Month: October 2024

Sports betting was the NFL’s dirty little secret for decades, driving a massive underground, uber-engaged audience to gamble on the gridiron.

When coaches or players were asked to comment on the point spread, those answers often danced around the NFL odds. However, in today’s “brave new world” of NFL betting, with sportsbooks as the league’s biggest partners, it’s hard to turn a blind eye to what the oddsmakers think.

Those opinions aren’t lost on Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who knew very well what the spreads said about his team’s run to Super Bowl LVIII.

“We’ve been underdogs the last few games, but we never feel like underdogs,” Mahomes gladly told reporters fol…

The Cincinnati Bengals face off against the New York Giants in Sunday Night Football action this week.

There’s a good chance of scattered showers for the primetime clash while the tricky crosswinds at the Meadowlands could gust over 20 mph. That factors into how I’m betting the player props markets as I back a running back and slot receiver while even wagering on a defensive player prop.

Here are my three favorite NFL picks and Bengals vs. Giants predictions for October 13. 

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Paul Pierce played his last game in Boston today, four years after the Celtics traded him away. In the starting lineup for the first time in more than a month to celebrate his final game at his old stomping grounds, Pierce got a standing ovation from the crowd in recognition of the 15 years he spent as a Celtic. The Clippers put him back in for the game’s final seconds, which was long enough to hit one last three-pointer and earn an emotional round of cheers from the crowd: …

Crystal Palace will have had over two weeks’ rest by the time they travel to Leicester on Monday so it will be interesting to see whether they are rusty or recharged against Brendan Rodgers’ side, who in that time followed up victory in the FA Cup semi-finals with an impressive dismantling of West Brom. Leicester appear to be back in their groove, with James Maddison making a successful return to action and Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho continuing to thrive together up front. Sometimes this season Leicester have struggled to penetrate defences who sit deep at the King Power but there is good reason to believe they will find ways through Palace. Paul Doyle

Monday 8pm Sky Sports Premier League

Venue King Power…

Well, there’s a thing. Maybe there is something to be said for these so‑called experts after all. For 53 minutes of this 1-1 draw Germany and Spain played out a carefully hedged, engrossingly mannered game of football. This was a game of midfield squared, of Big Midfield Energy, a quiet debauchery of midfield.

Al Bayt Stadium is essentially a vast illuminated fibreglass tent dumped down in the desert scrub. It was packed here, or almost packed. But at times in the second half it was so quiet in the stands you could hear the air conditioning hiss. This is, it seems likely, not a sentence that has been typed before in a football report.

The game wasn’t dull, or unengrossing. But it was oddly samey and controlled…

When Nico Williams turns up, everything changes, except him. At the end of Spain’s 1-0 destruction of Italy on Thursday night – and, yes, there is such a thing as a 1-0 destruction – King Felipe VI made his way down to the dressing room to congratulate them. There was a brief address, something about having to win even if it was with an own goal, and a smattering of polite applause. The king went round the room: handshakes, smiles, the occasional word. “Sixteen?!” he said, standing before Lamine Yamal, putting his head in his hands. The players laughed a little awkwardly, nodded, said thanks.

And then, just as Felipe reached the end of the line, shook David Raya’s hand and started to say he was going now, he was suddenly interrup…

I don’t know what we expected. Despite the best efforts of a good chunk of America, everything continues to be a flaming dumpster fire. Why should the NFL’s first Moment of Unity be any different? In case you missed it, those were fans at the NFL opener in Kansas City booing the Moment of Unity. While the Chiefs remained on the field, arms linked, for the playing of Lift Every Voice and Sing (also known as the “Black National Anthem”) and the Star-Spangled Banner, the Texans returned to the locker room for the playing of both anthems. Afterwards, both teams met at mid-field for a moment of silence to honor the fight for racial justice. And that’s when the booing started. Because this is where we are as a country. We can’t even acknowledge that racial equality is a laudable…

Ohio State football has already started to feel the effects of Urban Meyer’s decision to retire at the end of this season for health and family-related reasons. Two of the Buckeyes’ seven commitments from the 2020 recruiting class have announced on Twitter that they’ve decommitted from the program. The first was four-star safety Lejond Cavazos. The second prospect, and admittedly the more notable one, is four-star offensive tackle Jake Wray—the 56th-ranked player from the class of 2020. Wray cites his older brother Max, a freshman offensive lineman who plays for the Buckeyes, as a reason for why Ohio State will remain as a top choice for his commitment, but the Georgia-native can keep his options open as he has offers from 24 schools including Alabama, Michigan and Oregon, accor…