Every year brings a handful of “firsts”. One of those firsts in 2017 will come during the NFL Draft. For fans out in the state of Nevada, betting on the 2017 NFL Draft is now going to be a thing out in Las Vegas. But it may not be exactly what you are thinking upon reading that sentence.
If you are like me, your first thought would have been along the lines of picking specific players that will be drafted by specific teams. It would only seem logical, as fans love to predict picks before they are announced. So one would imagine, if Sin City is allowing bets on the draft, then they would certainly make a killing on bets around specific players going at a certain pick number.
[Kenny]
But instead, the bets you can actually play are more along the lines of prop bets. So bets like “total cornerbacks selected in the first round” or “total players drafted from the University of Miami” would be some options. If you have a feel on whether the first round will be dominated by offensive players and not defensive ones, then there will be a bet for you.
But if you have a gut feel as to when Patrick Mahomes is going to be selected, then you are simply out of luck. While that would be the most entertaining form of NFL Draft bets, it is likely too easily skewed. Too many people could get inside information on a given team and who they like. Therefore, Vegas would likely be on the losing end of those types of bets.
Which is why we are getting the prop bet format that we are. And there is nothing wrong with that. Prop bets can be highly entertaining. If you picked the over on two quarterbacks in the first round, and you reach the 29th pick with two already in the books, you will have some extra interest in the next two picks.
That’s what prop bets are meant to do. They keep you interested in aspects of an event that you may not normally care about. Sure it would be fun to be rooting for a certain name to be called on any given pick. But honestly, you can have that excitement without placing a bet.
But when else will you find yourself rooting for Roger Goodell to say the words “Ohio State University” because you need them to produce the most first round picks? There are so many different options you could go with thanks to this format.
While an event like any given NFL game will have its focus on the spread and over-under, for the NFL Draft, the prop bets become the main show. They would only be a side game in other events. But the introduction of these bets will help bring the prop bet to an equal playing field as the standard bet with a spread.
So while it may not be what you would have thought when you heard Las Vegas would be taking bets on the draft, this concept should still draw plenty of attention. There is nothing wrong with prop bets. And the 2017 NFL Draft will help showcase that.