New Delhi, July 29 -- PHILADELPHIA - BetMGM's oddsmakers said 98 percent of the championship bets placed in the first hour after LeBron James announced his move to the Philadelphia 76ers went on the Sixers. That single statistic captures what happened to the NBA futures market on July 24 more efficiently than any chart. The Sixers went from a team that no one was betting on to a team that everyone was betting on in roughly sixty minutes.

James, forty-one, signed a two-year, eight-million-dollar contract with Philadelphia, the minimum available under NBA rules and an amount that represents approximately one month of interest on his off-court income. He called the decision his "last," a phrasing that carried the weight of someone who had s...