The U.S. Olympic men's basketball team has lost its first two exhibition games, but one sportsbook hasn't cared all that much about it.
William Hill opened its odds at -550 for Team USA to win gold at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo and has not yet changed the line despite embarrassing losses at the hands of 29.5-point underdog Nigeria and 16.5-point underdog Australia.
“If [the U.S.] keep losing, we’ll have to adjust it," said Nick Bogdanovich, Director of Trading for William Hill US, in a statement on Tuesday. "I just think it’s too early to adjust now, it’s only been a couple exhibitions. They still have Kevin Durant, Dame Lillard and company. When the games mean something, it’ll probably be a different story.”
On the other hand, PointsBet has altered its odds substantially since the two losses.
While Team USA opened at the book as -1000 favorites to win gold, it is now -625 favorites.
"After they lost to Nigeria, we held steady at the -1000 but felt it was necessary to start moving the price in after their loss last night to Australia," said Mike Korn, a sports analyst at PointsBet.
Similarly, at BetMGM, the line is now -400 after having been as high as -1000 before Team USA's game against Nigeria, which it lost 90-87.
After the Nigeria game, the Team USA odds dropped to -800. The line then moved to -600 moments after the 91-83 loss to Australia.
The line as of Tuesday afternoon is -400.
Australia is now second- or third-best favorites at most sportsbooks after its performance against the U.S., with lines at +1000 at PointsBet, +1400 at BetMGM and +1000 at William Hill.
Former second-best favorites Spain now has lines of +1200 at PointsBet, +800 at BetMGM and +1000 at William Hill.
Team USA will face Argentina in another exhibition match Tuesday night at 6 p.m. EST. Despite its foibles, the team is still heavy favorites to win its first game this summer with a spread of -18.5 and a moneyline of -2000.
