Each day, one of our experts will offer up a best bet (or two or three) that mobile sportsbooks are offering. It might be a traditional spread bet, a player prop or one of the various odds boosts that books offer.
Here are our best bets for Wednesday, May 31:
TOP PLAY
The play: PGA The Memorial Tournament, Xander Schauffele to finish top 20
The odds: -150
The book: FanDuel Sportsbook
Time/TV: Thursday through Sunday on Golf Channel and ESPN+ on Saturday and Sunday on CBS
Our take: Seeing a number such as -150 might not seem like a value play, especially when you are betting $30 to win $20, but this seems like a no-brainer for the weekend.
Schauffele has been as consistent as any player on the Tour as of late, and that includes all the big names – Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy – and, in fact, he has been better than all but Scheffler the past couple of months.
He has three top-four finishes in his past four tournaments and seven consecutive top 20s. There really is no short side to any part of his game at the moment, and he has been gaining more than 2 shots per round over the field off the tee. This extremely long course will test his approach as much as anything, and one could argue he has been better than anyone in that department since the end of January.
ANOTHER MEMORIAL PLAY
The play: The Memorial, Si Woo Kim to finish in the top 30
The odds: +110
The book: FanDuel Sportsbook
Our take: Like we said last week, we have been hot in this space with secondary top 20s, and in looking to stay hot, we’ll take a T30 that seems to have a little more value than playing the 20 at +190.
Kim has been a bit of a roller coaster, partially because he has played so much this season – entering his 12th tournament since the beginning of March, making nine cuts and finishing in the top 30 in six of them.
Why we like him here is simple: Similarly to Schauffele, he has been gaining strokes against the field in his approach on a regular basis – in of his last seven starts. He also has two top-7 finishes in his past five tournaments, which certainly is enough to plug him in this spot.
HOW WE’VE FARED
MLB money line: Astros over Twins (WIN)
MLB money line: Tigers over Rangers (LOSE)
Tuesday’s record: 1-1
Total for the week: 1-3
Total for May: 32-27
Total for 2023: 120-132
NOTE: If a line or odds are minus, it considers the juice one must lay to place the bet. Ex: Team A is -160 on the money line, one would have to bet $160 to win $100 (or $16 to win $10). OR Team B is a 5-point favorite at -110, one would have to bet $110 to win $100 (or $11 to win $10.)
Conversely, on positive lines, if Team C is +140 on the money line, $100 would bring in $140 (or $10 to win $14).
