Re: NHL 2019-20 #1: Where Toronto Plans To Win Without Playing Defense.
I saw something I thought strange the other night. I was in Iowa with some friends and we were at one of their new sports books. I was looking at the "futures" bets for the NHL. I might not be entirely accurate on the exact odds, but the peculiarity I have right.
Colorado was +2000 (basically, 20 to 1) to win the Cup, while St. Louis was +1800 to win the cup. But then, if you looked at the futures bets to win the Western Conference, Colorado was +550 (5.5 to 1) while St. Louis was +650.
In other words, St. Louis was more favored than Colorado to win the Cup but Colorado was more favored than St. Louis to win the Western Conference.
In the east there was a similar oddity, that I think involved Philadelphia.
None of us who were there could figure it out, and the people at the sports book barely knew what the +2000 meant, so they were of no help. One of my friends speculated that maybe there was a big bet on Colorado to win the Cup, so therefore they lowered their odds on that bet to attract less money on them. Another friend guessed "typo" which given the fact that we were in Iowa seems about right, but the desk confirmed the odds. It doesn't have anything to do with the divisions they are in, since they're in the same division. It really has me puzzled.