Daily Sports Betting Preview 7/23/2020: MLS, MLB Opening Day, NRL

• The Houston Dynamo are the slightest of favorites over the LA Galaxy, with +146 odds.
• The New York Yankees are -133 to win their opening day clash against the Washington Nationals.
• The Manly Sea Eagles are -160 to win their match against the Gold Coast Cowboys in the NRL.

LAS VEGAS - Welcome to Thursday’s Daily Sports Betting Preview.

This Preview starts out with a discussion of today’s soccer games in the MLS’ return tournament.

After that, the Preview turns to baseball, where opening day is upon us, and two of the best teams in the league face off.

Finally, the Preview examines the NRL, as there is a match in the wee hours of the morning that is worth betting on.

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

MLS Betting

The MLS’ return tournament has continued apace, and today’s MLS games follow the same pattern as many previous pairs of games.

This is to say, they take place relatively late, with the first one starting at 8:00 p.m. EST, and the second one beginning at 10:30 p.m. EST, and feature good teams going head to head.

Let’s take a look at the early game:

This looks like one of the most even matches that could exist in the MLS. The LA Galaxy here are the mildest of underdogs, with +173 odds to win the match.

This sounds like a fairly significant underdog position, but the Houston Dynamo, as the favorites, have +146 odds.

In other words, they have shorter odds, but only barely.

A draw in the match has +260 odds.

Now for the late game:

This game looks a lot more like a normal betting line, as LAFC, the favorites, clock in with -154 odds to win.

The Portland Timbers have longer odds to win than they do to achieve a draw, with +390 odds.

Both of these games are compelling, both on the field and on the many online soccer sportsbooks.

MLB Opening Day Betting

MLB’s opening day is today, after protracted labor negotiations followed up the delay in the sport due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are two excellent games today, an early game and a late game. The early game features the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals, and the late game pits the Los Angeles Dodgers against the San Francisco Giants.

The Yankees are widely regarded as the best team in the American League after the acquisition of ace pitcher Gerrit Cole, formerly of the Houston Astros.

Cole takes the mound for the first time as a Yankee against the current champions, the Washington Nationals.

The Nationals were something of a longshot last year when they won the World Series, and once again, they are not being entirely respected by the sportsbooks.

The Yankees are significantly favored in this matchup, despite Nationals ace Max Scherzer heading to the mound as well.

The Dodgers are regarded as the best team in the National League, especially after their acquisition and subsequent signing of Mookie Betts.

Betts is one of the five best players in baseball, and was traded to the Dodgers from the Red Sox for reasons that remain unsatisfactory to many Red Sox fans.

The Dodgers recently locked up Betts on a $365 million deal that will keep him in LA for the next twelve years.

It should come as no surprise that the Dodgers are significant favorites in this matchup - they will be in most of their matchups.

The question for this game is whether or not MLB bettors think the Dodgers will live up to their reputation.

National Rugby League Betting

The National Rugby League is a genuinely compelling competition on the field, and is even more compelling from the perspective of a bettor.

There are two games in the NRL, both of which take place in the very early morning on Friday.

The first game, between Manly and North Queensland, takes place at 4:00 a.m. EST, which the second, between Melbourne and Brisbane, takes place at 5:55 a.m. EST.

In service to those bettors who do not want to wake up at those times, it seems best to cover these matches now.

In this matchup, Manly faces off against North Queensland and looks like a decent favorite on the moneyline at online sports betting sites.

Manly are currently 5-5 in NRL play, good for 10th place in the league, while the Cowboys sit at 12th place with a 3-7 record.

Neither team seems to be above par in the league - both of them have negative scoring differentials.

Manly boasts a -26 differential so far, while North Queensland has a whopping -70 point differential, giving up 70 more than they’ve put on the board.

Unlike the previous match, which was between two teams who were relatively close together on the ladder, this one seems a bit one-sided.

The Melbourne Storm are the third best team in the NRL, with a record of 8-2. They are only behind second place Paramatta due to point differential.

Brisbane, on the other hand, are 3-7, and boast an abysmal point differential of -157.

While their 3-7 record places them at 14th out of the 16 NRL teams, their point differential is nearly the worst in the league.

Only the Gold Coast Titans have performed worse on aggregate through these first ten matches of the season.

Even the last place Canterbury Bulldogs have a notably better point differential, at -126.

There’s a lot to examine in any given NRL game, and NRL bettors should be pleased with these games to wager on.

Happy Betting!