Miami Heat Still Favorites for Sports Betting

Despite a slew of injuries and inconsistent results early in the season, the Miami Heat is still the NBA’s best team and most likely to win the championship, says ESPN’s John Hollinger. Hollinger uses a complicated mathematical formula to analyze past performance and measure the chances of future success, a tool valued by many sports betting fans.

The Heat have already lost five games, a disappointment to some prognosticators such as columnist Dan LeBatard, who predicted the team would win seventy games and lose twelve or less. But Hollinger says even though such teams as the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, and New Orleans Hornets have better starts to their seasons, the Heat have already played three of the four toughest games on their entire schedule, giving them a schedule difficulty far higher than other teams.

By having played at New Orleans, at Boston, and at Orlando, Hollinger asserts only the road game against the Los Angeles Lakers remains of the Heat’s toughest challenges.

Sports betting at online gambling sites had put the Heat as a slight favorite over two-time defending champion Los Angeles in the preseason, due to the astonishing amount of free agent talent signed by the Heat. The team has arguably at least two of the three best basketball players in the world, adding MVP LeBron James to returning star Dwyane Wade. Power forward Chris Bosh, considered the second best free agent after James, also signed with the team.