AP Photo/Tyler Kaufman
- The Los Angeles Lakers started the NBA offseason with a bang on Saturday, trading for Anthony Davis.
- Just minutes before news of the trade broke, somebody placed a $10,000 wager on the Lakers to win the 2020 championship at 5/1 odds.
- Once news of Davis’ move became public, the Lakers’ odds to win the 2020 championship dropped down to 3/1, making them the favorites.
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The Los Angeles Lakers kicked off the NBA offseason with a monster move on Saturday, trading away a plethora of young players and picks to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for Anthony Davis.
The move immediately shifted the perception of the Lakers, who after a few weeks of rough press, now looked positioned as one of the strongest teams in the West heading into the 2019-20 season.
Read more: Anthony Davis has been traded to the Lakers and LeBron James
But just minutes before ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported the Davis deal on Twitter, one bettor snuck in a $10,000 bet on the Lakers to win the title at 5/1 odds.
According to Darren Rovell of the Action Network, the bet was placed at 3 p.m. local time in Las Vegas, with Wojnarowski’s tweet coming just 27 minutes later.
In retrospect, the timing of the bet raised eyebrows — was the bettor privy to some player dealings or conversations that had not been made public yet?
"I’m sure it was with knowledge, but that’s why we have liability limits in place," Jeff Sherman, manager at the Westgate, told Rovell.
Liability limits cap bets on futures to help ensure, among other things, that someone with inside information can’t take a sportsbook for all its worth just before news breaks that will drastically change the odds. According to Rovell, Westgate’s limit on futures was set at $50,000.
Regardless of what the bettor knew when they placed their wager, the ticket will go off as written, and thanks to their incredible timing, that $10,000 bet will cash for $50,000 should the Lakers win the title. That’s an extra $20,000 compared to what the ticket would have been potentially worth had it been bought after odds shifted to reflect the Davis deal.
With that in mind, it’s easy to think this bettor already won, but even though they undeniably got the best of the number with their wager, the Lakers still need to win the title for the ticket to cash.
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See Also:
- Toronto Raptors beat the Golden State Warriors to win their first championship in franchise history
- Klay Thompson appeared to injure his knee on an ugly fall, got taken off the floor, then ran back onto the court for his free throws in a wild, dramatic scene
- The Lakers’ draft pick could become the key to the Anthony Davis trade saga
Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Tyler Lauletta)