Breaking Down ALL the Odds Before Camp
Joe Johnson
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With Training Camp FINALLY beginning this week, the off-season is transitioning to the pre-season. Still, there is still a lot of time between now and week one of the season, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t look at the teams as they exist now and predict how successful they’ll be, mainly because that’s what betting sites do and are doing as we speak. So, before camp starts and teams try to avoid the injury bug that seems to sweep through and change teams’ chances, we thought it’d be fun to go through and see where the top betting sites rank both the Vikings and every other team (of interest) in a top list, of sorts.
First, let’s look at the division breakdowns. The NFC North is looking like one of the tougher divisions in the league, with all four teams being relatively close together across the multiple betting and bookie sites we analyzed. The average we found was that the Vikings had the best odds to win the NFC North, at a +125. That was followed closely by the Green Bay Packers, who had a +150 (nearly a toss-up with the Vikes). The Lions came in at +550, and the Bears with +800. The only teams with better odds to win their division were the Philadelphia Eagles with a -150 and the Los Angeles Rams with a -140.
In the AFC the Patriots, per usual, had a -550, the Steelers a -250, but beyond that , the Vikings are a top five team in terms of odds to win their division. The only/biggest difference being how close their competition is (in terms of the Packers). You’d think that having that close of a rival in terms of competition would drop their odds a bit, however these numbers also reflect the amount of money the house is expecting people to bet and when it comes to the Vikings and the Packers, it’s not hard to see why they expect about equal money on each side.
Next up is odds to win the NFC Championship. The Vikings come in at +550, which ties them with the Eagles and has them above another team that people point to as a top NFC contender in the Los Angeles Rams (+650). The Bears are the worst in the NFC at +5000, the Lions at +2000 and the Packers at +800. That means that the Vikings are tied for the best odds in the NFC to go to the Super Bowl as of the writing of this article (meaning that if you bet $100 you receive $550, not too shabby!). They are topped in the AFC by the Patriots, who come in at +300, and they tie the Pittsburgh Steelers. The rest of the AFC is a crap shoot, for the most part.
Finally comes the Super Bowl, the seemingly unachieveable milestone for those of us born in the early-80’s and beyond! The Vikings come in strong at +1000, juxtaposed to the other ‘M’-team in the Miami Dolphins, who come in at +10000, which is pretty rough for what remains of their fanbase. The Patriots come in at +700, and the Eagles tie the Vikings at +1000 but beyond that ,the Vikings are basically tied for the second best Super Bowl odds in the league. That’s amazing and something that takes a minute to sink in. That means that people have a lot of faith in this Vikings team and that, while it’s been fairly obvious around here for awhile, this season is definitely a Super Bowl or bust type of year. As Vikings fans we know how things typically go when those are the expectations and especially in the year following an implosion in the NFC Championship game, so with the help of these odds perhaps you can at least make some money on the team as they break your heart, again.