Daily Sports Betting Preview 5/5/2020: Horse Racing, CS:GO, NFL Sims

  • My Wise Cat is a +135 favorite in the fifth race at Will Rogers Downs today.
  • Astralis is a massive -1200 favorite over Dignitas in the Road to Rio competition.
  • The simulated Chicago Bears are three-point underdogs to the simulated Seattle Seahawks.

TULSA, Okla. - Today’s edition of the Daily Sports Betting Preview covers a lot of ground with three different sports betting opportunities.

The Preview starts out today with some horse race betting courtesy of the Will Rogers Downs, located just outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

After that, the Preview takes a look at the world of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive betting, as the ESL Road to Rio marches on.

Finally, the Preview examines some of the NFL Sim games that have become staples at many major online sportsbooks in recent months.

There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started!

Will Rogers Downs Horse Racing

The Will Rogers Downs is a horse racing vendor that has been discussed multiple times in this column already, as it is one of the few horse racing tracks that has been running consistent races in a post COVID-19 world.

Today’s races at the famed track are as exciting as ever, as ten separate horse races take place. There are significant amounts of betting equity to be had - after all, sports bettors can bet on any of the horses involved.

As always, the Preview is going to highlight one of the races, and do a little bit of a deep dive on that topic, so let’s jump right in.

To the eyes of this writer, the most interesting race on the board appears to be Race 5 at the Will Rogers Downs. The odds for that race are below.

Will Rogers Downs - Race 5:

  • 2 - My Wise Cat +135
  • 10 - Freedom Hill +350
  • 9 - Thurman Merman +500
  • 6 - Big Em C +600
  • 12 - Imma Wild Bling +1000
  • 11 - Ender +1400
  • 1 - Barry Lee +1600
  • 7 - Cheers And Prayers +1800
  • 8 - Chatterman +2000
  • 3 - Bet Again +3300
  • 4 - Tentwelvefourteen +3300
  • 5 - Alarm System +4000

My Wise Cat is the heaviest favorite relative to the race that it is in of any horse in any race being run today - except one (Nocturnal Mission is +120 in race 9).

What makes this race so interesting, though, is the numbers at the bottom of that list. Alarm System’s +4000 odds are pretty steep. Many of the other races don’t have any horses who have longer odds than +3300.

Basically, most of the races have odds distributed in a relatively normal fashion - there is a favorite, a couple of second-tier horses, a couple of third-tier horses, and then the odds start to fall off.

This race has that distribution, but it’s a little more pronounced - the favorite is a little more favored, the underdogs have slightly longer odds.

Overall, this is a great betting opportunity for seasoned horse betting veterans and newbies alike.

Road To Rio Betting

The ESL Road to Rio marches on, as some of the best teams in the world of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive battle it out, seeking to earn a place in the ESL major in November.

The competition features daily matches between elite-level teams, with the teams sorted into groups by region.

Today’s most interesting match features a titan of the sport, Astralis, taking on Team Dignitas in a clash between a team founded with a focus on Counter-Strike and an organization more general in scope.

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Astralis are favored in the match, to the surprise of very few, with -1200 odds on the moneyline to take the match over Dignitas.

Dignitas, for their part, boast +550 odds to upset Astralis.

The spread in CS:GO betting tends to be +/-1.5, where the 1.5 refers to the number of sets won in the best of three match.

For example, if Astralis wins 2-0, then Astralis -1.5 will cover, but if Astralis wins 2-1, then Dignitas +1.5 will cover.

Astralis (-1.5) is -180, still a favorite, while Dignitas (+1.5) is +130. Effectively, Astralis is favored to sweep this match, while Dignitas is an underdog to get even one set.

The Road to Rio provides an excellent time for many bettors to examine online esports betting, with games like this happening every day.

NFL Sim Betting

In a world without the NFL, NFL simulations have become the new normal. NFL simulations have existed for a while at online sportsbooks, who are invested to some degree in virtual sports betting.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic brought them to new prominence, as many real-life sports leagues closed down and sports bettors across the world turned to simulations to get their fix.

This provided an opportunity for out of season NFL simulation betting that was not there before and the sportsbooks responded by offering plenty of odds.

Today’s most interesting sim game is between the Seattle Seahawks and the Chicago Bears.

The rosters being used are the rosters from the end of the 2019-2020 season, so no new draft picks will be on the rosters of either team.

One final thing to note before jumping into the odds: the game will be played under Windy conditions in the Madden 2K20 video game, with 15 minute quarters, on Rookie difficulty.

The Seahawks are -160 to the Bears +120, making them slight favorites on the moneyline. On the spread, the Seahawks are favored by three points.

The Over/Under line for the game is set at 55.0 points, which demonstrates how closely these games have come to mimicking real NFL games in terms of how the spreads and Over/Under lines tend to end up looking.

The game will be broadcast on Twitch.tv on the LiveFootballSims channel and airs at 3:00 p.m.

Happy Betting!