Iceland may have seen its stirring 2016 run at Euro 2016 melt away,
but soccer bettors seemingly haven’t gotten enough of an underdog
story yet. As the prestigious soccer tournament reaches the semifinal
stage, Covers talks with a trio of oddsmakers about Wednesday’s game:
Jeff Stoneback, manager of The Mirage sportsbook on the Las Vegas
Strip; Lamarr Mitchell, manager of the MGM Grand book also on the
Strip; and an oddsmaker from online site BetNow.
Portugal has the great Cristiano Ronaldo on its side and is an even-money favorite
at the MGM against Wales to advance to Sunday’s championship game. The bettors,
though, seem to like the value of Wales at +280.
“We have a lot of action on the game,” Stoneback said Wednesday morning. “With
Wales, we’re a significant loser right now. We have twice as many tickets on Wales
as we have on Portugal and the draw combined. And the money is about 3/2 on Wales.”
It’s a similar story at the MGM, a sister shop of the Mirage.
“Everyone right now is betting Wales with that value at (nearly) 3/1,” Mitchell said.
Meanwhile, at BetNow, neither team has really prevailed at the betting window, with
only a little line movement since the matchup was set last week. Portugal opened at
+116 and was at +115 this morning, while Wales was a +307 underdog on the
opening line and now stands at +329.
“We’ve had no major line moves,” BetNow’s oddsmaker said. “The action is pretty
even on both sides.”
BetNow is seeing some consensus on the total of 2, with the under at -125 and
the over at -117.
“The public likes the over,” BetNow’s oddsmaker said.
