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Shohei Ohtani has taken the baseball world by storm in his fourth MLB season.
Before today’s games, the Angels’ two-way superstar was tied for second in home runs (14), third in total bases (104), seventh in slugging percentage (.619), tied for eighth in RBIs (35) and tied for ninth in runs (32). Oh, and he’s 1-0 with a 2.37 ERA and 13.4 K/9 in his six starts on the mound.
We’ve gone in depth before about how popular Ohtani has been as an AL MVP bet, where he’s now the odds-on favorite at William Hill Nevada. But what about another MLB futures market where he’s currently the co-favorite?
First, let’s do a quick update on AL MVP.
Before Mike Trout suffered a calf injury that caused him to leave a game against the Indians on May 17, Trout was atop the board at +175 and Ohtani had the second-lowest odds at +600. After the injury that night, Ohtani was quickly adjusted to +450 and was as low as +350 the next day (May 18). His price shifted to his current number of -240 on May 19, while Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is now second at +400 and Trout is all the way at 150/1.
Since May 18, Ohtani has generated 49% of the total number of tickets and 80% of the total dollars wagered among all AL MVP bets at William Hill. Since this market was first up on Feb. 17, he still leads the way in both total number of tickets (26%) and total dollars wagered (53%).
Ohtani is also at +700 to be the MLB regular season home run leader, where he is the co-favorite with Ronald Acuna Jr. Before the start of today’s games, the Braves outfielder was tops in big flies with 15, while Ohtani and Rangers outfielder Adolis Garcia were one behind at 14 apiece. Garcia is tied for the sixth-lowest odds at 18/1 with Nick Castellanos, Pete Alonso, J.D. Martinez and Yordan Alvarez.
Ohtani wasn’t even one of the 86 players listed when this market was released on Feb. 17. He was added to the board at William Hill Nevada on Apr. 29 at 30/1. Two days later on May 1, he slightly dropped to 25/1.
He experienced another alteration on May 15, swinging from 25/1 to 15/1. That’s the number where one Nevada bettor wagered $1,000 on him for a total potential payout of $16,000, the largest Ohtani MLB home run leader bet taken thus far at William Hill.
Ohtani went from 15/1 to 10/1 on May 18, and then settled at his current price of +700 on May 19. Ohtani was the sole favorite to be the MLB home run leader at William Hill Nevada until Acuna Jr. moved to +700 from 12/1 today. Before Ohtani came down to +700 on May 19, the player with the lowest odds at any point so far this season was Aaron Judge at +800.
Since Ohtani’s MLB home run leader odds were first put up on Apr. 29, Ohtani is first in total dollars wagered at 17% and second in total number of tickets at 10%. Acuna Jr. (11%) is the only player with a higher percentage for total number of tickets over that span. Since Feb. 17, Acuna Jr. is first in total number of tickets at 7% and Alonso is first in total dollars wagered at 9%.
Additionally, Ohtani is tied for the ninth-lowest odds for AL Cy Young at 40/1, the same price as Jose Berrios, Hyun Jin Ryu, Danny Duffy and Corey Kluber. Yankees ace Gerrit Cole is presently the -150 favorite.
Check out Shohei Ohtani’s latest odds and trends at William Hill for AL MVP and MLB home run leader below.
