Falcon Points

Handicapping the Game of Thrones odds list: Let's make money by betting on who will rule Westeros

Game of Thrones has become one of those water cooler shows that everyone talks about. The final season on HBO kicks off in April. And, like all great things, it has a gambling element to it.

Odds Shark put out its current odds on who will wind up sitting on the Iron Throne at the end of the series. There are some surprises to say the least.

First off, I am a nerd. I make no apologies. I love this series. So we will break down the field for the throne just as we would a horse race and come up with some bets:

We will start off by fading the favorite. It is hard to see a scenario where Bran gets the throne. Plus-150 offers zero value, and besides, who wants a three-eyed raven on the throne? We will pass.

There is good value in Jon Snow and Daenarys at +400 and +450, respectively. You have to figure one of them dies, but if you guess right, that's a nice payoff.

Sansa at +800 is a pass as well. A lot of characters ahead of her in line have to die. While it's possible, it's highly unlikely. In short, the race does not set up for her. She did make a nice middle move, but will fade late.

My personal favorite is The Night King at +1000, and not just because I am rooting for him. It would be a dark way for the series to end, and a shocking one at that. If there is anything we have learned from GOT, it's that the show loves to shock us. He has an ice dragon now and looks like a serious contender. Has the lead turning for home and will have to be caught.

While Tyrion would probably make a good king, he also seems to be a stretch. Too many deaths would have to occur and he will likely come up...short...in the stretch? We will pass.

Why is Littlefinger still on the board at all? The last we saw of him, he was dead. That has not stopped characters in the past, but are we really only getting +1200 on the Barbaro of Westeros? Hard pass.

Arya at +1500 would be fitting and there might be some value there, but again, a lot would have to happen. She has sneaky speed, but hard to see her holding on. Pass.

Gendry at +1500 seems like a waste of money. He, like some of the others, will need a lot of help in terms of deaths ahead of him. He is the equivalent of the "wise guy horse" who everybody touts but never wins.

The Snow Dragon baby at the same price is intriguing, however. He/she could easily be on the throne as an infant if both parents die. But then, he actually needs to exist first. Hard for an unborn colt to win a race.

I wouldn't throw out Cersei at +2000. She seems to be two steps ahead of everyone and would we really be shocked if she holds on to win? I know the prophecy says she will die, but count her out at your own risk.

There does not seem to be a scenario where Jaime or Sam wind up winning so I will be tossing both from my tickets.

So I think we can narrow this down to a five horse race - Jon, Dany, Night King, Snow Dragon baby and Cersei. I think my favorite plays would be the Night King and Dany, and you can bet both and catch a profit with either one.

I will play those two; if you toss the favorite, you can play any two of the five listed and come out with a profit. Hey, it gives you an extra rooting interest, right?

We will all find out in a few months who is left standing at the end.

And more importantly, whether or not we cash.

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They’ll be watching in Canada, not just because of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, though the NBA’s scoring champion and MVP favorite who plays for Oklahoma City surely helps lure in fans who are north of the border.

They’ll be watching from Serbia and Greece, the homelands of Denver star Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo. Alperen Sengun will have them watching Houston games in the middle of the night in Turkey, too. Slovenian fans will be watching Luka Doncic and the Lakers play their playoff opener at 2:30 a.m. Sunday, 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Los Angeles. Fans in Cameroon will be tuned in to see Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers. Defending champion Boston features, among others, Kristaps Porzingis of Latvia and Al Horford of the Dominican Republic.

Once again, the NBA playoffs are setting up to be a showcase for international stars.

In a season where the five statistical champions were from five different countries, an NBA first — Gilgeous-Alexander is Canadian, rebounding champion Domantas Sabonis of Sacramento is from Lithuania, blocked shots champion Victor Wembanyama of San Antonio is from France, steals champion Dyson Daniels of Atlanta is from Australia, and assists champion Trae Young of the Hawks is from the U.S. — the postseason will have plenty of international feel as well. Gilgeous-Alexander is in, while Sabonis and Daniels (along with Young, obviously) could join him if their teams get through the play-in tournament.

“We have a tremendous number of international players in this league,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this season. “It’s roughly 30% of our players representing, at least on opening day, 43 different countries, so there’s much more of a global sense around our teams.”

By the end of the season, it wound up being 44 different countries — at least in terms of countries where players who scored in the NBA this season were born. For the first time in NBA history, players from one country other than the U.S. combined to score more than 15,000 points; Canadian players scored 15,588 this season, led by Gilgeous-Alexander, the first scoring champion from that country.

Gilgeous-Alexander is favored to be MVP this season. It'll be either him or Jokic, which means it'll be a seventh consecutive year with an international MVP for the NBA. Antetokounmpo won twice, then Jokic won three of the next four, with Cameroon-born Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers winning two seasons ago.

“Shai is in the category of you do not stop him,” Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said after a game between the Raptors and Thunder this season.

In other words, he's like a lot of other international guys now. Nobody truly stops Jokic, Antetokounmpo and Doncic either.

And this season brought another international first: Doncic finished atop the NBA's most popular jersey list, meaning NBAStore.com sold more of his jerseys than they did anyone else's. Sure, that was bolstered by Doncic changing jerseys midseason when he was traded by Dallas to the Los Angeles Lakers, but it still is significant.

The Slovenian star is the first international player to finish atop the most popular jerseys list — and the first player other than Stephen Curry or LeBron James to hold that spot in more than a decade, since soon-to-be-enshrined Basketball Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony did it when he was with New York in 2012-13.

“We’re so small, we have 2 million people. But really, our sport is amazing,” fellow Slovene Ajsa Sivka said when she was drafted by the WNBA's Chicago Sky on Monday night and asked about Doncic and other top Slovenian athletes. “No matter what sport, we have at least someone that’s great in it. I’m just really proud to be Slovenian.”

All this comes at a time where the NBA is more serious than perhaps ever before about growing its international footprint. Last month, FIBA — the sport's international governing body — and the NBA announced a plan to partner on a new European basketball league that has been taking shape for many years. The initial target calls for a 16-team league and it potentially could involve many of the biggest franchise names in Europe, such as Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City.

It was a season where four players topped 2,000 points in the NBA and three of them were international with Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and Antetokounmpo. Globally, time spent watching NBA League Pass was up 6% over last season. More people watched NBA games in France this season than ever before, even with Wembanyama missing the final two months. NBA-related social media views in Canada this season set records, and league metrics show more fans than ever were watching in the Asia-Pacific region — already a basketball hotbed — as well.

FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said the numbers — which are clearly being fueled by the continued international growth — suggest the game is very strong right now.

“Looking around the world, and of course here in North America," Zagklis said, "the NBA is most popular and more commercially successful than ever.”

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