Oscars Preview and Predictions – 89th Academy Awards.

The Oscars 2017. Best Sports Betting strays off course and into the glamour of Hollywood with a brief look at some of the popular Oscar betting markets, odds and our predictions.

Best Motion Picture Oscar :

The nominees:
Arrival, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, La La Land, Lion, Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight

This is one of the biggest awards of the evening and the markets seems to think that it’s La La Land’s to lose. La La Land is currently a 1/8 favourite and it looks like it will take a huge upset to wrench the Oscar away from the Musical Hit. Notable outsiders are Moonlight (6/1) and Manchester by the Sea (25/1). The rest of the field is sitting at around 100/1 so the books are not expecting an upset. 1/8 on La La Land is just too short for us to take but we predict the musical to dance away with the Oscar in hand. Our outsider pick is definitely Moonlight but the 6/1 on offer is not a true reflection of it’s underdog status.

Best Actor Oscar :

The nominees :
Casey Affleck, Manchester By the Sea, Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge, Ryan Gosling, La La Land  Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic, Denzel Washington, Fences.

The best actor award looks like a two horse race between Casey Affleck (3/5) and Denzel Washington (6/5). The rest of field look like outsiders and we don’t expect Gosling (20/1), Garfield (50/1) or Mortensen (125/1) to get the nod here.  So that boils down to Affleck and Washington and we have to side with Ben’s brother for his fantastic performance in Manchester by the Sea. The 3/5 on offer seems fairly generous and we will snap some of it up. If you’re looking for a value outsider then perhaps side with Gosling at 20/1 but we think this one is Casey’s.

Best Actress Oscar:

The nominees:
Isabelle Huppert, Elle, Ruth Negga, Loving, Natalie Portman, Jackie, Emma Stone, La La Land and Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkin.

This one seems a bit more settled than the men’s race with Emma Stone (1/6) as the bookies favourite with Natalie Portman (5/1) second favourite. The rest of the field shouldn’t have much of a look in but there is a bit of value if you want to back Isabelle Huppert (10/1). Stone should have this one wrapped up but 1/6 is too short for us so we’ll be backing Portman (5/1)  to get the nod for her brilliant portrayal of Jackie Kennedy.  Yes it’s a bold pick but there is no fun taking short priced favourites.

Best Director Oscar :

The nominees :

Damien Chazelle, La La Land, Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge ,Barry Jenkins, Moonlight, Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester By the Sea, Denis Villeneuve, Arrival

This one seems set in stone with Damien Chazelle leading the pack at a very short 1/20. We think La La Land is going to do very well this year and we can’t see anyone but Chazelle winning. If you are looking for an outsider to upset the La La Land juggernaut then we’d say that Denis Villeneuve looks like some value at 28/1.

Best Original Screenplay Oscar:

Damien Chazelle, La La Land, Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filipou, The Lobster, Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester By the Sea, Mike Mills, 20th Century Women, Taylor Sheridan, Hell or High Water.

This is one of the tighter ones to call as both La La Land (5/4) and Manchester by the Sea (5/8) have an excellent shot at winning. Once again we don’t see the rest of the field with much of chance and there shouldn’t be any major upsets in this category. It’s hard to choose between the two but we reckon the favourite, Manchester by the Sea has the edge over La La Land. If you like La La Land to sweep the Oscars then it’s worth backing them here at 5/4 but we prefer to back the solid Manchester by the Sea at a fair 5/8.

Thanks for reading through our predictions for this year’s Oscars. We know we left out a large chunk of the event (Best Supporting Actor/Actress, Animation etc) but we feel that most readers are more interested in the headline prizes than they are in the smaller ones. Please note the quoted Oscar prices were correct at time of publish and may be subject to change. Best of luck!