Opening betting lines set for Duke vs UNC game in Final Four of NCAA tournament
Duke, North Carolina, Kansas and Villanova will descend on New Orleans next weekend for the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four, and sportsbooks online and in Las Vegas are already prepared to take bets.
Major online sportsbooks, including BetMGM, Draft Kings and Caesars, set the opening lines for Saturday’s upcoming games and each likes Duke to beat UNC (8:49 p.m., TBS), favoring the Blue Devils by 4.5 points. The basketball odds, as of Sunday night, were set at -110, meaning you have to bet $110 in order to win $100 in profit.
Kansas is also a 4.5-point favorite over Villanova, according to the Gambling.com consensus, but BetMGM has the spread at only 3.5 points.
Over at the Action Network, Duke is given the best odds to advance to the championship of any of the four teams at 64.2 percent; however, the Blue Devils have the second-best odds of winning the title at 31.3 percent. Kansas, the lone remaining No. 1 seed, is the favorite to win the championship with its chances set at 32.5 percent, but oddsmakers feel Villanova will present a more difficult challenge for the Jayhawks than the Tar Heels will Duke.
UNC’s chances of winning the NCAA championship are the lowest of the four teams at 12.4 percent, with a 35.8-percent chance of beating Duke. Fan Duel gives the Tar Heels a slightly better chance of winning it all (15.3 percent).
This story was originally published March 27, 2022 at 10:51 PM with the headline "Opening betting lines set for Duke vs UNC game in Final Four of NCAA tournament."
