The Toronto Blue Jays beat the St. Louis Cardinals 8-1 on Tuesday night, a welcome sign for the team’s fans, and those that wager through Ontario sports betting, that the bats might be starting to wake up after a month-long slumber.
The starting pitching, led by free agent signing/ace Kevin Gausman (4-3, 2.25 ERA) and sophomore Alek Manoah (5-1, 1.62 ERA), has been great, allowing Toronto to stay in the thick of the American League wild card race a quarter into the MLB season.
The Jays are currently third in the AL East, at 23-20, seven games out of first, and are third in the wild card race. The consensus is that they’ve underachieved overall, looking at that lineup of hitters, but we’re still early in the season.
Baseball Betting Action On Upswing
Sports bettors using Ontario sports betting apps have been tuning in at a greater rate, as well, according to sportsbooks. The NHL is into the second round of the playoffs, and the NBA is into Round 3, so games to bet on there are dwindling.
Last week, on the OLG PROLINE front, 34% of their sales were on MLB.
The Jays took a big chunk of that – 16% of total baseball wagers. PROLINE has been offering up expanded player props on all Jays games, which are proving to be popular, a spokesperson there said.
These include home runs, runs, hits for various batters on both teams, as well as strikeouts and hits allowed for the starting pitchers. The most popular player prop so far this year has been Batter Home Runs – 39% of all baseball props wagers.
When the season started, the overs on Toronto players were preferred. However, as they struggle to hit for power, the opposite is playing out now.
The second most popular player prop is Batter Hits – 21%.
Vlad Guerrero Jr. Homer Prop Popular
At PointsBet Canada, the most popular player prop in Ontario for the Blue Jays is consistently Vlad Guerrero Jr. to hit a home run. The most recent one he hit was a 438-foot bomb he hit against the Cardinals on Tuesday night.
In their “to get a hit” market, Bo Bichette and George Springer always have the most bets from game to game. Bichette in particular, after a slow start, has picked it up of late, with a .240 batting average, six HRs and 21 RBIs.
No surprise – the Yankees’ Aaron Judge to hit a HR is their most popular bet across the MLB, throughout all other jurisdictions. Judge is having a monster year with 17 HRs, 34 RBIs and a .314 batting average.
It doesn’t get any easier for the Jays. Today is an off day, then on Thursday they start a three-game series in Los Angeles against the Angels and face Shohei Ohtani (3-2) in the opener. FanDuel Sportsbook reports Ohtani is the favourite in the AL MVP race at +210 and is tied for fourth in AL Cy Young odds at +900.
Toronto is a +134 moneyline betting underdog for Thursday’s game.
According to BetRivers Sportsbook, Manoah to win the AL Cy Young Award (41.1% of money, 38.2% of tickets in Ontario) is the most popular Blue Jays player prop in Ontario, as well as the most popular MLB player prop in Ontario by both total money and tickets. Ohtani to win AL MVP (55% of money, 33.3% of tickets) is the second most popular MLB player prop in Ontario by both total money and tickets.
Springer to win AL MVP (7.6% of money, 10.8% of tickets in Ontario) is the second-most popular Blue Jays player prop in Ontario by both total money and tickets.
