Yankees, Mets Biggest MLB World Series Liabilities Despite Negligible Increase in Local Betting Interest
Jim McIsaac/Getty Images. Pictured: Aaron Judge.
The Yankees and Mets are currently the toast of New York. So, why haven't betting handles increased in lockstep?
It's common sense, but it's worth stating: At sportsbooks, dollars wagered indicate interest, which in turn, forces the books to focus resources and marketing strategies on said teams and games.
To be sure, for this upcoming two-game set between two of baseball's top teams, sportsbooks like PointsBet, FanDuel and DraftKings are still running promotions.
But that's more due to the dearth in the rest of the sports calendar than it is due to increased fervor among bettors in the Tri-State Area.
"There's been nothing too out of the ordinary," PointsBet data specialist Wyatt Yearout said about betting handle on the Mets and Yankees this season. "No real discernible difference."
New York just launched online sports betting, so data from previous years is nonexistent. Connecticut launched in late 2021 but only houses three sportsbooks.
It's year-over-year figures in New Jersey that don't show much of a difference, Yearout said. The state launched online sports wagering in 2018.
Still, the Yankees and Mets are the biggest liabilities to win the World Series with at least one sportsbook.
John Ewing, a spokesperson from BetMGM, said Monday that the book had the most to lose if the Yankees or Mets won the World Series.
That's partially on account of their relatively long preseason odds, in which the Yankees were +1000 to win it all, while the Mets were +2000.
The Yankees are now the favorites to win the World Series at the sportsbook at +325, while the Mets are +700 as the fourth-best favorites.
MGM uses data from all its states and districts for its liability metrics, which include Arizona, Colorado, Washington D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Michigan, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming. So, those numbers aren't localized among Yankees and Mets fans.
Be that as it may, ticket prices for Tuesday and Wednesday's contests indicate that local interest among traditional sports fans has surely increased.
The get-in price after fees at StubHub is about $140 for each game. Meanwhile, that price hovered around $50 for the most recent pre-pandemic Subway Series in July 2019, when the Yankees had the best record in the American League and the Mets were fourth in their division.
Ensuring that interest from non-betting sports fans trickles into the markets is paramount to the survival of sportsbooks — especially smaller ones fighting for market cap. So far, their efforts to bring in Mets and Yankees fans who haven't bet online before haven't paid many dividends.
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