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David Purdum, ESPN staff essayist
The NBA betting group at Caesars Sportsbook looked to keep things easy: Bronny James over/under by 0.5 points in Tuesday’s opener between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
It may no longer just be the most popular NBA player accessory of the night, but also one of the most common in sportsbook history.
“We had two-way action all day,” David Lieberman, who oversees NBA odds for Caesars, told ESPN. “This reminded me a little of how popular Caitlin Clark’s accessories were this year in the WNBA.”
FanDuel said Bronny James prop bets appealed more to the betting hobby than prop bets on Anthony Edwards, Anthony Davis and LeBron James, Bronny’s father. The action on Bronny used to be small bets, but sportsbooks said there were bets in the four- and five-figure field on his props.
“We opened it up 0.5 to make it simple, he’ll basically score,” Lieberman mentioned. “Actually, the bets were split pretty evenly between the over and the under; there were probably more tickets for the over, but the money was close.”
Jake Bensimon, a sports bettor in Maryland, said he bet $2,500 on Bronny to get over 1.5 points with FanDuel at odds of -135. He shared a screenshot of his guess with ESPN and said it was the first NBA prop guess he had ever made.
“[It’s] strictly a bet on Lebron creating a cube for his son,” Bensimon wrote in an immediate message on X. “I thought it was something LeBron would prioritize and the line seemed fair.”
Bronny went 0-2 from the field, missing a visible three-pointer and an offensive rebound in three minutes of play.
Some major sportsbooks waited until a few hours before Tuesday’s game to place prop bets on Bronny and didn’t generate much action. ESPN BET decided not to send any Bronny props. Caesars Sportsbook, on the other hand, said it will continue to post prop bets on Bronny this season.
“It’s going to be an interesting story and year, and it’s a market that bettors clearly want,” Lieberman said.
The Lakers host the Phoenix Suns on Friday (10 p.m. ET, ESPN). ESPN BET offers +175 odds on Bronny and LeBron to hit a 3-pointer against the Suns, among other “Like Son, Like Son” props.
