Each day, one of our experts will offer up a best bet (or two or three) that mobile sportsbooks are offering. It might be a traditional spread bet, a player prop or one of the various odds boosts that books offer.
Here are our best bets for Sunday, Aug. 21:
TOP PLAY
The play: PGA BMW Championship, Corey Conners to have a better fourth round than Denny McCarthy
The odds/bet: -115 ($34.50 to win $30)
The book: Caesars Sportsbook
Time/TV: 1:05 p.m. (Golf Channel/NBC)
Our take: Golf is hard. There’s your hot take of the day.
But seriously, even for professionals, golf is hard. And Corey Conners had one of those days Saturday, bogeying two of the final four holes to ruin an otherwise solid round and fall back four shots off the lead at one of the PGA’s most important tournaments of the season.
What that means for our purposes, though, is that Conners is a prime bounce-back candidate. He had two great rounds Thursday and Friday and was good through 15 holes on Saturday. What’s more, the only part of Conners game that’s not really clicking on all cylinders is putting, and if you’ve read Daily Best Bets a lot this summer, you know that we’ve won money betting on guys to bounce back with the putter .
The other side of this matchup is Denny McCarthy, who is the opposite in many ways. He had a great round Saturday of 66 (although it’s worth noting he teed off earlier than Conners and played in better conditions). And of the six total strokes he’s gained on the field this weekend, 5.6 of them have been putting.
So we’re going to take our chances and say that Conners, a higher ranked golfer than McCarthy anyway, will win Round 4.
(Besides our matchup bet here, this tournament is worth your time on one of the last Sunday afternoons with no football left this year. The top 10 is stacked with some ridiculous talent — Cantlay, Schauffele, Scheffler, Morikawa, McIlroy — and the finish should be great no matter who makes it to the top.)
GET SOME GOALS
The play: English Premier League: Chelsea-Leeds United)
The odds/bet: -145 ($14.50 to win $10)
The book: Caesars Sportsbook
Time/TV: 9 am (USA)
Our take: Chelsea is the better team here and is going to be ticked off after settling for a draw because of a late Harry Kane goal last week that set off a kerfuffle between managers and ended with Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel suspended for this game.
But instead of paying the -180 for Chelsea to win a tricky road game without its manager, we’re going to assume that the Blues will at least score a couple of goals. And Leeds, with American manager Jesse Marsch, is anything but boring. It’s scored four goals and gave up three through two games with plenty of chances on both ends.
Honestly, what should concern Chelsea fans more than Tuchel’s one-game absence is an injury to central midfielder N’Golo Kante, who is a statistical key to Chelsea’s defense.
It all points to goals. And we’ll pay the -145 rake to cash here.
HOW WE’VE FARED
Saturday’s best bets
NFL preseason: Jaguars -2 over Steelers (LOST $20)
PGA: Kuchar better third round than Bezuidenhout (LOST $10)
EPL: Leicester City over Southampton (LOST $11.50)
Saturday’s profit/loss: -$41.50 (0-3)
Total for the week: +$38.90 (6-6, 1 pending)
Total for August: -$93.10 (17-24, 1 pending)
Total for 2022: -$233.20 (208-239, 1 pending)
NOTE: If a line or odds are minus, it considers the juice one must lay to place the bet. Ex: Team A is -160 on the money line, one would have to bet $160 to win $100 (or $16 to win $10). OR Team B is a 5-point favorite at -110, one would have to bet $110 to win $100 (or $11 to win $10.)
Conversely, on positive lines, if Team C is +140 on the money line, a $100 would bring in $140 (or $10 to win $14).
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Categories: Upstate Action