Sportsbooks are taking extreme steps to try to balance out the heavy betting action coming in on the Los Angeles Dodgers, but nothing has worked so far.
The Dodgers are +275 to win the World Series at ESPN BET as of Thursday morning, making them the biggest Opening Day favorite since the 2002 New York Yankees (+200), according to ESPN Research. The Dodgers, who swept the Chicago Cubs in two games in Japan last week, had a preseason win total of 103.5. That was 10 wins higher than any other team this year — the Atlanta Braves are second at 93.5 — and the highest total entering any season since the 1999 Yankees (104.5).
The Braves at +800 have the second-shortest World Series odds, followed by the Yankees (+850). The New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies are each 10-1 at ESPN BET.
Despite the historic odds, the betting public can’t get enough of the star-studded Dodgers. At some sportsbooks, more bets have been placed on the Dodgers to win the World Series than every other team combined. At the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas, the Dodgers have attracted approximately four times as much money as any other team, and BetMGM reported that 35 out of the 50 largest bets on the sportsbook’s World Series odds were on the Dodgers ahead of Opening Day.
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“If there’s a market that includes the Dodgers, bettors have taken interest,” BetMGM trading manager Halvor Egeland said.
It’s not hard to figure out why. After winning the 2024 World Series, the Dodgers bolstered their pitching staff with the addition of top prospect Roki Sasaki, two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell and relievers Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates. Additionally, reigning National League MVP Shohei Ohtani is expected to return to the mound at some point after being strictly a hitter last season while recovering from elbow surgery.
“On paper, they’re a superteam,” said Randy Blum, who oversees baseball odds for the SuperBook. “But baseball can be really random.”
Blum said the SuperBook expects to make the Dodgers 2.5-run favorites regularly in games this season, up from the 1.5-run line typically offered by sportsbooks. He added that when the Dodgers face the bottom teams in the league, the odds on games could reach “-600 or -700,” which would be some of the shortest in recent memory.
The Dodgers, with Snell on the mound, are around -185 favorites over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday.
