Rays placed as favourites to win World Series

According to Las Vegas Sports Consultants and specifically Sean Van Patten who works there, the Rays are the favourites -$1.35 to win the World Series. In practical terms, this means that if you bet $1.35 you would only win $1 if Tampa Bay wins. Sportsbook are offering the Pillies at $1.15 so if they win you would receive $1.15 for every dollar you bet. 

This is a radical change from how things looked only six months ago. At the beginning of the season the odds were 200-1 that the Rays would win the series. According to Van Patten the idea is to stop more Tampa Bay money coming in and get a little bit of money back on the Phillies.

Jay Kornegay, who works at Las Vegas Hilton Race and Sportsbook thinks that these long-shot prices from the start of the season will definitely effect sportsbook operators but not drastically enough to put them out of action. He did not disclose how much money sportsbooks would lose should the Phillies pull it off and win the season, but he did say that there are other sportsbooks who are offering even longer odds on the Rays winning the championship.

Nearly two decades ago, in 1991 many sportsbooks lost millions and millions of dollars on futures bets thanks to the Atlanta Braves and the Minnesota Twins rebounding from last place and reaching the World Series. According to Kornegay sportsbooks have learnt from that experience and that is why you no longer see teams opening at 500-1 before the start of the season.