With the Raiders moving to Las Vegas in a couple of years, all the major talk this offseason has been about gambling. Football betting is growing in popularity in Las Vegas and America, with new markets being created every week. In fact, it’s so popular that some markets are created and opened immediately after Super Bowl 51 finished.
Las Vegas odds makers ranked the Oakland Raiders seventh-placed favourites to win Super Bowl 52 at 18/1, joint with the Steelers, but somehow behind the division rival Broncos, at 17/1, who didn’t even make the playoffs last year. These odds came out immediately following the Patriots Super Bowl victory, so do not take the Raiders signing of Marshawn Lynch or their other strong free agent acquisitions into account. Today, some odds makers have bumped the Raiders to 12/1 and fifth overall, jumping ahead of the Broncos and into third in the AFC.
Guessing which team will win the Super Bowl next year isn’t the only offseason betting market available. You can bet over/under on how many games you think the Raiders will win this year, and it seems the market has opened at the Raiders winning 10 games. That is higher than all its division rivals and good for third highest in the AFC behind the Steelers and Patriots.
Last year the Raiders won 12, but that could have easily been 13 had Derek Carr not been injured and missed the last game of the year. Looking at it on paper, that makes you think the Raiders are likely to go over 10 games considering their record and overall team improvement in the offseason. Sadly, it’s not that easy! Of the 10 wins in the 2016 season, eight came on games that were decided by one score or less. Oakland could have easily lost those games, so who knows what might happen in 2017.
Throughout the season more prop bets will appear and provide plenty of opportunity for betting on the Raiders. Marshawn Lynch for comeback player of the year anyone?