Juraj Slafkovsky’s shocking No. 1 overall selection by the Montreal Canadiens during Thursday’s NHL Draft, apparently wasn’t as much of a surprise to the betting public once again. While Slafkovsky closed as the favorite (-160) to hear his name off the board first, as recently as a week ago, that wasn’t the case.
Up until the very last moment, Shane Wright was most people’s consensus No. 1 pick and his -5000 opening odds at some sportsbooks represented that. Yet, the number became increasingly less favorable as the draft neared.
At the same time, Slafkovsky opened with +500 odds and no real shot to go first in the draft. One thing led to another and — BOOM — his draft-day odds rose to eventually become the odds-on favorite.
Per Pete Truszkowski of Yahoo! Sports:
“Bettors who backed Slafkovsky had a nice payday. Some got in at +500, while many got in at prices near +200.”
The future is looking bright for the @CanadiensMTL. 🤩 #NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/7WnTUk8oZA
— NHL (@NHL) July 8, 2022
That makes three straight major drafts where the betting public seemingly nailed the No. 1 pick over industry insiders. Before the NFL draft, Aiden Hutchinson was long expected to go No. 1 overall by most prognosticators. Trevor Walker ruined those predictions. Then last month at the NBA draft, Jabari Smith Jr. seemed almost guaranteed to go No.1—until Paolo Banchero proved that oddsmakers can’t take ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski word for absolute fact.
Betting on the draft is already hard enough. It appears handicapping the top pick might be even tougher.
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