The betting public has already written their script. In Mike Krzyzewski's final season as the head coach at Duke, the Blue Devils will ride off into retirement with a national championship.
What a story that would be, right? Duke beat both Kentucky and Gonzaga early in the year to raise expectations that were already high, got embarrassed by North Carolina in the final home game of Coach K's career and lost the ACC Championship game to the seventh seed, Virginia Tech.
All for it not to matter because Duke wins the national championship anyway.
That's how the story goes for the public, at least.
Duke is the most-bet team to win the NCAA Tournament at PointsBet — by a large margin.
The Blue Devils are the leader in bets and handle at the sportsbook with more than 20% of dollars bet on the winner coming in on Duke.
That makes Duke the largest NCAA Tournament liability at PointsBet.
It's much of the same at BetMGM, where Duke is the leader in bets taken in the outright market and second in liability. That's partially because BetMGM's biggest bet to win the NCAA Tournament is $30,000 on Arizona. That makes the Wildcats the sportsbook's biggest liability, the only team ahead of Duke.
Caesars can't keep bettors away from Duke, either. Most of the individual tickets are on Duke, with only Gonzaga taking more money.
The Blue Devils are +1300 (bet $100, profit $1300) at PointsBet and +1400 at BetMGM. Caesars adjusted Duke from +1100 to +1400 once the bracket revealed the Blue Devils shared a region with Gonzaga.
Krzyzewski has five national titles in his career, with his last coming in 2015. That's also the last time his team made the Final Four, which he's done 12 times in his career.
Overall, Coach K is 97-30 in the NCAA Tournament.
Other than Duke and Arizona, Gonzaga and Kentucky are gathering the most attention in the market at BetMGM. Kentucky is the third-biggest liability, while Gonzaga (+300) is second in total bets.
