Final Four betting bigger than anticipated thanks to odds

A sigh of relief could be heard throughout the various offshore sportsbooks as the 2009 Final Four betting is shaping to be better than initially expected. Judging from the overall betting patterns on the 2009 NCAA Basketball Tournament, expectations for the betting on the Final Four games was dismal at best. Thanks to the bad shape of the economy and the fact that depositing methods at the sports betting websites remain skim, the bets on the 2009 NCAA Championship games so far were way below what we have seen and used to expect judging from the past years. But lucky as the online sportsbooks are, the 2009 Final Four betting is picking up steam with lots of punters flocking to the betting websites to take advantage of the underdog odds.

And the Final Four odds are truly the driving engine behind the increased interest and wagers. At this stage of the NCAA Tournament one would expect to find pretty much no value, but the latest odds point to the contrary. For example, the online sportsbook Bookmaker has North Carolina as the top pick to win the NCAA Championship with odds -170, but that's where the short odds stop. You pick any of the remaining three college basketball teams to win and if they do, payouts are nothing short of sweet. Even the second favorite, Connecticut, is holding on to pretty long odds +265, considering it's been pretty much underdog tournament through and through. A winning bet on the Michigan State Spartans will pay out on the whopping +645 odds and the ultimate NCAA Tournament underdog Villanova holds long odds +725. With odds like those, there is no wonder that the bettors are now joining sportsbooks left and right to take advantage of once in a season opportunity.

Published on 04/01/2009