Pacquiao-Mayweather fight not yet made, but betting line is

[Kirkland Laing]

Is that so? The USA Today article clearly mentioned Pacquiao as an 8-5 favorite over Mayweather.

"Pacquiao, coming off his dominating win over Miguel Cotto, opened as an 8-5 favorite at sports books operated by Station Casinos"

Source link: Fight not made, but betting line is - USATODAY.com

That's a horrible opening line. That probably explains this
Station Casinos Loss Balloons On Bankruptcy Effects; Rev Down - WSJ.com

But let's just make it clear that they really installed Pacquiao as the early favorite to defeat Mayweather.

The reason he's favourite is because he's big in Asia and well over half of the biggest individual gamblers in the world are Asian, particularly Chinese. These are guys who are guaranteed to drop at least a million dollars a time when they visit Vegas, guys who get free room, free butler service, free everything when they visit Vegas. Free private flights to and from in some cases. People who bet serious money year after year, and they love Manny, so Vegas welcomes these guys with open arms. The bookies are protecting themselves with those odds as they're going to be deluged with Asian money on Manny to win when the fight is made. The Asian betting money will make a nonsense of the odds altogether. If betting hadn't become globalised due to the internet I'd bet money that Mayweather would be favourite with British bookies, but seeing as they're all global players based in Gibraltar now they probably attract plenty Asian money too. All the way up to the fight the Asian money will distort the odds.

[fanjohn]

That's a horrible opening line. That probably explains this
Station Casinos Loss Balloons On Bankruptcy Effects; Rev Down - WSJ.com

But let's just make it clear that they really installed Pacquiao as the early favorite to defeat Mayweather.

The reason he's favourite is because he's big in Asia and well over half of the biggest individual gamblers in the world are Asian, particularly Chinese. These are guys who are guaranteed to drop at least a million dollars a time when they visit Vegas, guys who get free room, free butler service, free everything when they visit Vegas. Free private flights to and from in some cases. People who bet serious money year after year, and they love Manny, so Vegas welcomes these guys with open arms. The bookies are protecting themselves with those odds as they're going to be deluged with Asian money on Manny to win when the fight is made. The Asian betting money will make a nonsense of the odds altogether. If betting hadn't become globalised due to the internet I'd bet money that Mayweather would be favourite with British bookies, but seeing as they're all global players based in Gibraltar now they probably attract plenty Asian money too. All the way up to the fight the Asian money will distort the odds.

That could be possible tho Asian money didn't made a dent in the Pacquiao-DelaHoya fight since Pacquiao remained a 2-to-1 underdog on fight night.

British odds for Pacquiao-Mayweather is already posted in this thread and Mayweather is the early favorite in British betting odds. Isn't it odd that Mayweather, an American is favored in Britain/Europe while Pacquiao, a Filipino is favored in America?