Last week didn't go well.
Just as we'd started to make in-roads, disaster fell upon us, and a week with few underdog winners (3) and some narrow losses for us, consigned us to a losing week. As always, I'm updating the chart below to highlight how unusual 2024 is, and at some stage, I do think it's possible we begin to factor this into our working out.
Year | Upsets | Weeks with 3 or fewer underdog wins |
2013 | 59 | 4 |
2014 | 69 | 2 |
2015 | 75 | 2 |
2016 | 73 | 4 |
2017 | 66 | 5 |
2018 | 70 | 4 |
2019 | 71 | 4 |
2020 | 79 | 1 |
2021 | 78 | 1 |
2022 | 73 | 2 |
2023 | 68 | 4 |
2024 | 62 | 6 |
That said, week 15 provides an unusually fertile schedule for underdog winners, with many good teams playing other good teams, which is always a recipe for interesting games and underdog victories...
Parlays
If you're in our Discord, you'll know that people post parlays and slips. Over the last 3 weeks I've cashed big parlays in the last two. Last week it was a 'both teams to reach x points' winner that won for us, and I missed on a 'team points' 12-fold parlay on just the Titans.
In the last two weeks I have made more from these parlays than on any other single activity this year. I've cashed 3 parlays that are full of low-value, low-risk propositions such as (for example) the Chargers and Chiefs to both reach 10 points, or the Panthers to reach 9.5 points. I recommend searching your sportsbook provider for these - I use Bet365, but these markets are sometimes hard to find elsewhere.
Top picks
We went 1-5 on top picks. The Seahawks were our top pick of the week, and they won, but the Browns we elevated last minute, and they let us down. That was an unforced error and a reminder to be careful how excited you get over one injury, when the key to the game is on the other side of the ball.
All underdog picks
We only had one extra underdog pick last week, the Panthers to cover a ridiculous 13.5pt spread against the Eagles, which they duly did, making us 2-5 on the week.