Phil Agius
Show Bio
Happy first day of the NFL playoffs, Pickswise Nation! It’s a festival of sports today with the first 2 NFL wild-card games, plus NBA, NHL, UFC, college basketball and soccer action. With all that to get through, let’s get straight to making your next bet better!
About Last Night
NBA mega parlay cashes at +1157 odds!
What a start to the weekend hoops action as our Friday mega parlay cashed at +1157 odds with the Pistons ML at +245 odds a real highlight! The Pickswise team also went 5-2 on NBA props on the day.
NHL mega parlay hits the target too!
Our NHL team also hit their mega parlay on Friday at +826 odds! There were only 3 games on the slate, but we went 2-1 on sides — including a 3-star play on the Panthers, who beat the Stars 7-1 — and swept the totals 3-0.
NCAAB cappers in form
Our college basketball cappers went 3-1 on the sides and 3-1 on the totals, with our only 3-star pick of Illinois -9.5 cashing, to put us in good spirits heading into today’s huge slate.
Today’s Slate
The NFL Playoffs start here
The list of potential Super Bowl winners will be reduced from 14 to 12 today as the Raiders and Bengals play the first wild-card game at 4:30 pm ET on NBC before the Patriots take on the Bills in huge Saturday night contest at 8:15 pm ET on ESPN. You can read full previews of all this weekend’s playoff games.
10-game NBA slate
We have 10 games on today’s NBA docket, with the Lakers taking on the Nuggets at 9:00 pm on NBA TV. You can read full previews of all today’s NBA games,
Busy day in the NHL too
There are 12 NHL games to enjoy today, with Capitals vs Islanders (2:00 pm) and Maple Leafs vs Blues (7:00 pm) on NHL Network. Check out our previews of today’s NHL games.
There’s NCAAB, UFC, tennis and soccer action too!
Saturday’s schedule also features a host of high-quality contests in other sports. Check out today’s huge slate of NCAAB picks, our UFC on ESPN 32 predictions, and today’s EPL soccer. Ricky Dimon has also previewed the Australian Open men’s singles tennis.
Best Bet of the Day
Cincinnati Bengals -5 vs Las Vegas Raiders
4:30 pm ET, NBC
Cincinnati has been inconsistent throughout the season, but in the past few weeks the Bengals seem to have really started to put it all together. A phenomenal performance against the Ravens was quickly followed by a big win over the Chiefs. Joe Burrow is playing incredible football, boasting an outrageous 971 passing yards and 9 touchdowns over his past 2 games, while Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd are lighting it up at wideout. The Raiders enter this game having won 4 in a row, but each of those wins were by 4 or fewer points, and they showed how flimsy they can be on defense last week when they let Justin Herbert complete 4th down after 4th down. The Bengals beat the Raiders 32-13 less than 2 months ago, and it’s hard to see why things should be drastically different this time. Take Cincinnati to get its first playoff win since 1990. Read our full game preview for Raiders vs Bengals
Must-watch
With so much happening, you won’t want to miss today’s edition of our daily sports betting show Let’s Bet It! on our YouTube channel at:youtube.com/c/Pickswise as the team help you to identify the best plays to make your next bet better. Today, the guys will be looking at tonight’s NFL showdowns, plus their best bets in the NBA.
You can also check out the wild-card playoffs episode of Pickwise Playbook with Ross Tucker, Chris Rose and Jared Smith as they pick over the best bets for all this week’s games.
Must-read
With so much NFL Playoffs content available now, we’ve created a handy hub, our wild-card weekend betting guide, from where you can access all this weekend’s picks, parlays, same game parlay, TD scorer plays, prop bets and much more! Don’t forget to check out Jared Smith’s best bets, our NFL mega parlay or PropBetGuy’s top prop plays.
Our basketball capper Filip Tomic has been on a heater with his same game parlays this week and he has THREE of them already available for today’s games including this one at huge odds for the Pelicans vs Nets.
Stat of the Day
The Patriots have a 15-3 record against the spread in their last 18 road games against the Bills.
Boost of the Day
This anytime TD scorer parlay from FanDuel Sportsbook could be a popular pick for the first playoff game with Cincinnati’s Ja’Marr Chase and Hunter Renfrow of Las Vegas both in hot form. The odds of both players scoring have been boosted from +470 to +600.
Pickswise is the home of free sports picks, news, and best bets. Check out our expert NFL picks, NCAAF picks, NHL picks, Soccer picks, and MLB picks for the latest game picks.
