MLB All Star Game Kicks Up Betting Interest During Slow Sports Week

With the beginning of football still in the future and the NBA and NHL seasons long wrapped up, MLB is just about the only game in town. As their regular season pauses for the All Star Game, sports bettors turned their attention to wagering on the star-studded exhibition game. 

Bettors favor the pitchers over the best hitters in baseball

The sports calendar is notoriously slow in mid-July, which allows some events that might not normally generate significant betting interest to take center stage. MLB’s All Star game certainly reaps the benefits of having the sports world’s stage all to itself, and it used the opportunity to great effect with an exciting game that gave fans an inside look at their favorite star players via unprecedented coverage featuring in-game conversations with players. Baseball fans were treated to a top-notch experience all around, and sports bettors took the opportunity to place their bets on some interesting wagers.

Many of the most popular prop bets at top online sportsbooks centered around a low-scoring game dominated by the strikeout heavy pitching staffs composed of a bevy of talented hurlers. The no-run 1st inning bet was especially popular in this game, and it dealt the public a loss when Paul Goldschmidt hit a first inning home run to put two runs on the board for the National League. That would be all the offense the National League would get, as the American League fought back to take the game by the score of 3-2.

Under bettors were proven right

The no run first inning bet was a loser for the All Star Game, but those who showed their faith in the high-quality pitching by putting their money on the under were rewarded by the low-scoring affair. In spite of having all the best offensive talents in the game batting in succession, the books set the line at 7.5 runs. The final score of 3-2 made the under an easy winner. The All Star relief pitchers performed especially well, as neither team scored after the fourth inning.

Player prop bets are less popular in the All Star Game as no player is on the field for the entire game, but betting on the game’s MVP Award winner was also quite a popular wager. Shohei Ohtani was the favorite based on the odds to win the award, with books and bettors counting on his potential to pitch and hit in the game to give him the best chance to shine. Ohtani did not take the mound in the game, and while he delivered two hits, it was not enough to take the award away from the winner, Giancarlo Stanton, who overcame +1500 odds to take the award.

A successful event for MLB

Major League Baseball has had a difficult stretch of public relations recently, with the ugly negotiations over the shortened pandemic season of 2020 and subsequent owner’s lockout at the beginning of the 2022 season bringing the contentious negotiations to the public stage.

All the high quality talent and outstanding player interaction on the broadcast, the league can certainly count this game in the win column in terms of pleasing their fanbase and giving a positive experience to fans – especially the fans who enjoy placing a wager on the game at US sports betting sites.