Daily Sports Betting Preview 01/31/2020: A World Betting Tour

• The Philadelphia Flyers visit the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL today, looking to complete a home-and-home sweep.
• The RFL Championship season kicks off with Dewsbury taking on Leigh in England.
• In the NBA, the Milwaukee Bucks host the Denver Nuggets at 9 p.m. EST.

PHILADELPHIA – The daily sports betting preview train has three stops today. First, in Philadelphia, as the Philadelphia Flyers battle the Pittsburgh Penguins. In England, the column checks in with the RFL Championship. Finally, the column comes back to America for some NBA action as the Milwaukee Bucks battle the Denver Nuggets.

Philadelphia Flyers vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

The Flyers fly into their state-based rival in Pittsburgh as they look to finish off a home-and-home sweep. Entering the game as a +150 underdog on the money line, the puck line has them favored. At +1.5 (-170), the Flyers are expected to lose the game, but in a close fashion.

The Flyers are 27-17-6 on the season, and 28-22 against the puck line. On the road, those numbers get significantly worse: 10-13-2 straight up and 11-14 against the puck line. This is a worrying trend.

The Penguins, meanwhile, have been quite good, and enter the game with a 31-14-5 record. A lot of those wins have come on homestands, where the Penguins boast a record of 18-5-3, a truly impressive accomplishment, and a stark contrast to the Flyers’ poor road record.

Against the puck line, they haven’t been nearly as successful, with a 24-26 record. Even at home, their success straight up has not carried over to the puck line, where they are 11-15.

In other words, the Flyers have been under .500 on the money line on the road, and the Penguins have been significantly over .500 on the money line at home. Neither team has demonstrated success against the puck line in their current situations.

RFL Championship

The RFL Championship division is the second tier of Rugby competition based in England. It is analogous to the Football League Championship in English soccer – it’s a secondary league through which you can be promoted to the first tier or demoted to the third tier.

The Dewsbury Rams are taking on the Leigh Centurions on January 31, 2020. This game kicks off rugby play in the English leagues this year, and as such deserves special attention. Leigh has won the championship the most times in the league’s history (four) and enters as significant favorites.

Leigh is -375 to win straight up with a spread of 10.5-points in their favor. In contrast, Dewsbury enters with +285 odds to win on the moneyline. Basically, the money line and the spread are saying the same thing – Leigh is a better team, and should win this game.

Milwaukee Bucks vs. Denver Nuggets

The best team in the Eastern Conference hosts one of the top teams in the West as the Denver Nuggets visit a fellow midwestern team in the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Bucks are stellar – winning games at a historic pace – and have a staggering 41-6 record. They are nearly unbeatable at home, 22-2 through their 24 home games so far this season.

The spread, on the other hand, has been slightly less kind to the Bucks. They are 26-21 against the spread, and 11-9-1 against the spread at home. They are favored by 9.5 points in this game, a fairly massive spread, which explains some of their woes when it comes to spreads.

The Nuggets have been solid, as they have a 33-15 record. Additionally, they’ve won seven of their last 10 games. They just don’t seem to be good at the level Milwaukee is, and there are doubts about their ability to consistently hang with the best teams in the NBA.

This game is a good test for the Nuggets, who need a convincing win over a great team. Unfortunately, these kinds of wins are hard to come by.

The Nuggets are +375 on the money line, while the Bucks are -550. The spread of 9.5 points in favor of the Bucks has -110 odds on both sides.