Monthly Archives: May 2016

Three Cities to Host the Super Bowl to be unveiled by NFL Owners

The NFL has announced the five cities that are legible for the hosting of the upcoming Super Bowl games, with Los Angeles and Atlanta among them to boost online NFL odds. Los Angeles hosted Super Bowl I in 1967, and the event could soon return to the city that had the privilege to delight fans. With the intention of finalizing the agenda on the upcoming Super Bowl events, that is, LIII, LIV and LV, the 32 owners of the NFL will meet from Monday to Wednesday in Charlotte for their yearly spring meeting.

The meeting's agenda will cover the main issue, which include carrying out a voting session to choose the city that will host the Super Bowl events for the subsequent years. This include the 2019 Super Bowls LIII, the 2020 Super Bowl LIV and the 2021 Super Bowl LV. The five cities that might clinch a ticket for hosting the biggest games in NFL are Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Miami.

However, Los Angeles only has LIV or LV to vie for, while New Orleans will only contend for Super Bowl LIII. This is because of Superdome's planning conflicts. According to the sentiments expressed by a credible source from the NFL, L.A. has high chances of hosting the Super Bowl and this will be revealed as soon as the Tuesday vote by the owners. In January 1967, when the Super Bowl first took place in L.A, the Chiefs lost to the Packers with a 35-10 score line.

One should note that for any city to win the hosting rights to the Super Bowl, it must successfully receive a minimum of twenty-four votes from the NFL owners. Even with such restrictions, Atlanta still stands out as the favorite city to host the Super Bowl, which is fueled by the unveiling of their new stadium worth $1.5 billion. The Falcons will open the stadium in 2017.

If Los Angeles receives the needed votes for the Super Bowl to take place in their backyard, this will be their first time in 23 years since January 1993 to host such an event. Super Bowl XXVII was the last time L.A hosted the Super Bowl in which the Bills lost to the Cowboys by a 52-17 margin. In a general perspective, Los Angeles has hosted seven Super Bowls for the NFL. Among them, Pasadena's Rose Bowl has hosted five of the games, with the Memorial Coliseum hosting the rest.

For other cities, February 2013 was the last time New Orleans last hosted the event, that is, Super Bowl XLVII. Miami has never hosted any Super Bowl event since February 2010 in which it hosted Super Bowl XLIV. January 2000 and February 2009 were the last times Atlanta and Tampa Bay hosted the event, that is, Super Bowl XXXIV and Super Bowl XLIII respectively.

Even with the scheduled meeting in Charlotte, the locations for the two subsequent Super Bowls have already been set by the NFL. Houston take care of Super Bowl LI in February 2017, while Super Bowl LII will take place in Minnesota in the Vikings new stadium in February 2018. The stadium is set to be opened this season.

French Open gets underway as Federer misses first Grand Slam since 1999

The stars of the tennis world have once again descended upon Roland Garros, as they bid to claim glory at this year’s French Open in Paris. However, one man who will not be taking the court this time around is Roger Federer, with the all-time leading Grand Slam winner missing out on his first Grand Slam event this century. The 2009 Champion only recently returned to action at the Italian Open, however a third round defeat in Italy certainly interrupted his preparations. The Swiss maestro suffered a back injury in training, and has
taken the decision to withdraw from the tournament, instead focusing on returning in time for Wimbledon.

With it remaining to be seen as to when the world number three does return to action, it looks likely that the usual suspects of Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and nine-time French Open winner Rafael Nadal, will once again battle it out in Paris. Having already claimed the season opening Australian Open at the start of the year, it is world number one Djokovic who is the 5/6 favourite with bookmakers Coral to win his second Grand Slam title of 2016. However, with Murray having beaten his Serbian rival in the final of the recent Italian Open, the Scot is 7/2 to claim a maiden title in Paris. As a result, the ball is in his court to perform in Paris this year, with a previous best of a Semi Final appearance in both 2011, 2014 as well as 2015.

Murray has only ever won three career titles on clay, and despite being in excellent form heading to Paris, may well already have half an eye on the upcoming tournaments this summer. With Wimbledon, the US Open, Davis Cup and Olympic Games all to play for over the coming months, Murray certainly has ample opportunity to add to his success to date. The former US Open champion is 4/1 to claim his second title at Flushing Meadows in the US Open betting with Coral.

However, for those of you who fancy a repeat of 2014 when outsider Marin Cilic won a historic first US Open title, the likes of Milos Raonic and controversial Aussie Nick Kyrgios could well be worth backing. The two players are offered odds of 16/1 and 25/1 by Coral respectively, and with the tournament now just a few months away, it is certainly wise to back your favourite before the odds change.

Suspension of Tom Brady Boost Patriots Odds of Winning the Super Bowl

As the NFL concluded their 2016 Draft, Super Bowl 51 betting lines show that both the Patriots and the Seahawks are the favorites. In this scenario, free agency is the most important transaction to carry out apart from what the New York Jets and Ryan Fitzpatrick have decided to do. With the suspension of Tom Brady looking as if it might stick for a long time, NFL fans already have a sneak peek on the composition of every team as soon as the 2016 NFL season begins.

This is the perfect moment to start analyzing the Super Bowl odds for 2017. As soon as Super Bowl 50 ended in February, MyBookie decided to list Carolina Panthers, Seattle Seahawks, and the New England Patriots as the favorites to win Super Bowl 51 with an odd ratio of 9:1. However, free agency helped to improve the odds of New England Patriots to 15-2 after the inclusion of Chris Long and Martellus Bennett in March.

The Patriots continue to stay on top as the favorites to win the 2017 Super Bowl in relation to the recent odds that MyBookie released, currently standing at 7-1. Compared to the odds released in March, the patriots have slightly improvement, even with the reinstatement of Brady’s four-game DeflateGate ban.

After the draft, the odds of the Seahawks also improved to 8-1 from the 10-1 odds give to them in March. Seattle drafted Germain Ifedi in the first round as a reaction to their weakness in the offensive tackle position as well as to strengthen their offensive lines, as the team came off a 10-6 odd. With the retirement of Marshawn Lynch, Seahawks’ Thomas Rawls played incredibly well, but later broke his ankle in the course of last season. His injury prompted the third-round drafting of C.J. Prosise as their running back.

The Carolina Panthers, the 2015 NFC champions have their Super Bowl odds dropping after the draft to 11-1. As the defending titleholders, they also currently have stretched odds. With a drop of their odds of Denver Broncos from 10-1 in March to the current 16-1, one could argue that this is because of the doubt with their quarterback position.

When it comes to the rest of the weaker teams, Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers and the Tennessee Titans received the worst Super Bowl odds from MyBookie, with all of them listed at 100-1. However, the Browns can afford a grin with an improvement of their odds to 150-1 thanks to the numerous trades they made in the draft to secure 14 picks. With reference to Leicester City’s long odds in the English Premier League, many NFL teams can still improve their odds further.

Next season there will be some exciting prop bets as well. For example, 2-1 odds goes to Jared Goff as the favorite player to earn the Offensive Rookie of the Year for the LA Rams as a quarterback. The second favorite is Dallas Cowboys’ running back, Ezekiel Elliott listed with odds of 5-2. As for Carson Wentz, you can bet on him with regard to the number of games that he will start next season for the Philadelphia Eagles, as MyBookie lists him with over/under 3.5 games.