Daily Sports Betting Preview 11/18/2020: Victory Cannon, ATP Finals, England vs. Iceland

• Central Michigan has +100 odds to take the Victory Cannon home against Western Michigan.
• Novak Djokovic is favored by 3.0 games over Daniil Medvedev.
• England are favored by 2.0 goals over Iceland, despite only scoring three total goals in their last six games.

LAS VEGAS - Welcome to Wednesday’s Daily Sports Betting Preview!

Today’s edition of the Preview starts out with the rivalry matchup between Western Michigan and Central Michigan.

Then, Novak Djokovic takes on Daniil Medvedev as the ATP Finals continues. Finally, in the UEFA Nations League, England faces off against Iceland.

There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started!

Western Michigan vs. Central Michigan Odds

The Western Michigan-Central Michigan rivalry is well documented, and the battle between them comes with a trophy for the winner - the Victory Cannon.

Since 1975, Central Michigan has won 26 of the matchups, with WMU taking 16, and one draw.

This year, the matchup looks to be remarkably even, with both Western Michigan and Central Michigan entering this matchup at 2-0, but Western Michigan being favored by an extremely slight amount.

This matchup appears to hang on a razor’s edge, with Western Michigan having -120 odds to win the game.

The spread is similarly close, especially for a football game in which points are scored mostly in increments of 7 and 3.

Western Michigan is a -1.5 point favorite on the spread, which is an extremely small amount in the context of football.

Some NCAA bettors will likely be encouraged to simply take the points, but before that, here are a couple of trends to consider.

Western Michigan is 7-3 against the spread as a favorite in their last ten games as such, and 3-1-1 ATS in their last five games.

Central Michigan has a 7-1 ATS record in their last eight home games, and an 8-3 ATS record in their last 11 games.

Both teams have trends running in their favor in this matchup, and that could bring a lot of bettors back around to the strategy of simply taking the points.

ATP Finals Betting

The ATP Finals continue with yet another incredible matchup as the best player in the world faces off against a rising star.

Novak Djokovic is still the reigning number one player in the world, and the 33-year-old shows no desire to give up that title.

He faces off today against Daniil Medvedev, a man nine years his junior, but only ranked three spots lower.

Djokovic holds the advantage in the head to head over Medvedev, with a 4-2 record, but two of those matchups were in 2017 - before Medvedev was the player he is now.

Medvedev and Djokovic have split their matchups since 2019, with each winning two, and that more accurately reflects the matchup between these two top talents.

It is a rare occasion that Novak Djokovic is not favored in a matchup, and Medvedev is not good enough to be the odds on moneyline favorite.

However, Medvedev is exactly good enough to push this matchup into reasonable territory.

The spread is similarly close:

Djokovic is a great enough player that seeing reasonable odds on him might just be enough to convince tennis bettors to splurge.

It’s a rare occasion when Djokovic has reasonable odds on his performances, and everyone knows how great he is at this point.

This match kicks off at 3:00 p.m. EST.

UEFA Nations League Betting

The UEFA Nations League features a matchup between an underperforming England squad and a massive underdog in the form of Iceland.

England is fielding a fairly high quality group of players, but they have put forth a shambolic performance in the Nations League.

They entered as a potential League winner, and are now locked for third place in their group, behind Belgium and Denmark.

Despite this, they are monstrous favorites to defeat Iceland on both the spread and the moneyline.

While a wager on Iceland is tempting here, simply because it would be an extremely England thing to lose this match, there is a reason the odds are so lopsided.

Iceland has not won a single match in the Nations League this year, nor have they even pulled out a draw.

The last time these two teams went head to head in the Nations League, England won 1-0 via injury time shenanigans.

The fact that England is favored by two goals is quite interesting, given the context that England has only scored a total of three goals in their last six Nations League matches.

It would be fitting for England to get served their comeuppance at the hands of a team that has not won in this competition, but the odds suggest that this would be extremely unlikely.

Nations League bettors will have to decide whether to go with the chalk on the moneyline or take a risk on the spread.