Make no mistake about it, Butler was a fan favorite coming into the 2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, and there were most certainly a few diehards who bet the Bulldogs to win it all as part of the future betting options available at a majority of online sportsbooks. BetUS.com had Butler with 75/1 odds of winning the championship.
The payout: A cool $7500 for every $100 bet.
“They are looking invincible,” noted Don Shapiro of Gambling911.com following the number 8-seeded Bulldogs 74-71 overtime win against number 2-seeded Florida.
Butler will face the winner of the Kansas-VCU game on Sunday.
Butler is 9-1 in their past 10 tournament games. Their last 9 have been decided by a combined 30 points, with no winning margin bigger than 7 points. Six games were decided by 3 or fewer. The Bulldogs are also the first team from outside the six power conferences to reach consecutive Final Fours since UNLV in 1990-91. Butler is also the first team to reach consecutive Final Fours and not be seeded first or second in either appearance.
“This was a team the oddsmakers felt early on didn’t stand much of a chance,” Shapiro said. “In early February they were 14-9 overall and 6-5 in the Horizon League, hardly a team that anyone would have expected to get this far. Their odds would have been over 100/1 if set back at that time.”
If you think those payout odds are good, Virginia Commonwealth University could make things even more interesting with a win over number one-seeded Kansas (US President Obama’s choice to win it all). VCU was lumped into the “field” category to win the NCAA Championship at most online sportsbooks due to their lack of name recognition, however, some books had them as high as 150/1
Tyrone Black, Gambling911.com
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