Books Jump For Joy After Duke Defeats Wisconsin

Published on April 7th, 2015 11:15 pm EST
According to William Hill US, a full 66% of tickets and 71% of money wagered in their establishments for the NCAA College Basketball championship was on the Wisconsin Badgers to cover:

"Ticket Count Update (105 Sports Books & Mobile Sports app): 66% of tickets and 71% of money on #Wisconsin to cover. #wisconsinvsduke"

Wisconsin came into the contest against Duke as 1 point favourites (perhaps your book had it slightly different), based largely upon the strength of their victory over the previously undefeated Kentucky Wildcats. Wisconsin is too deep, it was thought at the time, and Duke will not be able to keep up over the course of a full game.

Wisconsin was the "sexy" choice to win on Monday night and, as evidenced by William Hill's Tweet, much of the gambling public decided that they were going to win.

Things certainly looked to be going well for people that backed the Badgers as they jumped out to a nine point lead in the second half. Coach K, who went into the game with a very shallow bench, had to rely on a couple of freshmen, Grayson Allen and Tyus Jones, to lead Duke back from the brink of defeat. Lead they did as Duke was able to storm back from a large deficit to notch the gritty 68-63 victory, giving Mike Krzyzewski the fifth title of his career.

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The sports books would have been looking at a sizeable loss if Wisconsin had managed to hold on to victory, as the majority of the money was pouring in on the Badgers. Sports books don't like situations where the majority of the money is coming in on one team as it leaves them vulnerable to a big loss. In situations like this, however, sports books can post very big wins if the public ends up backing a losing team.

In the end, the sports books ended up booking a very nice win on Monday night, though they certainly had to sweat it out.

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