Sportsbooks not doing well during nightmare run of March Madness favorites

March Madness has been a disaster for the sportsbooks.The lack of chaos – or madness – took a bit of the excitement out of the tournament this year for many, and it cost the books big money as the betting public typically backs favorites.“We are not doing well,” DraftKings‘ director of sports, Johnny Avello, told The Post in a phone interview on Wednesday.“The bettors did very well this year.

They’ve got a lot of bullets, and they will be throwing those bullets at the rest of the events in the future.They had a good football season, too.”Favorites running wild isn’t new to Avello, who has been in the bookmaking space since the mid-’80s and operates DraftKings’ betting business from Las Vegas.He is no stranger to bad weeks, months and quarters in the business.“A lot of chalk this year.

but I’ve been through this before.Sometimes, I look at it, if things change should I do things differently? The answer is no,” Avello said.“I don’t think we’ve changed our approach with the way we have handled the tournament or the odds we have made.

Sometimes, things that happen in the course of a game change things.Michigan State went down badly, 24-8.

They got themselves in a jam and may have won that game.Games go certain ways sometimes.”No one is going to feel for DraftKings, though, as the publicly traded company is surely making more than enough money overall, even if March Madness and the NFL season didn’t go their way.“We don’t cry; we just do what we do.

This is our business when they win.They win.

We hope they keep coming back,” Avello said.Avello tells The Post that while their bookmaking won’t change, neither will bettors who are expected to hammer both favorites on Saturday night in a big way with Duke favored by 5.5 over Houston and Florida laying 2.5 to Auburn.“We are 75 percent Duke right now.

We are going to need the dog.” Avello told The Post about DK’s position in the Final Four.“I would say the way (Flor...