The inaugural College Basketball Crown debuted in Las Vegas on Monday, providing action to all who don’t want to wait for the Final Four.
Well, maybe not all.
Many sportsbooks had to take down their Crown odds and void bets because the 16-team, week-long tournament was not a pre-approved betting event in certain states such as New Jersey, Ohio and Illinois.
One can assume that the operators assumed that college basketball is college basketball, so approval wasn’t required.
DraftKings Sportsbook director Johnny Avello explained the situation on VSiN PrimeTime with Tim Murray and Matt Youmans. >>Watch the segment.
CBC betting was open for business in Nevada. Avello said that DK was hoping to restore odds in some of its juridictions once approval was received. Update on Tuesday morning: IA, NY, PA, CO & AZ are all good for Crown betting, according to Avello.
VSiN.com managing editor Adam Burke jumped on the story, thanks to VSiN fans on X who alerted us to the issue >>More from Adam.
Greg Peterson’s Best Bets for today include games from the CBC and the NIT in case you are shut out.
One more Crown note: In the last of four games on Monday, Georgetown announced it would be playing short-handed because of a “health incident.” (Vegas flu?) That moved the line from Georgetown -2 to Washington State (-2.5). The Hoyas won 85-82.
The Great Bat Debate
Was the Yankees’ season-opening offensive outburst due to the torpedo bat or the Brewers’ (lack of) pitching?
Exhibit A: On Monday, the Brewers (0-4) gave up 14 hits in an 11-1 loss to the Royals.
Exhibit B: Elly De La Cruz made a game-time decision to use the torpedo bat and went 4-for-5 with two home runs and seven RBI to lead the Reds to a 14-3 victory over the Rangers on Monday.
Brent Musburger predicts:
They’ll all be using them come All-Star Game.
I asked Steve Makinen, who does the VSiN.com power ratings for every game, if he had adjusted his numbers to account for the torpedo bat.
I’ve adjusted the Yankees up about 1/4 run so far. The Brewers’ horrible pitching Monday shows it wasn’t all Yankees credit for their weekend outburst. We’ll see if the bats get more mass adoption before any widespread changes are made to the ratings.
Greg Peterson, who makes lines for every game here, said he was going to wait until there is a bigger sample size of data.
Greg has filed his top plays for today.
Steve will file his MLB Analytics report by mid-morning and you can find it on the MLB page.
Quick Hits
NBA: Zach Cohen will have his plays later this morning.
NHL: Jonathan Davis will have his Best Bets later, too.
This is The VSiN Daily newsletter for Tuesday, April 1. Sign up for this free email and get picks and insights delivered to your in-box every morning.
