Weekly Sports Recap & Update – March 24th Edition

We are due for an exciting weekend of sports in many realms. The NCAA Tournament is in full swing, we have the Dell Technologies Match Play featuring some of the world’s best golfers, and across town in Austin, the NASCAR Cup Series has its first road course race of the year.

Betting Action: Weekly Sports Recap & Updates


Road to the Final Four

On Saturday, the East and West regions will have their regional finals as two teams will punch their tickets to Houston and the Final 4. On Sunday, the stage shifts to Louisville and Kansas City with the South and Midwest regions playing their respective finals.

In addition to making plays on games, some wagers that are enticing to us are future wagers on teams winning the national title. While the clock has unfortunately struck midnight on many of the Cinderellas, and the cream has raised to the top, there is value to be had, especially in the futures markets.

We would recommend taking a long hard look at teams such as Creighton, Miami (Fla) and San Diego State if they survive Friday’s games and are alive come Sunday.

Meanwhile in Texas

There will be plenty of wagering options when it comes to the Dell Match Play in Austin. As opposed to a normal weekly schedule of 72 holes of stroke play, the Match play, somewhat obvious by its name, features 18-hole matches.

This offers a plethora of betting opportunities, and instead of having to wait until late on Sunday to cash for a tournament bet, you can get in on the action in individual matches.

NASCAR CUP Series

The NASCAR Cup series has been on superspeedways, one-mile ovals, and mile-and-a-half “cookie cutter” layouts during the first six weeks of the schedule. Now, it’s time for a road course, the first of six on the schedule.

Few interesting wrinkles this year as there will be no stage breaks, and given the length of the road course (3.48 miles) the field tends to get spread out, with the exception of the ride up and hill and tight turn into Turn 1 there are very natural cautions.

This year, because of no stage breaks, teams will have to pit under green flag conditions most likely, placing a premium on pit crew precision and track position. As is the case in many NASCAR disciplines, there are certain drivers that excel on a road course.

A few that come to our mind are AJ Allmendinger, Chris Buescher, and Austin Cindric. While the markets have somewhat compensated and adjusted to the prowess of road course ringers, there is still value to be had both in outright bets and in matchups.

There are a few drivers that don’t normally compete in Cup races that are really road course specialists and will be in Austin this weekend. A few that come to mind and have attracted the public’s attention are past F1 champ Kimi Raikkonen and Jordan Taylor, an IMSA veteran who has actually completed a ton of test/practice laps around COTA.

We strongly recommend fading these drivers in both outrights and matchups and would proceed with extreme caution in including them on anything but a top 10.