An exciting mix of high-stakes football and basketball games highlight this weekend’s online sports betting opportunities at BetMGM.
College Football
Army vs. Navy
Saturday, Dec. 9 | 3 p.m. ET | CBS
American football fans rejoice! The second Saturday of December is upon us, which means the Black Knights and Midshipmen will play in the annual Army-Navy game this weekend.
It’s the 124th edition of the annual game, which was first played in 1890. This year’s game will be played at Gillette Stadium – home of the New England Patriots – in Massachusetts.
As of Thursday afternoon, Army is a 2.5-point favorite in the college football odds market at BetMGM.
As usual, both Army and Navy rate highly among the most prolific rushing offenses. Army’s 208 rush yards per game ranks ninth in FBS. Navy is a couple of spots behind, coming in at 13th with 201 rush yards per game.
Defensively, Navy could have a big edge. It allows 3.57 yards per rush, while Army allows 4.99 per carry.
NBA In-Season Tournament Championship
Pacers vs. Lakers
Saturday, Dec. 9 | 8:30 p.m. ET | ABC/ESPN2
The NBA’s new In-Season Tournament has been a smash hit for generating ratings and attention before Christmas. This Saturday, the league will crown its first-ever IST winner.
After Thursday night’s semifinals, basketball bettors got their championship matchup. Upstart Indiana will take on LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.
BetMGM has provided a futures market for the IST championship, and unsurprisingly, many of the odds there mirror numbers in the broader NBA Finals odds market. Boston (+700) and Denver (+950) opened as favorites before being bounced before the quarterfinals. As of Thursday, the Celtics attracted the most tickets (15.4%) and handle (18.2%).
Of the teams that reached Thursday’s semifinals, the Bucks were the clear favorite to advance. They opened at +1000 and were the +165 favorite on Thursday, accounting for about 10% of all tickets.
Public bettors actually preferred the Pacers’ electric pace and offense to the Bucks, betting Indiana more than any other team outside of Boston.
NFL
Bills at Chiefs
Sunday, Dec. 10 | 4:25 p.m. ET | CBS
Before the NFL season started, this weekend’s game between the Bills and Chiefs, who many predict to win the Super Bowl, looked like a Week 14 showdown that would carry huge implications for playoff seeding.
But the NFL can be strange and unpredictable. Instead of a classic showdown, this game is shaping up to be a de facto elimination game between two preseason contenders trending in the wrong direction.
Buffalo remains an explosive team, but offensive turnovers and defensive injuries have hampered its ability to compete at the top of the AFC. A loss this weekend would drop the Bills under .500, where they could rank as low as 13th place in the conference.
As for Kansas City, the Chiefs are unlikely to miss the playoffs no matter how bad the results are this month. They’re -5000 to win a surprisingly top-heavy AFC West odds market.
But KC is rapidly losing its seeding position in a deep pool of AFC contenders and needs to rediscover their winning ways if they want to keep playing playoff games at home. The Chiefs haven’t been on the road in the AFC playoffs since 2018.
Thursday’s NFL betting odds priced the Chiefs as a 1.5-point home favorite over the Bills.
