Money 'Overwhelmingly' on Maple Leafs in Game 1
Game 1 of the Eastern Conference series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning – a 7-3 Lightning win – produced no shortage of interesting betting trends and side stories.
So how did the best sports betting sites fare in the first game?
Fans Bet 'Overwhelmingly' on Maple Leafs
According to Proline, the money was “overwhelmingly” in favor of the Leafs – 82% of customers picked Toronto to win the game, while 79% had the Leafs -1.5 goals. Rough night all around for bettors there.
The lone bright spot on the Proline front was the Over 6.5 goals, which took 87% of wagers.
Auston Matthews Over 0.5 goals was the most popular player prop of the game. However, just 11% of customers took the Under there, as he failed to score in Game 1.
Still – 81% of Proline customers have the Leafs to win the series, although Tampa became the betting favourites (1.75) after taking a 1-0 series lead, while 24% have the Leafs to win the Cup (just ahead of Boston, at 23%).
On the overall playoff front, a number of Proline customers correctly chose the underdog sweep in Game 1s (Rangers, Tampa, Winnipeg, Seattle), including one digital customer who turned a $30 wager on a four-pick parlay into a tidy $886 profit.
'Bettors Think They'll Rebound'
Over at FanDuel, the most significant movement was the series price, where the Leafs opened as 1.75 favourite when the matchup was officially confirmed, before closing at 1.58 before puck drop in Game 1.
FanDuel Sportsbook had just one bettor predict last night’s correct score (7-3), an uncommon hockey score that paid at 160/1. The two most popular Anytime Goal Scorer selections last night were Brayden Point (2.6) and William Nylander (2.75), both of whom tallied.
The majority of the bets that they’ve seen since midnight in their “To Win the Eastern Conference Market” have been on Tampa Bay (currently 8.5). Boston is 2.7 favourites while the Leafs are now 9.0. Holding a 1-0 series lead, Tampa is now 1.77 series favourites over Toronto (2.08).
The largest bet they saw at BetRivers was $3,200 on the Lightning Moneyline (2.33). They took several live bets of over $1,000 on Over 6.5 total goals (between 1.95 and 2.0), which hit. Mitch Marner to score at least three points was 6.4 (he had three assists), and Nikita Kucherov to score next goal (live) was 16.0.
And at DraftKings Sportsbook, director of race and sportsbook operations Johnny Avello said the Leafs opened at 1.65 favourites and are now 1.61.
“Bettors think they’ll rebound, but maybe this team just isn’t built for the playoffs," Avello said. "We’ll see.”
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