Oddsmakers Working Overtime This Week – November 22

Oddsmakers have had an extremely busy week with the Thanksgiving holiday coming up tomorrow. Thanksgiving means football and fans and bettors are treated to three NFL games. That means oddsmakers had to be ready to release opening lines for the games as soon as possible. The NFL is also playing on Friday with its first-ever Black Friday game pitting the Miami Dolphins against the New York Jets.

The Thanksgiving weekend is also packed full of traditional college football rivalries. They start on Thursday with the annual Egg Bowl, which featurest Ole Miss and Mississippi State. Friday brings more college football, kicking it off with Iowa-Nebraska and ending with the Civil War – No. 16 Oregon State at No. 6 Oregon. That’s just the tip of the iceberg for oddsmakers.

Oddsmakers Attack Rivalry Week

Saturday is the final day of the college football regular season. It’s also another day full of traditional rivalries. No. 2 Ohio State takes on No. 3 Michigan at noon and the whole day is full of rivalry games. Texas A&M-LSU, Kentucky-Louisville, Alabama-Auburn, Arizona-Arizona State, and so many more.

These games are unique, which make it even more difficult for oddsmakers to establish opening lines and odds. A 5-6 Washington State team is going to jacked up to play No. 4 and 11-0 Washington in the Apple Cup. Florida is just 5-6, but they are playing at home against rival Florida State, which is ranked No. 5 in the country and has an 11-0 record. Oddsmakers are working their tails off with all these games trying to ensure sharp lines.

Not Just Football Keeping Oddsmakers Busy

Oddsmakers have really had to be on their toes this week and it’s not just because of all the football being played. Holiday time means holiday basketball tournaments. There are several NCAAB tournaments that have been and are still being played this week. Just yesterday, there were over 50 college basketball games. That’s a lot of lines and odds for oddsmakers to deal with.

Events like the Saatva Empire Classic at Madison Square Garden ended on Monday, but there are more throughout the week. The NIT Tip-Off starts today and the ESPN Events Invitational and the first-ever Vegas Showdown both start on Thursday. The Maui Invitational, which features five teams ranked in the top-15, is still underway in Hawaii. No. 4 Marquette upset top-ranked Kansas last night. Oddsmakers had a quick turnaround as the Jayhawks take on No. 7 Tennessee later today. Marquette will now face No. 2 Purdue.

Oddsmakers do get somewhat of a break as both the NBA and NHL are off for Thanksgiving. There are 14 games each in the NBA and NHL tonight and both leagues have full schedules on Friday and Saturday. That adds to the workload for oddsmakers this week. It just might be the busiest week of the year for oddsmakers.

Computer Picks Takes Advantage of Oddsmakers Again

Computer Picks was busy last night winning a ton of picks. My guy found some value in a number of lines set by oddsmakers yesterday. When it was all said and done, Computer Picks put 35 picks in the system yesterday and ended up winning 62.86 percent of those picks. That’s 22-13 if you’re keeping score at home. 

What’s even more intriguing is that Computer Picks won a grand total of $670. That was No. 1 on the Sports Hub leaderboard yesterday. If you’re not aware, our Computer Picks have been doing this for the last four years. CP has a winning percentage of right around 59 percent over that time span. What if you could win 59 percent of your bets? Something to think about.

Computer Picks wasn’t the only one tearing it up yesterday. Let’s check it out.

• Why follow Computer Picks: Computer Picks is No. 3 on the 7-day leaderboard and is 112-94 over the last week. These picks are available to any Sports Hub member. The computer picks are only released when there is at least a two-point difference between the actual betting line and the computer-generated line. And these picks consistently win between 55 and 60 percent of the time.
• Back for more: Our friends at Knup Sports have been having themselves a solid couple of weeks. Yesterday, Knup went 10-4 and, if not for Computer Picks slapping oddsmakers around, Knup would have topped the board with $560 in winnings. Over the last 14 days, Knup Sports has hit 56.2 percent of its 226 picks and won $1155. If you’re a SportsHub member, you can follow Knup Sports too.
• The Insider: Sports Hub has years of experience in all facets of the sports betting industry. You could say we’re “insiders.” The Sports Hub Insider put some of that knowledge to work yesterday and went 4-0 on three CBB picks and one in the NBA. The Insider pocketed $400 to give him a total of $700 over the last three days. 
• Worth noting: Diego Garcia is a Sports Hub expert who went 3-0 yesterday and won $300. Diego is a consistent profitable long-term handicapper who is still up nearly $1000 for the month.

