It’s a match-up straight from a Hollywood movie, starring two teams with the longest title droughts in the history of the Major League Baseball: the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians.
The Cubs, whose last World Series appearance came in 1945, are seeking to end their 108-year dry spell, while the Indians, who last appeared in the Fall Classic in 1997, haven’t flourished on the championship stage in 68 years. But that’s about to change as each team is only four victories away from making history.
This intriguing championship clash has, of course, set off a betting frenzy in Las Vegas.
A number of sportsbooks on the Strip are forecasting the World Series betting will exceed the unofficial record in 2004, when the Boston Red Sox emerged from their 86-year championship misery. Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook vice president for race and sports operations Jay Kornegay told Reuters that the two teams—who opened the best-of-seven World Series in Cleveland on Tuesday—have also captured the attention of non-baseball fans.
“This is probably going to be the most popular betting World Series that we’ve seen in recent memory,” Kornegay said, according to the news outlet.
Oddsmakers believe lady luck will smile on the Chicago Cubs, who have won 103 games in the regular season—nine more than the Cleveland Indians—and are looking more imposing lately.
Jay Rood, vice president of race and sports at MGM Resorts, told Reuters in a separate interview that Cubs’ heart-wrenching history plays a big role in the interest that they are getting today, although the Indians have only been to the Series just three times—in 1954, 1995 and 1997—since their last title.
“People that aren’t traditional baseball people are going to be tuning in just because some of the storylines that are going to come up. It’s going to have little more personality than a normal World Series will,” Rood said, according to the report.
