Bet The 2022 NBA Draft at BetMGM

Dave Schwab Sports Betting Expert

2 minute read

Thursday night marks the 76^th addition of the NBA’s annual college player draft. This year’s draft will be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and broadcast live on ESPN starting at 8 p.m. (ET). NBA fans looking to wager on this year’s opening round can turn to BetMGM as the King of Sportsbooks.

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The Orlando Magic will be the first team on the clock this Thursday night. Holding the No. 1 overall pick, the Magic also have the longest odds on BetMGM’s NBA futures board to win next season’s championship at +100000. Taking that first step in a new direction, Orlando is expected to draft former Auburn standout Jabari Smith Jr.

The betting odds favor Smith as the clear -165 favorite to be the first overall pick. However, Orlando has been holding its cards close to its chest. Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren met with the team during the past week. He is the second-favorite on the NBA Draft futures board at +115.

You could also add former Duke forward Paolo Banchero to the list at longer +1500 betting odds. Conventional wisdom suggests that the Magic go chalk and take Smith first overall. Playing the forward position for Auburn, he is considered to be the best overall player in this year’s draft.

In 1992, Orlando made history by making Shaquille O’Neal with the first overall pick of that year’s draft. The Magic also drafted Dwight Howard in 2004 with the No. 1 pick of the opening round.

The Oklahoma City Thunder hold the No. 2 pick in Thursday’s draft followed by the Houston Rockets. The Sacramento Kings and Detroit Pistons round out the top five. Moving past the top three players on the board, guards’ Jaden Ivey from Purdue and Shaedon Sharpe from Kentucky each have +10000 odds to be the first overall pick.

Moving further down the list of top NBA prospects, former Iowa forward Keegan Murray is one of six players at +25000 betting odds. Forward AJ Griffin (Duke), guard Johnny Davis (Wisconsin), center Jalen Duren (Memphis), guard Bennedict Mathurin (Arizona) and guard Ochai Agbaji (Kansas) are the other five prospects listed at those same betting odds.

Three players ranked high on the futures board skipped college to play in the NBA G League Ignite. This list includes Dyson Daniela, MarJon Beauchamp and Jaden Hardy. Forward Nikola Jovic previously played for Mega Mozzart in Serbia.

The new NBA World Champion Golden State Warriors hold the 28^th overall pick of the first round. The Thunder will close out the opening round with the 30^th pick via the Phoenix Suns.

Written by Dave Schwab, our US sports betting industry expert.

Dave Schwab

Dave Schwab has been covering the sports betting industry for the past 12 years as the main focus of his specialty marketing company for online content. This endeavor followed a previous career in the field of sales and marketing in the wholesaling sector.Most of his weekly pieces focus on the rapidly expanding legal US sports betting industry. However, he still does extensive work covering betting angles that can provide a competitive edge to avid players. Dave believes that it is always a challenge to take past results and current form to try and correctly determine a future result. Sports brings out the unpredictability in what should be a fairly predictable outcome based on the stats, facts and recent trends in a particular matchup. More from Dave Schwab