Tuesday, February 17, 2015

I Don't Understand Gambling Odds

There was an article in Sunday's Washington Post about the teams with the best odds to win the 2015 World Series. The print version includes the over/under wins for each MLB team from Bovada and the World Series odds from the Atlantis sportsbook. Since this is the Washington Post, the Nationals were clearly the focus of the article as the team has the best odds to win the World Series (13-2) and are expected to have the most regular season wins (over/under 93). The odd part, though, is how these sites view the Pirates.

Bovada has the Pirates over/under wins at 85 1/2. After reaching the playoffs over the past two seasons, this is not unexpected. In fact the 85 1/2 is the 7th best in baseball behind the Nats, Dodgers, Cardinals, Angels, Tigers and Red Sox. However, Atlantis has the Pirates odds to win the World Series at 33-1 or tied for 17th best in baseball. Um, what? Look, I understand that the Nationals, Dodgers, and Cardinals all look like more complete teams and will be extremely tough competition for the Pirates. Meanwhile, the Mets (28-1), Mariners (16-1), Cubs (10-1!) and Padres (14-1) all have better odds to win the World Series than the Bucs.

I don't get it.

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