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When placing a bet on who will win the World Series this year, there’s one fact you need to consider. Not since the year 2000 has a team won back-to-back titles. Can the Atlanta Braves achieve that this year or is there really a curse on defending champions?
Last year saw the Braves defy the odds to win their first World Series since 1995. They aren’t that high in the betting market to win the 2022 World Series, but could they cause more surprises in 2022?
They may have won the World Series last year, but sportsbooks aren’t keen on a repeat victory. In fact, their odds are higher in 2022 than they were last year. Those odds might rocket even higher if Freddie Freeman leaves via free agency. Unless more money appears on the table, that may well be the case. Once the current problems that baseball must deal with are sorted out, there may well be movement on this front.
Winning the World Series is a fantastic achievement, doing so two years in a row is even harder. The New York Yankees dominated the World Series as the 20th century ended and the 21st began. They didn’t just win the World Series once, not even twice, the Yankees won three in a row between 1998 and 2000.
Those betting on a Yankees victory were the ones with a big smile on their face. Continuing to place wagers on them to win the World Series hasn’t gone too well since then though. They lost in 2001 and 2003 and there’s been just one success and that was in 2009.
Betting on the World Series is going to be an exciting prospect this year. It’s even better if you just happen to have some free bets to use at an online sportsbook.
Every World Series from 2001 to 2021 has seen bookmakers paying out on a different winner. It’s not just a case of being able to win two World Series in a row that has proved an impossible task. Winning and then getting to the World Series the following year isn’t an easy task either.
Since the Yankees did so in 2001, placing a bet on the defending champions to get to the final match hasn’t gone well. It’s a feat that has only been achieved by the Philadelphia Phillies. They won the World Series in 2008, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1. They made it to the 2009 World Series too, but the New York Yankees prevented back-to-back wins.
Since then, no defending champion has made it to the World Series the following year. That curse is helping the bookmakers isn’t it? Not that making it to two successive World Series can’t be done of course.
Both the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Dodgers have done just that. On neither occasion did they give their fans or those who’d placed bets on them any joy. The Rangers lost in both 2010 and 2011 with the Dodgers duplicating that feat in 2017 and 2018.
The Dodgers did manage to get a win in 2020 but that curse struck again, and they failed to make it to the 2021 World Series. Sportsbooks have them as the favourites to win the 2022 World Series. The curse isn’t in play this year, so who knows they might just be worth betting on. If they play as they did in the second half of the 2021 season, then another World Series triumph can’t be ruled out.
The Houston Astros are strong contenders too. They’ve lost in two of the last three World Series but did win back in 2017. Of course, the curse meant winning in 2018 was never going to happen. They remain a team that will win far more games than they lose. Doing that in the regular season is all good and well. It’s when the play-offs begin that the real work must be done, then the bets on who will win the World Series can be made.
Despite all the years without winning a World Series, the New York Yankees can never be ruled out when deciding who to bet on. The Yankees are again high in the betting market, but Gerrit Cole may need to up his game if they are to win yet another World Series.
One thing that you can bet on with confidence is the 2022 MLB season being another exciting one. The betting market is an open one with no clear-cut favorite. It’s going to be another season of more ups and downs than a trip to the local amusement park.
Will the curse make its presence again or will the Braves defy the odds again and win a second straight World Series? Only time will tell, but we’re sure going to enjoy finding out.
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