{"id":777849,"date":"2026-07-04T09:46:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T09:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/777849\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T09:46:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T09:46:01","slug":"sportsbooks-lose-millions-on-knicks-nba-finals-run-not-good-after-241-week-win-streak-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/777849\/","title":{"rendered":"Sportsbooks lose millions on Knicks’ NBA Finals run: ‘Not good’ after 241-week win streak ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\tGambling content 21+. The New York Post may receive an affiliate commission if you sign up through our links. Read our editorial standards<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n

Roasted, toasted, burnt to a crisp \u2014 the Knicks weren\u2019t the only winners during the NBA playoffs: their believers cashed in huge.<\/p>\n

Multiple sportsbooks reported massive losses on the NBA Finals, including a $48.5 million loss across New York state just during Games 3 to 5 alone.<\/p>\n

When the Knicks were priced<\/a> as +230 underdogs to the Spurs and +240 underdogs to the Thunder, The Post told DraftKings head trader Johnny Avello that the odds were a bit disrespectful and they needed to reevaluate who was favored in this series.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not\u00a0disrespecting\u00a0the\u00a0Knicks,\u201d Avello told The Post on May 28 when the Spurs officially became the opponent. <\/p>\n

DraftKings<\/a> now has changed their tune after a \u201cnot good\u201d result for them in the finals, but they still wouldn\u2019t change the odds if the finals was starting around now.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnicks had a pretty incredible run, the Spurs had their chances, they were leading by double digits in almost every game. The Spurs weren\u2019t the best team out of the rest, but their power rating was certainly higher than the Knicks\u2019,\u201d Avello said to The Post. \u201cIf the series were to start now, I don\u2019t think the numbers would change much. I think the Spurs would still be favored.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just in New York state, $587.6 million was bet on the week ending on June 14, one of the highest in state history.<\/p>\n

DraftKings posted a $14-plus million loss on $195.6 million handle, and Avello told The Post that it wasn\u2019t just taking a hit in the Empire State.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall it was not good. The bettors were on the right side. But no regrets. We want to play to the ratings and the model. When you look back the Spurs were winning every game. one by 29 and lost it,
Avello added. \u201cDouble digits and lost it. They pretty much choked at times when they shouldn\u2019t have. It\u2019s most inexperience. Guys came in from other teams with experience. I think that was the difference. I think we posted the right number.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DraftKingsDraftKings lost big on the NBA Finals. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Avello did add that the number that they posted was not ideal in the state of New York and even floated the idea of changing the numbers based on state locations as a result. <\/p>\n

Sports betting<\/a> operators in New York had previously posted<\/a> 231 consecutive weeks of profit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the New York area, this was not the right number for betting. We took a hit on a lot of the games and the futures book. The futures were certainly a loss. We paid out the bettors for the Knicks. On the games themselves, they were a loser too. We won maybe one of the five games,\u201d Avello admitted.<\/p>\n

The Knicks opened as second favorites to win the Eastern Conference, with the Celtics previously on top before they traded Jaylen Brown and the odds have corrected, with the reigning champions coming in at +320 to win the conference and +850 to repeat as Champions.<\/p>\n

Betting on the NBA? <\/p>\n

Those are rather lofty odds all things considered, as the Knicks sit well behind the Thunder and Spurs, who are +270 favorites. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Knicks are taking some money, but after the season ends, we mostly get hit on trades and signings, etc,\u201d Avello said.\u201d Not to mention the draft. All those factors move some things around. For the next month or so, this will take a backseat with the NFL coming up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Trust New York Post Betting<\/p>\n

Erich Richter is a brazilian jiu-jitsu blue belt but he has a black belt in MMA betting. During the football season he\u2019s showcased massive profits at The Post in the player prop market the last two seasons. While constantly betting long shots, his return on investment is 30.15 percent since 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gambling content 21+. The New York Post may receive an affiliate commission if you sign up through our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,212,6,214,1220,11,191,66,215],"class_list":["post-777849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-playoffs","tag-basketball","tag-betting","tag-nba","tag-nba-betting","tag-nba-finals","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-sports","tag-sports-betting"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116861074616632072","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}