Everything that happens in sports has some additional context when viewed from a sports betting perspective. From season-changing injuries to record-setting moments and so much more, the sports news cycle will constantly and significantly affect the sports betting industry.
Our betting buzz file, with contributions from David Purdum, Doug Greenberg, Ian Parker and others, aims to provide fans with a look at the sports betting stories that are driving the conversation.
Key links: Sports betting home | NBA odds page | NHL odds page
June 25: Odds have shifted in recent days on which team will draft Bronny
The odds for Bronny James to be drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2024 NBA draft have moved at sportsbooks around the nation this week.
The Lakers went from even-money to the odds-on favorites at -130 to take Bronny in recent days. His odds to go to the Lakers opened at +155, got as long as +165, before starting to shorten in the weeks leading up to the draft, which begins Wednesday.
James, the son of Lakers’ superstar LeBron James, is expected to be a second-round pick; ESPN BET has his odds of going in the second round listed at -800. Meanwhile, the Lakers have the No. 17 pick in the first round and No. 55 pick in the second round.
At BetMGM, 52.2% of the money wagered on which team will take Bronny James is on the Lakers. James also has attracted the most bets to be the No. 1 overall pick. He is 250-1 to go No. 1 overall.
June 20: Alabama’s national championship odds longest since early Saban era
Doug Greenberg: Nick Saban’s retirement from coaching is sure to have profound effects on Alabama and the college football world at large. Sportsbooks are beginning to quantify just how large that effect is.
At ESPN BET, the Crimson Tide are 16-1 to win the 2025 national championship — their longest odds to win college football’s top prize since 2008, Saban’s second season, per ESPN Stats & Information. Alabama is tied with SEC rivals LSU and Ole Miss for the fifth-shortest odds, and trails Georgia (+325), Ohio State (+350), Texas (+750) and Oregon (+900).
Despite an expanded field for the College Football Playoff, the loss of Saban and increased competition in their conference could be to blame for the elevated odds: Alabama and LSU are the first two teams in the field with plus-odds to make the CFP at +115, and they trail eight other programs, including Michigan (-120), which notably lost coach Jim Harbaugh to the NFL after its 2024 national championship.
Still, the public is backing the Tide to some extent, even if the action is somewhat top-heavy. Alabama has attracted 4% of the tickets and 3% of the handle to win the next national championship — fourth and tied for seventh, respectively, in the rankings. Georgia (30%/20%) and Ohio State (27%/33%) make up the overwhelming majority of national championship future action at the moment.
Alabama’s name recognition combined with plus-odds to make the playoff is also enticing bettors, as they’ve attracted 6% of the tickets at BetMGM, the fifth most, though that’s a far cry from Deion Sanders’ Colorado. The Buffs have garnered a leading 12.3% of the bets.
June 18: CarJitsu approved for betting in New Jersey
Doug Greenberg: Have you ever wanted to bet on the result of two grown adults fighting each other in a car? Now you can.
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement approved CarJitsu — a sport where fighters contest a Brazilian jiu-jitsu match in the interior of a car, usually a sedan — for sports betting, the first jurisdiction in the country to do so.
The founders of Pro League Network, which acts as the sport’s governing body, said they purposely brought the sport to New Jersey’s betting commission first because it is one of the “most structured” and is looked at as a “preeminent regulatory body.”
“We wanted to stand it up there first, and we felt if we could meet all the expectations and requirements in New Jersey, it gave us a flight path for other parts of the country,” PLN co-founder Bill Yucatonis told ESPN. PLN has relationships with DraftKings, BetMGM and Bet365 to offer its sports in the United States.
CarJitsu is not the first obscure sport PLN has gotten through state betting regulators: The company also runs the World Putting League (mini golf) and SlapFIGHT Championship (slap fighting), which have been approved for sports betting across multiple states. PLN also is beginning to take its 3-on-3 basketball product, STR33T, to state commissions.
“We don’t take things forward to a commission until we know that we have the right rules that have very good integrity; we’ve got the sanctioning in place; our athlete education, anti-wagering, and drug and alcohol policies are in place,” said PLN co-founder Mike Salvaris. “All the stuff that you need that are the basics with any sport before we could take it to a commission.”
Yucatonis says that with such strict requirements for approval, PLN didn’t seek betting commission approval for CarJitsu until about a year into its existence, deciding to do so only once clips of the sport did excellent numbers on social media. He also believes that not all sports are meant to be wagered on.
“There’s just a lot of work that goes into getting a sport ready for wagering,” Salvaris said. “We’ve learned that because we’ve been through it several times now, sometimes the hard way, sometimes the easy way. But I think it is just important to emphasize that it’s not something that I think a lot of sports can do. And to be frank, it’s worth our while to do this because we have the scale of multiple sports leagues. I think if you have just one sports league that’s middling in terms of popularity, I think it’s hard to make the case that it’s worth your while in terms of resources to do that, but it’s worth it for us because this is our business we’re banking on.”
