Sports betting organisations the world over have reacted to Nigeria's D'Tigers' victories over the United States and Argentina by improving the odds of the Nigerian D'Tigers' chances of winning the men's basketball event of the Tokyo Olympics.
Nigeria's men's basketball team, prior to last weekend's shock 90-87 win over the world's top basketball nation, were pegged at 151.00 (150/1) across most major sports betting platforms when it came to their chances of clinching gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
But after the Mike Brown-tutored D'Tigers got the better of Team USA in the pre-Olympic Games tune-up match in Las Vegas, in the US state of Nevada, the odds improved significantly to 51.00 (50/1) across most of the world's major sports betting platforms.
At the time, Nigeria's 51.00 odds of winning gold in Tokyo was only better than those of Germany (66.00), the Czech Republic (86.00), Japan (101.00), and Iran (101.00).
Those odds have even further improved to between 29.00 (28/1) and 31.00 (30/1), following Nigeria's exciting 94-71 blowout of Argentina, also another top-ranked team, on Monday night in yet another pre-Olympic Games preparatory match.
Now, the only teams higher ranked than Nigeria in the odds department are Slovenia (20.00), France (17.00), Australia (13.00), Spain (10.00), and the United States (1.18).
All of that could change again when the Nigerians take on the Aussies in Las Vegas on Tuesday night (2:30 AM on Wednesday in Nigeria) in both sides' final pre-Olympic Games tune-up match.
Australia will also be Nigeria's first opponent at the Olympic Games, with the Group B game taking place in Saitama on July 25.
Saitama will also be the venue of D'Tigers' other group stage games against Germany (July 28) and Italy (July 31).
D'Tigers are the only African team taking part in the men's basketball event of the Tokyo Olympics.
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