As y’all know, I fancy myself a bit of a gambling fan. I’m not necessarily good at making picks, but I love the insight it can provide. And the latest information is intriguing when it comes to the 2017 NFL draft.
Sportsbooks in Las Vegas recently added draft posts to their boards, but they are limited to things like “OVER/UNDER on No. of position X” or “Which conference will have more players drafted.” However, offshore sportsbooks have no such limitations. They are posting a variety of prop bets for when players will get selected, and who will go in certain positions.
They have had props on all the top potential picks, but on Thursday morning, several sportsbooks have been removing all prop bets connected to Myles Garrett and Mitchell Trubisky. The most recent example I saw was at betonline.ag. They had some prop bet odds for both, but now they’re gone.
I spoke with former Caesar’s Palace oddsmaker Todd Fuhrman, who hosts the Bet The Board podcast:
There's definitely been money on Trubisky to be the No. 1 pick though given market movement. Garret was a -1000 favorite not too long ago and that number has crashed all the way to -375 so whether it's purely speculation or someone knows something it's definitely worth paying attention to only a few short hours before the draft
Betonline.ag sportsbook brand manager Dave Mason added that if Trubisky goes No. 1, “it just kills everything.”
Sportsbooks are in the business of winning money, and with some uncertainty arising for bettors, it might be hard to properly place the number so as to get money from all sides. I think this is more just covering their butts than anything else, but we’ll see what tonight brings.