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PrintIt’s time for a new feature!
Whenever we write about the most “public” bets in either college football or the NFL, it always seems to generate some interest. So, with that in mind, we’re going to apply the same thing to NBA betting.
With help from our friends at SportsInsights—a sports betting tool that tracks, among other things, public betting percentages across all the major sports—we’re going to record how the most popular NBA pick does each night there are a significant amount of games.
This will be a season-long experiment, and we’ll attempt to discover what the public sees and why they’re betting a particular side.
We’ll also be tracking these plays throughout the year to see how Joe Public is faring in the NBA.
Season Record: 0-0 ATS
Note: All public betting percentages are courtesy of SportsInsights, and all point spreads come from YouWager.
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NUGGETS AT 76ERS, 7 P.M. ET
Open: Philadelphia -2
Current: Denver -1
Public Betting %: 68% on Denver
What they see: The Nuggets were one of the league’s best ATS teams last year at 36-30, and they added Olympic gold medalist Andre Iguodala via trade in the offseason. There’s even talk of Denver winning the Northwest Division over the Thunder on the BTB Sports Betting Forum.
Analysis: The Iguodala trade was just part of a four-team deal that also sent Arron Afflalo from Denver to Orlando, Dwight Howard from the Magic to the Lakers and—you guessed it—Andrew Bynum from LA to Philadelphia.
Unfortunately for the Sixers, the frequently injured Bynum will miss this game with a bum knee.
Iguodala has had this game circled ever since he first heard of the trade while warming up for a game in the London Olympics.
“I’m in warmups, and I’m thinking … ‘When do we play Philly? I can’t wait to play them,’” Iguodala told CBS Sports. “I haven’t really enjoyed basketball a whole lot the last couple of years. Last year was a big year for us, but it was just draining for the criticism to be there every single day.”
All trash talk aside, Iguodala’s style appears on the surface to be an ideal fit for the Nuggets, one of the deepest and most up-tempo teams in the league.
Agree or Disagree? Agree.
