Sports betting roundup: March Madness nears and NBA returns from All-Star break

With March less than a week away, college basketball produced some big games while the NBA returned from its All-Star break.

The highlight of last week, however, was the men’s hockey gold medal game at the Milan Cortina Olympics between the United States and Canada, with the Americans winning 2-1 in overtime.

Here’s a look at how things played out at the BetMGM online sportsbook:

Trends of the Week

Canada (-120) was a slight favorite going into the gold medal game, but only took in 26% of the bets and 32% of the money. Going into overtime, Canada was -130 to win, while the U.S. was +105.

On Sunday, the Cavaliers (-4.5 vs. Thunder) were the most-bet NBA team to win in terms of the number of bets and money. Cleveland lost outright 121-113. The Thunder led 40-25 after the first quarter.

The Celtics (-1.5 at Lakers) were the second-most bet team in terms of money to cover on Sunday. Boston rolled to a 111-89 win.

Upsets of the Week

On the PGA Tour, Jacob Bridgeman won the Genesis Invitational. He entered the final round with a six-shot lead and held on for a one-shot victory over Rory McIlroy and Kurt Kitayama. Bridgeman finished at 18 under for his first PGA Tour win. Entering the event, he was +8000 to win and took in just 0.6% of the bets and 0.2% of the money in pre-tournament outright winner betting.

There were two top-five matchups in college basketball on Saturday, and both were upsets. Arizona was a 6.5-point underdog against Houston and won outright 73-66. Duke was a 2.5-point underdog against Michigan and won 68-63. Arizona took in 61% of the bets and 65% of the money, while Duke took in 31% of the money.

Coming Up

With March Madness closing in, Michigan is favored to win the national championship at +375, followed by Duke and Arizona at +450, and Houston at +750.

Florida is next at +1150, followed by Iowa State and Illinois at +1300, UConn at +1700, Purdue at +2500 and Kansas at +3000.

___

This column was provided to The Associated Press by BetMGM online sportsbook.

___

AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports