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David Purdum, ESPN Staff WriterOct 4, 2024, 12:46 PM ET
- Joined ESPN in 2014
- Journalist covering gambling industry since 2008
After an upset-filled wild-card round, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees open their postseasons Saturday as the top betting favorites to win the World Series.
Some sportsbooks have the Dodgers listed as World Series favorites; others have the Yankees. Both are favorites in their divisional round series. The Dodgers are around -135 favorites over the San Diego Padres, and the Yankees are -210 favorites over the Kansas City Royals.
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Bookmakers, however, are more concerned about the upstart Detroit Tigers, who in a month have gone from long shots to a liability for sportsbooks. The Tigers, who could be found at 500-1 to win the World Series in early September, are now around 10-1 and have been attracting increased interest from bettors — especially in Michigan.
DraftKings and BetMGM both said the Tigers have attracted greater than 50% of all World Series bets placed with their sportsbooks in Michigan since Sept. 1. That’s upward of 10 times more than any other team left in the playoffs. Caesars Sportsbook took a $200 bet on the Tigers to win the World Series at 500-1 from a Michigan customer in late August, according to the company’s lead baseball trader Eric Biggio.
The Tigers are drawing betting support outside of Michigan, too.
“In the past week or so, the Tigers have jumped ahead of both the Royals and Padres in terms of liability,” Halvor Egeland, who oversees baseball odds for BetMGM, told ESPN. “They’re now our worst result for the World Series and the worst to win the either pennant as well.”
Three of the top five preseason betting favorites to win the World Series-the Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros and Baltimore Orioles — were eliminated in the wild-card round, with the Tigers, New York Mets and Kansas City Royals advancing as underdogs.
