If you like placing money on the first touchdown in NFL odds, betting on the result of the first drive pre-game might be another market that interests you.

It’s a four-way market with a punt, field goal attempt, touchdown, and turnover that exhibits greater predictability and reveals certain pricing flaws both before the game and in live markets. 

For Sunday’s NFC Championship, I’m going to go through my process and lay out the best cases for each offense’s first-drive result. While it’s not a massive sample size, the pricing is almost completely based on the offensive results, leaving some angles that aren’t priced in. 

For more NFL picks, make sure to check out our Lions vs. 49ers betting preview, NFC …

Those football fans who watched Netflix’s series “Receiver” this summer are far from shocked that Las Vegas Raiders star wideout Davante Adams has asked the team to trade him just four weeks into the 2024 campaign.

Adams, who is currently sidelined with a hamstring injury, informed the Raiders that he would prefer to be traded ahead of the league’s November 5 deadline — echoing his discontent featured prominently in the popular docuseries that followed the frustrating 2023 season for Adams.

With these reports has come a ton of speculation around which NFL teams would make a run at the three-time All-Pro WR, and there have been multiple franchises sniffing around Adams in the pa…

Jared Goff’s time with the Detroit Lions began the same way that it ended with the Los Angeles Rams, disappointing. By Week 7 of his first season with the Lions, Dan Campbell looked at the media, took a deep breath, and criticized Goff during a postgame press conference. At that point in the season, the Lions were winless. Five games into the 2023 season and the Lions are 4-1 with the fourth-best Offensive DVOA in NFL. Also, Goff is Pro Football Focus’ highest-rated quarterback. That’s right, eat your heart out Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and even Tua Tagovailoa, Goff is currently playing quarterback at arguably the highest level in the NFL. It’s feeling like 2018 for Goff in Detroit. The weather might be chillier in the Motor City this time of year than it is in Southern Ca…

The Premier League and other domestic leagues across Europe will gather on Friday to discuss proposals for a new‑look Champions League from 2024.

An extraordinary general meeting of all leagues affiliated to the European Leagues group will be convened to discuss a Uefa proposal to reform the continent’s most prestigious competition and head off the threat of a European Super League.

Football supporters’ groups condemn European super league plansRead more

Uefa is understood to have proposed the scrapping of the format of eight groups of four and replacing it with one league where each team plays 10 matches in a so-called “Swiss system”.

That increase from six matches to 10 in the autu…

The £25m deal between Aston Villa and Watford for Ismaïla Sarr is in danger of collapsing after the Premier League club failed to agree personal terms with the Senegal forward.

The 24-year-old looked set to move after the two clubs settled on the fee but it now looks like he will stay at Vicarage Road.

Football transfer window summer 2022 – Europe’s top five men’s leaguesRead more

Villa have allowed Bertrand Traoré to join İstanbul Başakşehir on a season-long loan. The 26-year-old winger joined Villa from Lyon for a fee around £17m in 2020. The Burkina Faso international has made 55 Premier League appearances and scored nine goals for Villa in two seasons.

West Ham have complete…

Roméo Lavia, who has played 32 minutes of competitive football since joining Chelsea for £53m in August, has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a thigh injury.

The update on the Belgium midfielder is the latest in a long line of worrying developments for ­Mauricio Pochettino, who has had to cope without a number of key players at various points of a ­testing campaign. Reece James, Chelsea’s captain, has not played since December and ­Christopher Nkunku, Lesley ­Ugochukwu, Levi Colwill and ­Wesley Fofana are also in the treatment room.

Injuries have made it hard for Pochettino to rotate and his options in midfield will be limited by Lavia’s absence. The 20-year-old, who has endured a frustratin…

As the NFL season approaches, the value of futures prop bets begins to decrease as players accumulate stats and the field of potential winners in a given category drops off during the regular season. With higher risk comes higher reward, and it’s always the most bang for your buck to wager on stats-driven props before the season. The value will never be higher, pending injury during the preseason.Here are the three best bets for players that could lead the NFL in receiving yards in 2024 and their odds, courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook. CeeDee Lamb, WR, Dallas Cowboys (+650)In 2023, Lamb finished just 50 yards shy of leading the league in receiving, trailing only Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill. This came after he saw 181 targets, caught 135 passes, and had 1,749 yards. This…

Happy holidays, you filthy animals, and welcome to Deadspin’s annual IDIOT OF THE YEAR extravaganza. Within these hallowed slides are 50 of the year’s least bearable dorks, whose transgressions range from “just kinda silly,” to “dangerously stupid,” to “Trevor Bauer.” The IDIOT OF THE YEAR selections ahead were voted on by an expert team of Deadspin staffers, whose first round of balloting was thrown out after they’d unanimously picked themselves No. 1. With that conflict of interest loophole sewn up, the team tried again. This list is the product of that scrupulous process. The qualities considered include, but are not limited to: Volume/Wrongness Coefficient: Look, nobody cares if you’re wildly off the mark about everything in private. But please don’t shout abo…