Ask anyone. Your Uncle Fred, the cashier at the grocery store, or the degen at the kiosk next to you. Cashing a bet is HARD. It doesn’t matter the odds, it doesn’t matter the sport, it doesn’t matter the time. Turning a -325 or even a -500 into cold hard cash can sometimes be an odyssey of sorts.
The same can be said for any playoff series. Whether it’s October baseball, or best of 7’s in the Spring/Summer championships don’t just get handed out and for good reason.
This all brings me to the Milwaukee Bucks. Two years ago they were champs and Giannis was ordering up 50-piece meals.
This year they were cruising along again, clinching the 2 seed despite Giannis missing some action throughout the year. (what NBA superstar doesn’t miss 10-20% of their games nowadays?)
Until this first round against the Miami Heat. Going in as a 2 versus a 7, the odds were slanted in the Bucks favor. Depending on where you got them, they were roughly -1000 to -1250 to win this series. A couple of missed Giannis games left us at Game 4 last night, with Giannis returning and the Bucks favored by a couple of buckets.
Butler went fireflames and the Bucks find themselves down 3-1 in the series and facing elimination. They would have to win 3 consecutive games against this Heat team to come back, a seemingly impossible task based on how this series has gone so far. However, this is where Vegas bookmakers stop being polite and start getting real.
Any Bills fan the past 2 years knows Vegas can be stubborn on their futures and long term plays. The case is no different here with the Bucks:
How does Vegas get to this number? Simply put, they are expecting big Bucks performances the next 3 games. We already know they are favorited by 10 to 11 points in Game 5….Here are the moneyline odds for 3 projected series games to generate that price:
So you can place a ML with some juice on the Heat to win 1 out of 3…or you can let it ride with potentially the sharpest bet of all time…the Bucks to win 3 straight games at +125. One thing to be known…the NBA is definitely not rigged.
