💸 Division I Men's Basketball Top 16 Teams

Last week was jam packed in the sports world, and we expect that to be the case going forward as we approach March.

Kamaru Usman asserted his dominance in the Octagon last Saturday.  Pour one out for the people taking a flyer on Gilbert Burns at the tail end of a parlay.  There was a reason Usman was a -278 favorite.  And he showed it.  

But, as exciting as that was, one of the cornerstones of this time of year is the NCAA tournament.  March Madness is officially upon us with the release of the top 16 teams in college basketball.  

Here are the top 16 teams released by the NCAA selection committee - locks to be in the tournament.

1. Gonzaga
2. Baylor
3. Michigan
4. Ohio State
5. Illinois
6. Villanova
7. Alabama
8. Houston
9. Virginia
10. West Virginia
11. Tennessee
12. Oklahoma
13. Iowa
14. Texas Tech
15. Texas
16. Missouri

Notable absences?  Duke and Kentucky.  Both have struggled mightily this year.  

Just to get you hyped for the tourney, here's some info:

~ $8.5B is bet on March Madness throughout the 67 game tournament.

The American Gaming Association says that the amount of money bet throughout the tournament surpasses Super Bowl betting by a significant margin.

The total handle in Nevada suggests that’s accurate, with roughly $305.5 million bet at regulated sportsbooks for the 2019 tournament. That’s more than double the reported Super Bowl 53 handle of $145 million.

But while the bracket is still in the ether, let's look into what else you can bet on.

Here are the lines:

Prime Cut - Highlighted Lines

NBA: (lines for Feb. 17 '21)

Lines reposted from reddit

Want to hear an interesting stat? If you had blindly bet $100 on every NBA underdog moneyline this season, you'd be up $4,648.38 in profit.

NCAA Basketball:

Pulled from Bovada.lv and sportsinsights.com

English Premier League:

Pulled from Bovada.lv and sportsinsights.com

UEFA Champions League:

Pulled from Bovada.lv and sportsinsights.com

NHL:

Pulled from Bovada.lv and sportsinsights.com

Men's Australian Open

Pulled from Bovada.lv and sportsinsights.com

Women's Australian Open

Pulled from Bovada.lv and sportsinsights.com

PGA - Genesis Invitational

Tiger will be in attendance, but won't be playing.

And a few props:

Pulled from Bovada.lv and sportsinsights.com

How do they come up with this stuff?  Finau, Koepka, Cantlay and McIlroy Top 20 FTW!

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (e-sports) - IEM Katowice 2021

You can check out the streams for these here: https://www.twitch.tv/esl_csgo

Hope you find something you like in there.  Now - let's dig into our play of the week.

Play of the Week:

Australian Open - Daniil Medvedev vs Stefanos Tsitsipas

As much as we'd like to take a flyer on Aslan Karatsev to take out Djokavic (apparently he is dealing with injury), the lines are just too wide for us to recommend it.  There's also this little chestnut - every time Novac has made it to the semi-final in the Australian Open, he has won.  His path to the final seems assured.

However, there is an interesting matchup here between Daniil Medvedev (-230) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (+190).  

Looks like our hot take bet on the wrong Russian player.  World number four Daniil Medvedev is through to the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the first time after beating fellow top 10 Russian Andrey Rublev in straight sets.

Also something to consider, he holds a 5-1 head-to-head record over semi-final opponent Stefanos Tsitsipas.  Medvedev has made the semi-finals of a major twice before and both at the US Open where in 2019 he took Rafael Nadal all the way to a deciding set in the final.

But the path you take to get to the semi-final matters, and the way Stefanos Tsitsipas did it is impressive.  He beat Rafael Nadal in three straight sets after being down 0-2 to take the win.  

22-year-old Tsitsipas was the winner the last time he faced Daniil Medvedev during his ATP Finals winning campaign in 2019.

The record is something to keep in mind, so we wouldn't bet against Medvedev on the moneyline.  However, this will likely be tighter than people expect, and a bet on Tsitsipas to cover wouldn't be out of left field.    

What's Trending - The Quick Action ⚡

Find out where the sharp money is laying.

NBA:

Pulled from sportsinsights.com

NHL:

Pulled from sportsinsights.com

NCAAB:

Pulled from sportsinsights.com

How to look at this:

1. This shows you where the bets (#) and the amount of money ($) are laying down across different bets.
2. The interesting stuff is when the number of tickets and the amount of money differs.  

Do with it what you will!

What You Need to Know - Key Insights 💡

NBA:

• Anthony Davis has a calf strain and will be re-evaluated in 2-3 weeks

NCAAB:

• The top 16 teams have been released by the NCAA selection committee

English Premier League:

• Pep Guardiola fears March international break could prompt Covid-19 cases to rise in Premier League.  

UEFA Champions League:

• UEFA Champions League round of 16: Cristiano Ronaldo heads to Portugal to headline action on Wednesday

NHL:

• NHL postpones second Stars-Predators game due to severe winter storm in Dallas
• Vegas Golden Knights and the Boston Bruins top the power rankings

Hot Takes 🔥

These are the hot takes that can seem to come out of left field.  Right or wrong?  Time will tell.  But one thing is for sure - these are spicy:

The Champions League is back, and it's already gotten off to a banner start with Barcelona falling to PSG with a score of 1-4.    

Funnily enough Barcelona were underdogs - who would have thought that?

But because there has been some inconsistency amongst the Champions League teams, we were on the hunt for other "upsets".  

And we believe we found one.  Real Madrid takes on Atalanta next week, and RM are favorites.  The odds to advance to the quarterfinals: Atalanta: +163; Real Madird: -225.  

Real Madrid has been inconsistent this season. Two losses to Shakhtar were stunning as Real were outclassed for most of the 180 minutes in which they faced the Ukrainian side.

It's possible Sergio Ramos can't go, and if so, the Real Madrid defense will be hobbled.  Atalanta on the other hand, brings one of the best attacks in the tournament.  

And it's quite possible that Real gets bounced if Atalanta get their chances on goal.  

The 'Degens' 🤪

Usually we include obscure games you didn’t even know you wanted to bet on here.  The ESPN "The Ocho" of sports betting.  But, this week we thought we'd do something a little different.

We came across a bettor on reddit, u/Sportsman888, that took $50 on BetOnline he posted in late January and made it into $10K.  As he says himself:

Don't try this as it's a very irresponsible way to gamble unless you have money to lose, this will not work 99% of the time and is very degenerate.

So naturally, we had to post it here.

Here are just some of the bets he threw down:

There's only one thing that comes to mind:

You can't even get those returns with Bitcoin on a heater.  Well done.

The WOATs (Worst of all Time) 🤬

The worst stories in sports gambling brought to you for your schadenfreude pleasure.  

Well - this week we're going to flip the script and do something a little bit different.  We're going to laud some success.  

We came across this Parlay that paid out.  $125 down, $15K return.      

With the upsets that are clearly paying out across the NBA (as mentioned earlier in this letter), it's pretty amazing this parlay played out.  You can only tip your cap.  

See, we're not all doom and gloom here!  Get out there and be somebody.

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