Sports, Sports & More Sports

When you talk about trending sports news, it’s just the sheer amount of sporting events going on right now. Oddsmakers have their hands full setting lines and odds for so many exciting games this week. We’ve already had Monday Night Football and Tuesday’s MAC-tion, now we get Thanksgiving Day NFL and college football rivalry weekend. 

We can’t forget the huge number of college basketball games either. With all of the holiday tournaments, oddsmakers are probably up all hours of the night establishing new lines for games the next day. 

Anyway, here’s what is trending in the world of sports.

• Feast Week: So, this is ESPN’s early-season college basketball tournament week. The network actually owns a couple of these tournaments that take place over the Thanksgiving holiday. The Maui Invitational is a great one with all of those ranked teams. We saw the upset last night – Marquette over Kansas – and we could see another tonight. Oddsmakers have established the Eagles as the underdog (+3.5) once again.
• New CFP poll: The College Football Playoff committee met last night to complete its weekly rankings. The top-4 did change. Georgia is No. 1 followed by Ohio State, Michigan, and Washington at No. 4. The Huskies, No. 5 last week, jumped over Florida State which is the result of the Seminoles losing QB Jordan Travis to an injury.

• Lakers advance: The Los Angeles Lakers ended NBA in-season tournament play with a 4-0 record and will advance to the knockout round. The Lakers beat the Jazz last night 131-99 to notch their third straight win and move to 9-6 on the season.
• Rivalry week: Things are getting heated as college football closes its regular season with a ton of annual rivalries. Who can forget the Kick Six in the Iron Bowl? The Sunshine Showdown (FL-FSU), Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate (UGA-GT), and the Territorial Cup (AZ-ASU) are just a few of the annual CFB rivalries taking place this weekend. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Another Full Schedule

With Thanksgiving coming tomorrow, today’s sports schedule is quite full. There isn’t any football on the schedule, which hasn’t happened in quite a while. We’ve had Wednesday college football for the past several weeks. Not to worry, college basketball will more than make up for the lack of football today.

Here’s a look at today’s schedule.

1. Big NBA schedule: After yesterday’s in-season tournament action, oddsmakers had to get right back to work and establish lines for 14 games today. Milwaukee plays at Boston and Golden State is at Phoenix in the ESPN doubleheader.
2. Ditto the NHL schedule: Bettors can get busy with just the NBA and NHL. There are 14 games on the ice tonight. The TNT doubleheader has Boston at Florida in the early game and Vegas and Dallas in the late game. The Knights (13-4-2) and Stars (12-4-1) lead their respective divisions in the Western Conference. 

3. Light soccer schedule: There are a handful of matches in the Central and South American professional leagues. The UEFA Women’s Champions League has four matches, but all of the top leagues in the world are off today.
4. Packed schedule in NCAAB: With a number of holiday tournaments going on, there is a ton of college basketball on today’s schedule. You thought yesterday had a lot of games? Today, there are nearly 70 college basketball games on the schedule. We’ve already mentioned some of the top games – Marquette and Purdue, for example. Oddsmakers have been busy all night and will continue to be as these tournaments take us into the weekend.
5. Women’s Tennis: The ATP Tour is off until Dec. 1. The women are currently playing in the MundoTenis Open in Brazil. Check our database for tennis picks.

That is all for today. If you’re out and about tonight, remember, it’s the biggest bar night of the year. Be safe and bet wisely. Sports Hub’s expert handicappers are here to help. Our guys know how to win and we show you that every day. We’ll show you again tomorrow. Come back and join us!