Prior to Game 7 of the NBA Finals, arguments ensued all over the country and world about who would win the last game of the 2015-2016 NBA Season.
Would the Golden State Warriors complete a historical season and arguably the best in NBA history? Or would the Cleveland Cavaliers finish off the biggest Finals comeback in NBA history, allowing LeBron James to bring a championship back home to Cleveland?
What these questions also led to is the most gambled-on NBA game ever.
ESPN reported more money was bet on Sunday’s game seven between the Cavaliers and Warriors than any other NBA game ever in history.
“Not only was Game 7 the most heavily bet NBA game that I can remember in my 29 years, but Game 6 was the second-most,” Bill Sattler, director of specialty games for Caesars, said.
The regular-season game that saw the most action at William Hill’s Nevada Sportsbook was the February 27 matchup between Golden State and Oklahoma City. However the two don’t really compare. Game seven of the finals brought in three times as many bets as that game.
At William Hill, Game 7 accounted for 28% of the total money bet over the spreads, totals, and money-lines during the entire NBA Finals.
The MGM sportsbooks had more than than a million dollars bet on Game 7… three hours before tipoff. The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook said the money bet on Game 7 broke records for its SuperBook.
MGM assistant manager Jeff Stoneback told ESPN that MGM’s book took multiple six-figure bets on each team. Stoneback added the biggest bet was “large six figures” on the Cavs +5.
“We’ve had more six-figure bets in two days on this game than sometimes we get in the first week or 10 days leading up to the Super Bowl,” Stoneback told ESPN.
Ticket prices for the game also set records on Stubhub. Two seats for Game 7 sold for $49,500 on Stubhub, a non-suite record for the website over its 16-year existence.
The Cavaliers win came the sportsbooks’ loss. The Westgate reportedly lost a small amount, while Caesars was hit hard.
“When they tipped off, we knew that, if the Cavs won, we were going to get spanked pretty bad,” Sattler, an Ohio native, said. Sattler estimated the loss at around “4 percent” of the amount wagered.
When Cleveland trailed in the series three games to one after game four, some lines had the Cavaliers at 14-to-1 odds to win the series. This led to nearly 100 bets on Cleveland around $250 at the MGM sportsbook, according to the casino.
[ESPN]
