Daily Sports Betting Preview 5/15/2020: Soccer Transfers, Dave Portnoy, DOTA 2

• Paul Pogba has +175 odds to sign with Real Madrid before September 1st, 2020.
• Dave Portnoy is +200 to watch a Monday Night Football game in Roger Goodell’s basement.
• Infamous enjoys a spread of -1.5 in their matchup against Vicious Gaming in the DOTA 2 Liga Pro.

MANCHESTER, U.K. - Today’s edition of the Daily Sports Betting Preview covers various topics within the world of sports betting.

The Preview starts out with a discussion of betting on European football transfers, as many European soccer leagues are starting to reopen, which means that many people’s minds are back on the beautiful game.

Afterwards, the Preview takes a look at a fun little prop bet involving Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy.

Finally, today’s Preview wraps up with an examination of the Liga Pro Gaming DOTA 2 competition that brings one match to the table today.

Overall, an excellent betting Friday, so let’s get started!

European Soccer Transfer Betting

There are some really interesting odds on the board at many major online sportsbooks, regarding the future of several excellent soccer players.

Players changing teams works a bit differently in soccer than it does in many American sports. The way it works is that the teams agree on a fee, and then the fee is paid by the team that is obtaining the player.

In many American sports, deals are focused around swapping players for players. For example, when NBA star Anthony Davis went to the Los Angeles Lakers, he was exchanged for multiple players including Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball.

Meanwhile, when star Cristiano Ronaldo left Real Madrid for Juventus, the compensation was entirely monetary in nature.

This makes betting on the transfer market in football a bit of a wild west type scenario compared to most American sports equivalents.

This wild west scenario has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent suspension of many sports leagues, including the major European soccer leagues.

Regarding the odds above, Raheem Sterling looks tipped to leave English football, and move overseas to either Real Madrid, PSG or Bayern Munich - if he leaves Manchester City at all.

Let’s take a look at another interesting player - Pogba:

Pogba’s odds clearly favor him going to Real Madrid, if anywhere, by September 1st, 2020.

The current Manchester United star has been an excellent player for the club but recent rumors keep the soccer bettors and fans guessing.

Dave Portnoy Betting

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has successfully inserted himself into the sports betting world on many occasions.

For example, Portnoy’s company actually partnered with major sportsbooks in order to bring sports betting to a wider audience.

Portnoy has now arrived on the scene not as the provider of a bet, but as the subject of a bet on one of the major online sportsbooks.

Let’s take a look:

The sportsbooks give El Presidente pretty good odds to actually pull off watching a game in Roger Goodell’s basement - relatively speaking.

The Barstool founder won an auction to watch a game with Roger Goodell in his basement, but has publicly cast doubt on the idea of it actually happening.

One thing to note about this bet is that in order for the action on it to be live, the first MNF game of the season needs to take place on the scheduled date.

As far as the actual bet goes, this is an interesting prop bet, considering all the factors.

The favorite, at -300, is that Portnoy will not manage to pull this off, which seems a reasonable conclusion - the NFL is much bigger than Barstool Sports, and doesn’t gain a lot from doing something like this.

That said, Portnoy did win an auction for this very thing to happen, so it does seem possible.

However, the +200 odds on this actually happening are shorter than one would reasonably think. This could be because fans of Barstool are more likely to bet, pushing the lines down, or it could be because anything can happen in a post COVID-19 world.

Overall, this is a fun little prop bet, and perhaps worth examining.

Liga Pro Gaming DOTA 2 Betting

Many esports bettors are familiar with the legendary game DOTA 2. DOTA 2, standing for Defense of the Ancients 2, is a sequel to a famous game that was a modification of Warcraft 3, way back before esports was truly established.

The original DOTA more or less invented the MOBA genre, where players are given hero characters and instructed to take down the enemy base.

This genre has seen spinoffs and riffs into shooter style games like Overwatch, or straight up fantasy MOBA’s like League of Legends.

DOTA 2 is one of the biggest esports in the world by prize pool, and the major competition within the esport, known as The International, has the biggest prize pool on average of any esports event ever.

Today’s DOTA 2 betting opportunity comes courtesy of the Liga Pro, and the odds are as follows:

Esports betting tends to use a mechanism similar to the puck line in hockey at first glance in order to set spreads.

However, instead of referring to goals or points, this +/- 1.5 refers to games won within a set. Many esports, including DOTA 2, tend to be played in a best of three format, and +/- 1.5 games is a very compelling line in that format.

For example, in this game, Infamous is -1.5, meaning that they need to win the best of three match 2-0 in order for that bet to cash. Infamous -1.5 has -115 odds.

Vicious Gaming, on the other hand, is +1.5, which means they can either win the match, or lose the match 1-2, and the bet will still cash. Vicious Gaming +1.5 has +115 odds.

This match kicks off at 8:50 p.m. EST today, and marks an interesting night game for esports bettors to consider.

Happy Friday, and happy betting!