Major sports are starting to ramp back up as the United States continues to work its way back from the COVID-19 pandemic. That also means the NJ sports betting menu is growing as well. Here are the best sports bets of the week!
Best Sports Bets of the Week November 5, 2024
The UFC and NASCAR have been going strong and now the PGA Tour and another major European soccer league return to action this week.
Let’s take a look at what’s on tap for sports bettors this week, including a pair of NASCAR races, a PGA Tour event, soccer in Spain and Germany, and another big UFC event.
NASCAR Has Two Races This Week
We didn’t have a mid-week race last week but we do this week. The drivers will now shift gears to Martinsville Speedway for the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 before going to Homestead-Miami Speedway for the Dixie Vodka 400 on Sunday.
Kevin Harvick is on fire these days as he’s coming off a win in Atlanta on Sunday. He has now finished in the Top 11 in every race this season and has two wins and five Top 5’s in his last seven starts.
Taking a look at Martinsville Speedway, this is a track where Martin Truex Jr. has done very well of late. He won the fall race here last year and placed eighth in the spring start.
He has placed in the Top 8 in eight of his last 10 starts here. Brad Keselowksi also does good work on this track as he’s finished in the Top 10 in eight straight starts at Martinsville, which includes seven Top 5’s.
As for Homestead, it’s another strong track for Truex Jr. He’s finished in the Top 2 in three straight times, which includes a win in 2017. Kyle Busch is another driver you might consider here as he won the last start here and has finished first, fourth, second, sixth and first in his last five outings in Miami.
PGA Tour Returns On Thursday
We’ve had a couple of exhibition golf events along the way but the PGA Tour is officially back this week. The golfers will return to play in the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Golf Course, which starts on Thursday.
Of course, that means that we’ll not only have betting lines up on the events at all of the sportsbooks in the Garden State but we’ll also see DFS action at DraftKings and FanDuel as well.
- Rory McIlroy will be one of the biggest names in the field and he’s favored to win it outright at +850.
- Jon Rahm (+1150) and Justin Thomas (+1650) are the only other golfers on the board inside of 20/1.
In terms of the course itself, this is one of the shorter venues. On a long course, you might want to bet on the players who hammer it off the tee like Brooks Koepka (+2500) or Dustin Johnson (+3000).
At a course like this, you might want to look at players like Webb Simpson (+2200), who don’t have a huge driver but do everything else well. Over his last 50 rounds, Simpson is inside the Top 10 for both approach and putting, which will be key this week.
If you’re looking for a longer shot, take a look at someone like Xander Schauffele (+3000).
He does really well on short Par 4’s and his short game continues to improve.
Remember that DraftKings Sportsbook has all sorts of betting lines up on the board for this event.
- You can bet on the outright winner, players to finish in the Top 5, Top 10, Top 20, Top 30, Top 40 to make/miss the cut, leader after the first round, nationality props, hole in one props and also head-to-head matchups.
- If that’s not even, almost all of the sportsbooks will have live betting, so you can watch some of the action before making your decision.
UFC Fight Night: Eye vs Calvillo
After an incredible UFC 250 card where we saw some video game-like knockouts, we’ve got another exciting card coming up on Saturday at UFC on ESPN+ 30. Once again, the MMA outfit will be at the UFC APEX facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The headline bout of the night will be a showdown between women’s flyweight’s Jessica Eye and Cynthia Calvillo.
Eye is ranked No. 1 in the division and No. 12 in the women’s pound-for-pound rankings. She’s won four of her last five bouts with the lone loss coming to Valentina Shevchenko, who is the current Women’s Flyweight champion.
However, Calvillo will try to knock her down a peg. Calvillo is coming off a draw with Marina Rodriguez but had won two straight before that.
- This fight is expected to be very even as BetMGM has both sides at -110.
Some of the other intriguing bouts on the card include Marvin Vettori and Karl Roberson, as well as Merab Dvalishvili and Ray Borg.
- Both Vettori and Roberson enter on two-fight winning streaks but it’s Vettori who is a -208 favorite.
- Meanwhile, Davlishvili is a -345 favorite in his bout with Borg as he comes in having won three in a row – including a win over Casey Kenney in February.
- Borg needs a win in the worst way as he’s dropped three of his last five fights and is just 4-3 since starting his MMA career 9-1.
La Liga Restarts On Thursday
Spain’s top soccer league is back in action this week as their long-awaited hiatus is over. It’s going to be a very busy week for them as they are actually going to have matches for eight straight days.
The action gets underway on Thursday and we’ll see games every single day through next Thursday before the teams take Friday, June 19th, and Saturday, June 20th off before continuing.
The first game we’ll is Sevilla taking on Real Betis on Thursday. While most of the sportsbooks in the Garden State don’t have lines up yet, those are expected to pop up a bit later in the week. DraftKings Sportsbook already has lines up on La Liga 2.
As a quick reminder, all of the teams have already played 27 games this season. Barcelona is currently at the top of the standings table with 58 points while Real Madrid is at 56. These are the two favorites to win the league outright while Sevilla is a slightly distant third at 47 points.
Bundesliga
The Bundesliga moves into Matchday 31 this week as all of the teams have now played 30 contests. Bayern is starting to pull away from the field as they now have 70 points, holding a seven-point lead over second-place Borussia Dortmund.
RB Leipzig, who is in third place with 59 points, is coming off an embarrassing draw with Paderborn, who is dead-last in the standings table. The draw likely ends any chances of RB Leipzig winning the league this season.
This week’s matches get underway on Friday when we’ll see Hoffenheim take on the aforementioned RB Leipzig. After that, we’ll see a wave of six games on Saturday followed by two more on Sunday. One of the more intriguing matchups of the week will bet the Wolfsburg-SC Freiburg showdown on Saturday morning. Wolfsburg, who is sixth in the standings table, is a -135 favorite at FanDuel Sportsbooks while Freiburg, who is eighth, is at +350. The draw is at +280.