The Chicago White Sox just narrowly avoided making history by themselves last week. The Chi-Sox lost 21 games in a row, coming just one loss away from setting the American League record for most consecutive losses. They are still in the record books tied with the 1988 Baltimore Orioles for 21 in a row, but they avoided sole possession of that dubious record.
For sports bettors it was a thing of beauty. In sports betting we often talk about hot teams, and who will win games, but there is a small faction of smart bettors who just bet against bad teams, and this was the team to make them rich. Fading a team, as it's called, is just as impressive as finding that winning formula. The White Sox presented sports bettors with 21 straight chances to capitalize on their failures.
At the final tally, if you had started with a $100 bet against Chicago and rolled the winnings over to re-bet against them every game during their 21 game streak, a bettor would have made $787,853. That is far-fetched to think someone would continue to roll over their winnings but there are reports that bettors jumped on the White Sox after 10 games and turned hundreds into tens of thousands of dollars.
The good news for sports bettors is the run of futility is not over. The White Sox fired their manager and after the win promptly went on to lose immediately the next night. Chicago's schedule at the end of the season includes having to face the Yankees, Mets, Rangers, all playoff teams as well as the first place Guardians. They also have to travel to face first place Houston and Baltimore, a streaking San Francisco, a trip to Fenway and a playoff bound San Diego.
They do get the benefit of taking on Detroit 7 times, the A's three times at home and the Angels for 6 games. That might not be enough to stop them from setting another all time mark. Chicago is on pace for 123 losses, they will certainly break the franchise record set in 1970 with 106 losses, but can they catch the all time mark? In order to break the record of 121 losses set by the New York Mets the White Sox will have to play worse than .330 the rest of the way. They have played .239 ball thus far. The Mets may be erased from the history books this season if this continues and it gives sports bettors more chances to back the best of the worst.