Daily Sports Betting Preview 8/31/2020: US Open, MLB, and Cricket Betting

• Novak Djokovic has -130 odds to win the US Open.
• The New York Yankees, behind Gerrit Cole, are -150 to beat the Tampa Bay Rays.
• Leicestershire are -150 favorites over Durham in the 2020 T20 Blast.

LAS VEGAS - Today’s Daily Sports Betting Preview starts out with a bang, as the US Open begins Monday in the world of tennis.

Then, in a battle for supremacy over the AL East, the Tampa Bay Rays face off against the New York Yankees.

Finally, in the world of T20 Cricket, Durham face off against Leicestershire.

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

Tennis US Open Betting

The US Open is finally set, and Monday marks the first day of play in the massive major tournament.

It took a while for the US Open odds to finally make it to the sportsbooks, so let’s take a look at the top five players in the tournament in terms of futures odds.

At the top of the odds board, of course, is Novak Djokovic. Djokovic is the best player in the world right now, and sits atop the odds board as the only one of his famed trio (Djokovic/Federer/Nadal) to be participating in this tournament.

Daniil Medvedev is the next most favored player, ranked fifth in the world at the age of 24. Medvedev has +600 odds.

Stefanos Tsitsipas, one of tennis’ rising stars, is ranked sixth in the world at age 22, and has +750 odds to win the tournament.

Dominic Thiem, third ranked in the world, sits at +850 odds, below both Tsitsipas and Medvedev.

After Thiem, the odds fall off a bit, with Milos Raonic, ranked 18th in the world, sitting at +2000, followed by players like Roberto Batista Agut, Alexander Zverev and more.

Expect these players to be largely favored throughout the tournament - check out the odds for Novak Djokovic’s match today!

Those are some ridiculously lopsided odds, to the point of being prohibitive. Tsitsipas’ match has similar odds.

Tennis bettors might be inclined to check out the spread instead.

At least on the spread, the match appears to be well worth watching. It would be a massive upset were Djokovic to lose this round.

MLB Betting

The New York Yankees are now well behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the wins column, due in part to the postponement of several of their games.

The Rays are now 24-11, while the Yankees sit at 19-13, and the Rays seem to have had the Yankees number recently.

The last time these two teams met, the Rays completed a three game sweep of the Yankees. Yankees fans will note that Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton were unavailable in those games, as was DJ LeMahieu.

However, Judge and Stanton are still injured and are joined by lineup standouts like Aaron Hicks and Gleyber Torres.

Honestly though, with the way Torres has been hitting this season (.636 OPS, 78 OPS+), not having him in the lineup might be a good thing.

That said, the absence of Judge and Stanton removes a lot of the powerful core of the Yankees lineup, and that’s a serious problem for them.

And yet…

There is one factor that is more responsible than anything for these odds - Gerrit Cole. Despite the fact that Tampa won the last time he started against them, he’s been the most dominant pitcher on the Yankees roster by far.

However, Tyler Glasnow is no slouch himself. The pitching matchup likely favors the Yankees, but does it favor them enough to justify these odds?

MLB bettors will have to figure out what to value in a matchup like this - this is the best pitcher on the Yankees going up against a quality pitcher on the Rays, but the Yankees injury list should give anyone pause.

England T20 Blast Betting

The T20 Blast cricket season was expected to start in May 2020 and almost be fully completed by now.

However, COVID-19 threw a wrench into those plans. The tournament did not end up starting until only a few days ago.

Twenty20 cricket is a much faster variant of cricket, and is built for spectators and newcomers to the game to enjoy. This means that, as the league restarts, this is as good a time as any to get into cricket, and diversify one’s sports betting portfolio.

There is one match on the table today, between Leicestershire and Durham.

This matchup favors Leicestershire, fairly significantly. It is worth noting that only the moneyline odds appear to be available on this matchup.

This is as good a time as any to get into cricket, and the T20 Blast competition is one of the most viewer-friendly ways to do so.

Happy Betting!