The Queensland Maroons are entering tonight’s first State of Origin meeting with the New South Wales Blues as favourites with all major betting agencies.
However, there’s not a huge gap in either team’s fortunes. The Maroons are running at about $1.70 to win with most agencies, while the Blues aren’t far away at $2.20.
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2015 State of Origin live scores – Game 1
For those who do feel like taking a punt on the Blues, Ladbrokes.com.au has one of the more lengthy markets, winding their odds out to $3.20 to win the first game, with a maximum bet of $20.
All major agencies have the line set at 2 points in the favour of the Maroons.
A smallish win to the Maroons is clearly the most favoured option with margin punters, with $2.70 odds available on a Maroons win between 1-12 and $2.90 on the Blues by the same margin on most sights.
Queensland’s Darius Boyd is the nominated frontrunner to score the first try of the game, running at $9 odd on most major betting sites.
From there on it gets a bit murkier, but New South Wales’ Daniel Tupou is ranked highly by most, ranging from $9 for the first try with Centrebet to $12 with Bet365.
Ladbrokes’ market will play out $3.75 if Boyd scores a try and the Maroons win, and $5 if Tupou scores a try and the Blues win. They have a few other combinations available as well.
Ladbrokes’ have Jonathan Thurston installed as the favourite to win man of the match, at $6, with Cameron Smith ($8) and Robbie Farah ($9) both also in single digits.
Dylan Napa and Jacob Lillyman are the furthest out for the honour, both available at odds of $101 for those who feel like taking a mighty unlikely punt.
It’s even possible to put cash on Lillyman to score the first try if you wish at $90 (on Bet365), considered a significantly more unlikely event than the possibility of there being no tries at all ($26).
As a curiosity, a lot of the bookies seem to think there’s a reasonable chance that the first team to score will lose – as an example, Bet365 offering fairly short odds for the team that scores first to lose at $2.15 ($1.65 to win).
Full disclosure: Bet365 and UniBet are both current advertisers with The Roar, while Ladbrokes were former advertisers.
Odds correct as of 2:30pm AEST 27/5/2015
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Guest
NSW only won last year cause of the refs