I was passing some time tonight by browsing around the odds at Pinnacle looking for anything interesting (it was a slow night, obviously). As I did that a few lines of interest popped out that are worth a comment:

Men’s Olympic soccer – Anything can happen in a short tournament, but it would be a major upset of the winner of this tournament wasn’t either Argentina or Brazil. They are just that much better than anyone else. Interestingly, they are priced in such a way that you could bet both if you wanted and still make money if you were right. Argentina is +188 and Brazil is at +238 to win them all. That’s not bad for heavy favorites at this point.

Men’s Olympic basketball – There is a prop asking whether the U.S. will win gold. Yes is -297 and no is +277. I absolutely think that the Americans should be favored, and they will have to have a good excuse not to win, but I still think that there is probably value in betting against them here. With the quality that is in this tournament and their performance in recent international play this is just too small a price.

Indianapolis Colts season win total – 11 – This one is interesting to me. I cant stand the Colts, but they are a public team. It’s surprising, then, that they are favored to go under their total. They are at +133 to go over 11, and -149 to go under. I’m pleasantly surprised to see that the public isn’t buying into them this year. It would be nice to not have to see them as a major contender for a while.

Carolina Panthers season win total – 7.5 – This is another surprising one. They are at +147 to go under this total. They are just one quarterbackk injury away from another unimpressive season, and recent history would suggest that that isn’t nearly the longshot that this price would suggest it is.

Men’s Olympic badminton – Chunlai Bao (-119) vs. Jin Chen (+109) – Just kidding – I may be a bit of a degenerate, but nearly enough of one to dig this deep into the barrel to find some action. All I know about badminton is that shuttlecock used to be a really funny word when I was in grade school.