The Daily Sweat: Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers favored over Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen in The Match VI
Of course, you can bet on NFL quarterbacks playing golf for charity.
The sixth edition of The Match is set to begin Wednesday night with four of the NFL’s top quarterbacks participating in 12 holes of match play. This time around, it’s the veterans — Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers — going up against the young stars — Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.
Brady and Rodgers are no strangers to the event, but Mahomes and Allen are first-time participants. Brady is making his third appearance in The Match. For Rodgers, it’s his second time.
Brady and Rodgers are the betting favorites at BetMGM. Brady and Rodgers have -190 odds while Mahomes and Allen are listed at +150. According to BetMGM, 59% of the bets and 77% of the money is on the Brady-Rodgers duo.
The 44-year-old Brady has shown himself to be quite smooth on the course. Rodgers, when he teamed up with Bryson DeChambeau last year, was impressive as well — especially with the putter. Rodgers and DeChambeau beat Brady and Phil Mickelson, but now the two Hall of Fame quarterbacks will be teammates.
Allen and Mahomes can play, too. They just haven’t played in this event. Allen played in a Pro-Am earlier this year while Mahomes has played in a few celebrity tournaments.
Notably, this is the first time The Match won’t include any professional golfers. That factor, plus the mic’d up trash talk, should make this a pretty fun viewing — and betting — experience.
The question is if you should go with the experience or the youthful underdogs.
NHL: Eastern Conference finals begin at Madison Square Garden
Don’t expect to see offensive fireworks in the NHL conference finals two nights in a row — at least at the same level.
In Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday night in Denver, the Colorado Avalanche downed the Edmonton Oilers in an 8-6 thriller. The Avalanche, the betting favorites to win the Stanley Cup, had a 7-3 lead but had to hold on for dear life as the Oilers stormed back to make it 7-6 before an empty-net goal by Colorado sealed the deal.
Things should look a lot different on Wednesday night in New York.
The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning are headed on the road to the New York Rangers in a series that features two of the best goalies in the league — Tampa’s Andrei Vasilevskiy and New York’s Igor Shesterkin.
The Rangers are the home team but are +105 underdogs on the heels of a Game 7 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night. The Lightning, meanwhile, are -130 favorites and quite well-rested. The Lightning swept the Florida Panthers in the second round and haven’t played since May 23.
The Lightning have fresh legs, but the Rangers have home-ice advantage. And Madison Square Garden has been very kind to the home team. The Rangers are 6-1 at home in postseason play, winning six straight.
While there were 14 goals scored Tuesday night, the total for this one is just 5.5 goals. Tampa Bay’s last five games have gone under the total. For the Rangers, the under has come through in five of their last seven.
What else is there to bet on?
There’s still another day of waiting before the NBA Finals begin, but there’s a full slate of MLB action to bet on Wednesday. Included in that bunch is six afternoon games, including the St. Louis Cardinals going for a sweep of the San Diego Padres. The Cardinals are actually the underdogs (+110) in this one as they put Dakota Hudson on the mound against San Diego’s Yu Darvish.
There’s also the quarterfinals of the French Open.
Tuesday’s showdown between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will be tough to top, but there are two other quarterfinal matchups in men’s singles later Wednesday — Andrey Rublev (-135) vs. Marin Cilic (+110) and Casper Ruud (-200) vs. Holger Rune (+165).
