James Murphy opened the betting lines with Ally Brooke as the favorite at +300, or 3 to 1 odds. “She’s now the second member of her former group to participate on DWTS – Normani Kordei was a finalist in Season 24,” says Murphy, a veteran oddsmaker, sportsbook consultant and international gambling expert of 25-plus years specializing in sports and non-sports novelty betting including entertainment, politics and trending news. “Simply put, she fits the profile of quite a few previous winners. She’s finishing her debut solo album and there would be a lot of upside for her personally to win or finish high.”
Don’t be surprised if former NFL star Ray Lewis (+450, or 9 to 2) wins this season. “Throughout the run of DWTS, NFL players have dominated,” says Murphy. “Jerry Rice was the runner up in Season 2, Emmitt Smith won Season 3 and overall NFL players have four wins, 7 top two finishes and 10 top three finishes. There’s any number of reasons that NFL players have done so well–they’ve got athleticism, they’re ‘coachable’ and they’re used to intense periods of preparation (eg: training camp). Lewis was, of course, as good as any NFL linebacker to ever play the game and at age 44 looks like he could still play on Sundays. If Lewis is ‘all in’, he could very well win this thing.”
Mary Wilson (The Supremes) and former Trump Press Secretary Sean Spicer are both listed at +5000 as 50 to 1 longshots.
The over/under for total viewership of episode one has been set at 8.15 million.
Murphy’s latest articles for Dancing with the Stars Season 28 are pasted below and available here (courtesy SportsInsider.com):
- Dancing with the Stars betting odds: https://www.sportsinsider.com/dancing-with-the-stars-season-28-betting-odds/
- Handicapping the field: https://www.sportsinsider.com/dancing-with-the-stars-season-28-handicapping-the-field/
