Weekend wagers: Six bets to make on six different sports

Weekend Wagers was built as a way to cover and find bets on all the biggest sporting events going on at any given moment.

Unfortunately, that’s impossible for this week’s Open Championship — more or less the only major event running in sports for the next two days. The schedule, with golfers teeing off in the middle of the night Pacific time in Scotland, makes for an awkward fit.

So, I’ll just ride the futures made earlier in this space with both Xander Schauffele (16-to-1) and Collin Morikawa (24-to-1) lurking six strokes and eight strokes behind leader Shane Lowry, respectively.

It’s a long shot either pulls it off — especially with World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler only five strokes back and the second favorite at +350 to Lowry’s +185 — but I’m also ready to look ahead to golf’s next big event anyway.

A play on the upcoming Olympics — where Schauffele is the defending winner — is included in the bets below.

Find all of this week’s bets below. Odds are the best currently available in Las Vegas at publication time with the sports book noted. Plays outside of the column will be linked and tracked in the record at the bottom of the page.

MLB (5-7, -$706): Boston Red Sox +125 vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (STN Sports)

$200 to win $250

Money is coming in against the Dodgers virtually every game now, and there’s good reason. The team in its current form isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Los Angeles is dealing with too many injuries to command the odds it was posting on a daily basis to start the year. The Dodgers' fade should amp up again today considering the expected pitching matchup. Boston has a big advantage on the mound with Brayan Bello against Justin Wrobleski. The latter has a promising future but doesn’t yet belong in the majors. Bello might be mediocre himself but at least he’s a proven pro. Boston’s lineup is just as strong as Los Angeles’ because of the injuries, and it has an edge in pitching. This should be around a pick’em.  

UFC (5-10, -$986): Virna Jandiroba -125 vs. Amanda Lemos at UFC Fight Night (SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas)

$250 to win $200

Jandiroba should smother Lemos in tonight’s main event at the UFC's Apex facility. The odds are compressed because Lemos is the better striker, and she could conceivably counter Jandiroba’s wrestling by outpointing her on the feet. It just doesn’t feel all that likely. Jandiroba’s striking has come along too, and even that part of the fight might be more neutral than the market is implying. Jandiroba should be in control, and the advantage could be even more important in a fight scheduled to go five rounds. Lemos needs to be a real knockout threat to justify this short of a price, but the probability of her catching the defensively-solid Jandiroba seems long.  

NASCAR (5-15, -$500): Tyler Reddick to win Brickyard 500 at 15-to-1 (Boyd Sports)

$120 to win $1,800

Why not let the 23XI Toyota driver let me down for a third straight week? There can be no grudges held in sports betting, just bets where there’s value. And there continues to be value on Reddick even when he fails to come through in excruciating fashion. He’s had one of the fastest cars in the Cup series for more than a month, and his speed shined through again in Friday’s practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Reddick had the highest five-lap and 10-lap averages, meaning sports books should have adjusted his outright odds down to something like 7- or 8-to-1. Boyd made no such shift and had by far the best price available on Reddick. He may have single-handedly gotten the column back into the red on NASCAR this year by not coming through recently, but at prices like this, stubbornly sticking with the No. 45 driver is the only option.  

Golf (5-6, $340): Rory McIlroy to win Olympics gold medal at 10-to-1 (BetMGM)

$200 to win $2,000

McIlroy’s major drought will extend a 10^th straight year after he missed the cut at the Open Championship. That doesn’t mean all that much as it pertains to the next big tournament — the Olympics at Le Golf National in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France. McIlroy has played a pair of DP World Tour events at the venue and finished in the top five in both tries. The two golfers listed ahead of him in the odds currently, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, will be playing their maiden tournament at the venue. Golf clearly has a big three towering above the competition this year in Scheffler, McIlroy and Schauffele. Scheffler is in a tier of his own but shouldn’t be priced this much lower than McIlroy — the two-time Masters champion is 3-to-1. Schauffele (7-to-1) arguably shouldn’t be priced lower than McIlroy at all given the course. BetMGM was down as part of the worldwide outages Friday, but hopefully gets up and running this weekend.    

College Football (0-0, $0): LSU vs. USC under 62.5 in Week 1 (Boyd Sports)

$330 to win $300

Allegiant Stadium won’t miss out on the fun of college football’s opening weekend in six weeks despite UNLV traveling to play Houston. This year’s Vegas Kickoff Classic between USC and LSU gets a standalone spot on Sunday September 1. And while the showdown between the two blueblood opponents should be fun, it might not be as high-flying as the names on the jerseys indicate. Both offenses have to adjust to the departures of Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks in Jayden Daniels for LSU and Caleb Williams for USC. Expect there to be some growing pains, especially against opposing defenses that could be better than a year ago. This number should close on the other side of 60.  

NFL (0-0, $0): Carolina Panthers +5 at Las Vegas Raiders in Week 3 (STN Sports)

$220 to win $200

Let’s make it a theme, and lock in an early bet on the first (non-exhibition) NFL game slated for Allegiant this year too. Yes, the Panthers are coming off a 2-15 season but I’m more bullish on them than the Raiders. Any offense headed by new Carolina coach Dave Canales should be better than what Las Vegas showed throughout OTAs and minicamp. There’s plenty of time for the home team to fix it, of course, and it should be favored in this game. Just not by this much. The Raiders are mostly a 4-point favorite over the Panthers elsewhere, and though the one extra point in this range isn’t all that valuable, it still means something. The Raiders have a flair for the dramatic at Allegiant, and this will be another home opener where they flash it. Let’s say Gardner Minshew sparks a comeback and the Raiders escape with a 23-21 victory.

2024 Weekend betting column: 72-75, $6,767.87

Weekend betting column all-time: 732-782-11, $38,048.87 

Previous pending wagers: Oregon -1.5 -102 vs. Ohio State in Week 7 ($306 to win $300); New York Yankees to win World Series ($300 to win $3,000); Christopher Bell to win NASCAR Cup championship at 12-to-1 ($200 to win $2,400); Patrick Mahomes to win 2024-2025 NFL MVP at +750 ($350 to win $2,625); Kansas City Chiefs to win Super Bowl 59 at 9-to-1 ($300 to win $2,700); New York Liberty to win WNBA Championship at +250 ($500 to win $1,250); Inter Miami to win MLS Cup at +300 ($500 to win $1,500); Tarik Skubal to win American League Cy Young at 20-to-1 ($120 to win $2,400); Cole Ragans to win American League Cy Young at 35-to-1 ($70 to win $2,450); Los Angeles Chargers -3 -120 vs. Las Vegas Raiders in Week 1 ($220 to win $200); Portugal to win Euro 2024 at +750 ($200 to win $1,500); Xander Schauffele to win The Open Championship at 16-to-1 ($180 to win $2,880); Collin Morikawa to win The Open Championship at 24-to-1 ($120 to win $2,880); New Jersey Devils to win Stanley Cup Final at 16-to-1 ($250 to win $4,000); Reed Sheppard to win NBA Rookie of the Year at 11-to-1 ($200 to win $2,200); Dillon Gabriel to win the Heisman Trophy at 14-to-1 ($200 to win $2,800); Dave Canales to win NFL Coach of the Year at 20-to-1 ($100 to win $2,000); Carolina Hurricanes to win President's Trophy at 15-to-1 ($150 to win $2,250); Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to win NBA MVP ($300 to win $1,800); UNLV football to win the Mountain West at 8-to-1 ($200 to win $1,600)

 

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or