The United States was exhilarated after staving off Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Perhaps not quite<\/i> as exhilarated, but certainly quite happy, were the public betting masses, who were all over the USA in World Cup odds for the Round of 32 knockout match.<\/p>\n
Sportsbooks in Las Vegas and across the nation reported extremely heavy and lopsided patriotic action on the Stars & Stripes. And the bettors got paid.<\/p>\n
Said Mark Bickerdike, Caesars Sports head of soccer trading:<\/p>\n
“The U.S. men\u2019s national team match against Bosnia and Herzegovina was a record-breaking event and the most-engaged soccer event in Caesars Sports history. It\u2019s fair to say we have plenty of happy\u00a0bettors\u00a0this evening.”<\/p>\n
A few oddsmakers chimed in on Wednesday’s big result and what lies ahead, with the USA vs. Belgium odds already on the board and getting attention.<\/p>\n
This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about <\/i>Sports Betting on FOX Sports<\/u><\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n
Short-Term Pain, Long-Term Gain<\/strong><\/p>\n Prior to Wednesday night\u2019s game, SuperBook vice president John Murray noted that the U.S. was a substantial liability at his Vegas shop. As he put it, “The book would do quite well” if Bosnia advanced.<\/p>\n However, that also would\u2019ve taken out the most attractive team to bettors.\u00a0<\/p>\n So when the U.S. \u2014 which lost star Folarin Balogun to a much-disputed red card in the 64th minute \u2014 not only held its 1-0 lead but went on to win 2-0, Murray highlighted a very bright side for sportsbooks.<\/p>\n “The USA advancing is not a good immediate result,” Murray said late Wednesday night. “But it sets up a fantastic Monday night match in primetime. USA vs. Belgium is gonna be huge.<\/p>\n “Action certainly spiked with tonight\u2019s game. It was the most-bet game, and I don\u2019t know why Monday wouldn\u2019t be bigger.”<\/p>\n If that\u2019s indeed the case, then Caesars Sports \u2014 and surely others \u2014 is looking at a second straight record-breaking USA match. Bickerdike said the USA-Bosnia match was historic.<\/p>\n “It generated our highest soccer handle ever, the most wagers placed on a soccer event in our book\u2019s history, and the highest number of unique customers wagering,” he said. “That’s obviously very encouraging, and we hope to see that momentum continue into the Round of 16 matchup.”<\/p>\n As Close As It Gets<\/strong><\/p>\n In the wake of the Americans’ win, BetMGM quickly posted USA vs. Belgium odds for Monday\u2019s Round of 16 clash. On the three-way moneyline (for 90 minutes plus injury time) it\u2019s a deadlock pick \u2018em: USA +160\/Belgium +160\/Draw +230.<\/p>\n In the To Advance market (simply which team reaches the quarterfinals, whether in regulation, overtime or a penalty-kick shootout), Belgium is actually a slim favorite at -115, with the U.S. at -110.<\/p>\n But make no mistake, by Monday\u2019s 8 p.m. ET kickoff on FOX, the masses will have piled on the USMNT.<\/p>\n “I\u2019m fairly confident the next game will be one of our biggest liabilities of the tournament, and the most-bet-game,” BetMGM trading manager Adair Horne said.<\/p>\n Added Murray: “It\u2019s the USA\u2019s biggest game ever played on U.S. soil. Action will be a lot heavier than USA-Belgium.”<\/p>\n Futures Forecast<\/strong><\/p>\n When this 48-team tournament began on June 11, the USA was +5000 in Caesars\u2019 World Cup futures odds. The Americans improved to +4000 after the 4-1 win over Paraguay, then to +3000 after the 2-0 win vs. Australia.<\/p>\n With the 3-2 loss to T\u00fcrkiye in the final group match, the U.S. slid out slightly to +3000. Now, with a huge, shorthanded Round of 32 win \u2014 and even with the prospect of Balogun sitting out Monday \u2014 Caesars has the U.S. as the +2500 seventh choice to win the tournament.<\/p>\n “The move may feel small,” Bickerdike said. “But the USA was a heavy favorite to progress from [the Bosnia] matchup and now faces a tough\u00a0Round of 16 test against Belgium, without the\u00a0likely\u00a0suspended Balogun.<\/p>\n “That being said, our\u00a0bettors were clearly encouraged by what they saw [Wednesday night], as we’ve already seen strong interest in the USA in the Tournament Winner market.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY The United States was exhilarated after staving off Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 on Wednesday night. Perhaps not quite as exhilarated, but certainly quite happy, were the public betting masses, who were all over the USA in World Cup odds for the Round of 32 knockout match. Sportsbooks in Las Vegas and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}