Sport DFW's Best Dallas Betting Picks for 7/27 (Cowboys and Rangers Futures)

With the Rangers off and the irrelevant Angels the only AL West team playing on today's short MLB slate, it's the perfect time to take a look at some futures bets.

Whether we're looking at the upcoming Cowboys season or at what's going to happen with the Rangers the rest of the way, we can find plenty of intriguing bets.

Here are the Sport DFW editors' top betting picks for Dallas sports on Thursday.

Dallas Best Bets: July 27, 2023

Jason Schandl: Cowboys OVER 9.5 Wins

I was shocked earlier this week to see how little love the Cowboys were getting from the national sports media. If anything, the media usually overrates us during most offseasons (before turning on us during the regular season), but this disrespect we’re getting actually makes for some great betting value.

The over/under on the Cowboys’ win total for the season is only set at 9.5 (meaning we need 10+ to hit the Over), and that presents some great value.

For starters, Dallas won 12 games last season. Obviously, that’s not a perfect indicator of keeping up the same level of success, but there are a couple of reasons that those 12 wins are really relevant.

First of all, we’re returning largely the same roster. It’s not like losing Zeke is going to cost us three wins.

Second of all, it’s also not like those were a fluky 12 wins. Dallas was one of only five teams in the NFL to outscore their opponents by at least 7.0 points per game, so the way the Cowboys played absolutely backed up that win total.

Having to play the entire AFC East does make for some tough scheduling, but the NFC is also softer than ever this season, and we get a couple of easy wins in the NFC West, too. I wouldn’t necessarily say we'll win 12 games again, but it’s hard to point to anything that happened this offseason that should cause the Cowboys to pick up an extra three losses.

Tyler Maher: Rangers Win the AL West

The Rangers avoided a sweep at the hands of the Astros on Wednesday, routing Houston 13-5 to take a two-game lead in the AL West.

With both teams off today, let’s take a look at Texas’ odds to win the division.

Over at DraftKings, the Rangers are slight favorites to win the AL West at -105 odds, followed by the Astros at +100.

Given the state of both rosters, Texas looks like the better bet. The Rangers’ offense is the best in baseball by a comfortable margin, leading MLB with 5.87 runs per game. That’s 1.17 more than Houston, which is barely above the MLB average.

Granted, the Astros have a slight edge on the pitching side, but it’s really close. Houston’s allowing 4.22 runs per game (eighth in MLB), while we’re at 4.35 (13th in MLB).

Accordingly, Texas is in pretty good shape heading into the trade deadline. If we can add some pitching depth, it will be really hard for the Astros to catch us down the stretch. 

Houston may have won the World Series last year, but we’re the better team this year.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.