Each day, one of our experts at bet.NOLA.com will offer up a best bet (or two or three) that mobile sportsbooks in Louisiana are offering. It might be a traditional spread bet, a player prop or one of the various odds boosts that books offer.
A reminder for those who haven’t signed up yet: New users can get a risk-free bet at Caesars Sportsbook, meaning that if your first bet loses, you get a bonus bet for the same amount up to $1,250. New users also get 1,000 Caesars Rewards points to redeem for hotel or casino credit.
Here are our best bets for Saturday, April 8:
TOP PLAY
The play: UFC 287, Israel Adesanya over Alex Pereira
The odds/bet: -135 ($40.50 to win $30)
The book: Caesars Sportsbook
Time/TV: Fifth fight of main card, which starts at 9 p.m. (ESPN+ PPV)
Our take: We haven’t delved much into mixed martial arts on these bets, but then, we’ve got to change our luck somehow, right?
This one follows a basic tenet of sports betting: If a line doesn’t make sense, check it out. What you’ll find here is that even though Adesanya is a slight favorite, he lost a November bout to Pereira, who also beat him twice years ago in kick-boxing matches.
Now they meet for the UFC middleweight title in Miami, with Adesanya hoping to avenge that loss, which is just one of two in his UFC career.
Sometimes, certain fighters’ styles just don’t match up well with others, and that could be the case here. But the oddsmakers don’t believe so, giving Adesanya an advantage, especially if the fight goes the distance. A nice hedge could be to take Pereira to win via knockout, particularly via live odds if he’s losing the match midway through; Pereira has earned six of his seven UFC victories by knockout, while Adesanya is more likely to use a decision, as he has in eight of his 23 wins.
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