It was announced on Monday morning that the Indiana Gaming Commission issued a mobile launch authorization to New York-based FanDuel and on Tuesday of this week, the fantasy
sports giant made it official by going live in the Hoosier State.
The launch is not only significant for the online gaming landscape in the state, as it adds a third platform where players can shop around for the best price on where to place their bets, but it also brings the online gaming partner of the Indianapolis Colts into the marketplace.
Earlier this month, Jim Irsay’s NFL franchise inked a deal with FanDuel in an exclusive gambling partnership that will “work to engage new and existing fans using a range of marketing assets.”
In short, the Colts will be using their leverage with Indianapolis sports fans to push them to FanDuel for all of their fantasy sports and sports betting needs.
Another significant opportunity for customers is the fact that FanDuel is powered by different technology than the already established gaming companies of DraftKings and BetRivers. The latter two companies are powered by Kambi, the Malta-based technology company that provides both of the latter two sites their odds for sporting events. As we previously reported, FanDuel is powered by IGT and Paddy Power Betfair, under the larger entity Flutter Entertainment.
More choices for bettors
With a second oddsmaker in the mix, and taking into account the partnership between the Colts and FanDuel, we’ve decided to take a look at some key Colts odds to see if there are any immediate discrepancies in their figures and where the value for customers might be found. The first major noticeable difference can be seen in the Colts NFL 2020 Super Bowl Championship futures. The Kambi line offers +2500 while the FanDuel line gives a more customer friendly live of +3000. The same can be said on the line for the Colts to emerge as the AFC Conference Winner where FanDuel offers +1400 compared to DraftKings less favorable +1300.
When it comes to battling for the winner of the Division Winner of the AFC South, FanDuel offers customers odds of +130, a virtual tie with Houston Texans. Over on DraftKings, customers are offered a slightly better price of +135. On both FanDuel and DraftKings, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Seattle Seahawks signal caller Russell Wilson are the current odds-on favorites to win the 2020 NFL Regular Season MVP award, but for those who want to place a wager on Colts QB Jacoby Brissett taking the prize, FanDuel is offering a much better price at +10000, while DraftKings is currently sitting at +6000.
While those are some long odds for Brissett to take home the MVP, his on-the-field play has only been helping the Colts be seen as more of a contender in the eyes of the oddsmakers. Prior to the sudden and unexpected retirement of the Colts franchise quarterback Andrew Luck, the Colts were seen as a team on the rise. However, after Luck’s announcement, the bottom dropped out from the Colts futures odds. They were projected to drop to the bottom of AFC South (sitting between +400 and +500) and their chances of winning the Super Bowl plummeting to +6000.
In fact, after Luck’s preseason performance, he was in the conversation as a possible MVP front-runner with one Las Vegas oddsmaker offering him at +1200. So, for those that think that Brissett will be the player to lead the Colts into the playoffs, they’d be getting far better odds on him winning the MVP that they would have ever gotten with Luck.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Week 8 lines between FanDuel and DraftKings were very close as one might expect. The Colts are the favorites at home preparing to taking on the struggling Denver Broncos. Both FanDuel and DraftKings agree on the spread with -6. However, DraftKings gives a slightly better price on the money line offering -245 to FanDuel’s -250.
Of course, with new information continually coming out all week long and every week of the NFL season, the lines both for weekly and season-long futures continually shift.