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Emmy Award Bettors Win With HBO Favorites

Bill Speros for Bookies.com

Bill Speros  | 4 mins

Emmy Award Bettors Win With HBO Favorites

$1,000 First Bet on Caesars
Promo Code: BOOKIES1000

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Must be 21+ to participate. T&Cs apply.

New Jersey bettors who wagered on the 71st annual Primetime Emmy Awards found themselves with a mixture of favorites and long-shots as winners when the show was over late Sunday night.

The Emmy Awards were the second opportunity for bettors in New Jersey to wager on an event whose outcomes were predetermined. Betting closed on DraftKings at 8 p.m. Sunday, once the show began airing on Fox.


RELATED: DraftKings Sportsbook Offering Emmys Betting in New Jersey


Fans were able to wager on several of the categories awarded at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

Chalk flew throughout most of the evening. And it came in a box from HBO.

“Game of Thrones” (+125) departed Winterfell with 12 Emmys Sunday, including its third for Outstanding Drama Series. That tied the mark set by some other legendary shows, including "L.A. Law" and "Mad Men." “GOT” extinguished its dragons in May and had 32 of HBO’s network-leading 137 Emmy nominations. It won 12 awards on the evening.

HBO favorites also won 2019 Emmy Awards for top Outstanding Variety/Talk Series with “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” (-2000), Outstanding Limited Series with "Chernobyl" (-200) and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series with Bill Hader (-670) in "Barry."

Emmy Award Bettors Win With HBO Favorites 1
Phoebe Waller-Bridge turned her one-woman show into the Emmy Award-winning series Fleabag.

The biggest upset for bettors was "Fleabag," a British comedy that airs on Amazon, and the show's creator, Phoebe Waller-Bridge. "Fleabag" (+650) concluded its run this past season and snagged both Outstanding Comedy and Outstanding lead Actress in a Comedy Series honors.

Among the titans chewed up by "Fleabag" was the final season of HBO's "Veep" (-134) and the widely-acclaimed “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” (+200) which shares bandwidth on Amazon with "Fleabag."

"Fleabag's" Waller-Bridge (+500) denied "Veep's" President Selina Meyer/Julia Louis-Dreyfus (-400) a piece of history. Louis-Dreyfus, a "Seinfeld" alum who had won Outstanding Actress honors in each of "Veep's" previous six seasons for HBO, was aiming for her record ninth acting Emmy.

DraftKings New Jersey Sportsbook Director Johnny Avello posted Oscar odds in Las Vegas for decades, even though no one could legally act upon them in the United States. Then he and DraftKings made history when the New Jersey-based sports book took action on the Academy Awards this past February.

Avello was among those not surprised by "Fleabag's" big night Sunday.

"I wasn't surprised. I thought "Fleabag" had a chance to win, but you have to price out everything accordingly," Avello told Bookies.com Monday. "'Veep' was in its last season, and there were sentimental reasons why it should win, but'Fleabag's' just flat-out good.'Fleabag' grabbed a lot of attention this year. I know a lot of people who watch it. And a lot of people who love it. My wife being one of them. I had my finger on the pulse of'Fleabag.'"

Avello said he uses much of the same strategy in handicapping potential Emmy winners as he does with the Oscars.

"You have a good gauge on the favorites, and who the underdogs are," he said. "You have to acknowledge and know what others are thinking. It's always been a little about networking with others who watch this stuff. But you never know who is going to win."

Single-bet winnings were limited to $1,000 per state regulations.

Here are the categories that were available for betting via DraftKings, listed with the favorite in each category and the winner:

Emmy Award Category, Favorite & Winner

Emmy Category FavoriteWinner
Outstanding Lead Actor
in a Comedy Series
Bill Hader - “Barry”
-670
Bill Hader - “Barry”
Outstanding Comedy Series “Veep”
+125
"Fleabag"
+650
Outstanding Drama Series “Game of Thrones”
+125
“Game of Thrones”
Outstanding Variety
Talk Series
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”
-2000
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”
Outstanding Competition Program “RuPaul’s Drag Race”
-250
“RuPaul’s Drag Race”
Outstanding Supporting Actor
in a Limited Series/Movie
Ben Whishaw – “A Very English Scandal”
-250
"Ben Whishaw – “A Very English Scandal”
Outstanding Lead Actress
in a Comedy Series
Julia Louis-Dreyfus – “Veep”
-400
Phoebe Waller-Bridge – "Fleabag"
+500
Outstanding Lead Actor
in a Drama Series
Billy Porter – “Pose”
+100
Billy Porter – “Pose”
Outstanding Lead Actress
in a Drama Series
Sarah Oh – “Killing Eve”
-278
Jodie Comer - "Killing Eve"
+400
Outstanding Lead Actor
in a Limited Series or Movie
Jharrel Jerome – “When They See Us”
-167
Jharrel Jerome – “When They See Us”
Outstanding Lead Actress in
a Limited Series or Movie
Michelle Williams – “Fosse/Verdon”
-167
Michelle Williams – “Fosse/Verdon”

About the Author

Bill Speros for Bookies.com
Bill Speros
Bill Speros is an award-winning journalist and editor whose career includes stops at USA Today Sports Network / Golfweek, Cox Media, ESPN, Orlando Sentinel and Denver Post.