The Brooklyn Nets are the betting darling of the NBA offseason.
PointsBet Sportsbook opened Brooklyn at +1500 to win next year’s championship in mid-October. After an early avalanche of money and tickets, they moved them to +1000. At that point in time, PointsBet had booked 10 times more money on the Nets than any other team. Nearly 40 percent of the bet count was on Brooklyn too.
“It’s been a long time since the Nets have fielded a really competitive team,” PointsBet senior analyst Andrew Mannino told NBC Sports. “Given the nature of the NBA these days with superteams and free agents and stars coming together, people see the Nets as the next ones to hold that mantle."[[ad:athena]]
Bettors have pounced on the Nets even more this week with the latest development about James Harden wanting to be traded to Brooklyn to team up with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. PointsBet is currently dealing the Nets at +600. Only the Lakers (+330) and Bucks (+450) have lower title odds.
“Brooklyn already has a couple stars and already has a good chance to make a run,” Mannino said. “We took a lot of action on them long before these rumors. Everybody will be all-in on them if they can find a way to land Harden.”
But bookmakers can’t just sit around and wait for Harden to get traded to the Nets. They have to get ahead of the move and lower the price so they’re not extra liable when the report comes across the ticker. The price has been adjusted accordingly and now they play the waiting game.
“Bettors are certainly reacting to [the rumors], which forces us to react,” Mannino explained. “If Brooklyn pulls off the trade, you’ll see the price fall sooner. What we have right now sort of reflects the uncertainty. It’s the upside of getting Harden and the chance for success measured against the downside of them not being able to pull off a trade.”
Are there enough basketballs for KD, Kyrie and Harden to co-exist?
“Give up 110 every night and score 112,” the Brooklyn native Mannino quipped with glee. “If anybody can figure out a way to make it work, it’s those three guys. When you get that type of star power on one team in the NBA, good things tend to happen.”
PointsBet is our Official Sports Betting Partner, and we may receive compensation if you place a bet on PointsBet for the first time after clicking our links.
