Congratulations to Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic on winning his second straight MVP award. It was a tough battle between the center and Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid. The latter led the league in scoring this season. There are a lot of people who believe Embiid should have won the award. My NBC Sports colleague Dan Feldman breaks down how hotly contested this year’s MVP race was here.
Earlier this week I reached out to the traders at PointsBet to recap how their MVP market broke down this season. They were cool enough to do so.
Back in October 2021 before the season started, Luka Doncic was the MVP favorite at +450. Kevin Durant (+800) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (+600) were both ahead of Doncic in bet percentage at PointsBet. Jokic was +1400 at the time. There were not many tickets backing Jokic but 15% of the money in the market was on the Denver center to win back-to-back MVP awards. Only Giannis had more money behind him.
A month into the season Stephen Curry took a commanding lead in the race. Curry was playing well and the Dubs were rolling. Curry became a +160 MVP favorite. Over 16% of the money in the market was on Curry. Ja Morant, Kevin Durant and Zach LaVine all had just over 8% of the money on them. Nikola Jokic was +1100 and had 6% of the bet count backing him.
From early December to the All-Star break, many candidates emerged but none more so than Joel Embiid. Big Joel was putting up monster numbers for the Sixers on a nightly basis. I even put a few bucks on Embiid to win the award. Steph Curry slowed down and eventually fell out of the race but Giannis and Jokic remained close. After the break, Chicago Bulls All-Star DeMar DeRozan made a brief MVP push. His ticket count increased but not a lot of money was coming in on him. The race was quickly coming down to two people: Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic.
A strong end to the season for the Nuggets propelled Jokic to a -350 favorite on PointsBet as the season came to an end. Jokic benefited from the Nuggets being without Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. - their next two best players for most of the season. Despite not having them, the Nuggets were still able to win 48 games. They may not have won 30 games if Jokic was not in the lineup.
The final money tally at PointsBet saw Joel Embiid finish with 26.4% of the handle. Followed by Steph Curry at 17.1% and Jokic at 15.6%. The 2022-2023 MVP race will likely open up with Giannis Antetokoumnpo as the favorite, with Luka Doncic and Joel Embiid rounding out the top three.
Congrats to all those who cashed Nikola Jokic tickets.
