March Madness gets it name for upsets, and we certainly saw the first big one of the tournament on Thursday as No. 3 Kentucky lost outright 80-76 to No. 14 Oakland as a 13.5-point favorite.
John Calipari’s team was down 38-35 at halftime and never was able to build a lead in the second half. Even though sportsbooks lost on the game, due to +575 moneyline bets on Oakland (20 percent of bets, but 52 percent of total dollars wagered at DraftKings were on Oakland ML), they were please with the result because of the title liability on Kentucky.
Kentucky (25-1) was the biggest liability to win March Madness at BetMGM sportsbooks and third-most bet team (9.6 percent of bets). North Carolina (13-1) and UConn (+350) were the second- and third-largest liabilities.
“Kentucky futures for us is the worst result I’ve seen since being here,” Zachary Lucas, retail sportsbook director at TwinSpires, told For The Win before the tournament begin. “It would quite, quite bad, bigger than any Super Bowl liability I’ve seen.”
Luckily, he won’t have to worry about it anymore.
