida Panthers’ matchup with the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Finals; DraftKings reported that he was 28-1 as of May 17. Entering the Stanley Cup Finals, the 35-year-old was +400, tied with Berkow behind McDavid (+200), an intriguing betting line given the Oilers. Underdog for the series.
Bobrovsky has been dominant all postseason with a 2.08 GAA, but his performance on Saturday night was arguably his best yet. According to Stathletes, Bobrovsky’s 2.90 goals-against save in Game 1 was the best of any goaltender in a single game all playoffs. The 35-year-old netminder became the oldest goaltender to record a shutout in the Stanley Cup Final since Tim Thomas in 2011, according to ESPN Stats & Facts.
Thus, a huge influx of bets came to Bobrovsky. On ESPN BET, Bobrovsky went from 8.5% of all Conn Smythe Trophy future tickets before Game 1 to 17.8% currently, behind only McDavid at 27%. DraftKings says Bobrovsky has 63% of the tickets and 84% of the handle for Conn Smyth Trophy bets through Saturday night, tying him with McDavid for the overall handle on winning the award (17%).
Bobrovsky has the second-highest stakes at FanDuel and BetMGM, where he cites the biggest liability in the book. BetMGM’s most-bet prop for Game 2 is Bobrovsky 24.5 Saves (-130), which is also a very popular bet on ESPN BET.
The Oilers can likely both Torpedo Bobrovsky’s Conn Smythe Trophy and simply shoot higher to get back into the series. According to ESPN Stats & Data, Edmonton didn’t attempt a shot at the top of the net in Game 1 even though Bobrovsky has allowed a league-high 19 goals in that area this postseason.
June 4: Oilers need Stanley Cup to win $584K in 3-leg pearl
Greenberg: @BR_Betting is in its final stages of a three-legged pearl shared at 584-1 odds — the Edmonton Oilers to win the Stanley Cup.
According to a spokeswoman for the sportsbook, the bet was placed in January ahead of NFL Wild Card weekend by a BetMGM customer in Colorado. The customer used a $1,000 bonus bet — a promotional credit BetMGM gives to new customers — to make the featured parlay:
The Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers to win the Super Bowl in February and Real Madrid defeated Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final last Saturday, leaving only the Oilers to complete the parlay and put them in position to bet on the playoffs, if they choose. per
Edmonton is listed at +110 to win the Stanley Cup Final on ESPN BET.
