Monitoring Elly De La Cruz On ‘Dinger Tuesdays’ Via FanDuel Sportsbook

In case you haven’t noticed, the Cincinnati Reds have had a resurgence, rallying to first place in the National League Central after winning 12 games in a row for the first time since 1957.

Twenty-one-year-old Elly De La Cruz has proven to be the catalyst — a blazing-fast power-hitting shortstop who has taken the Reds — and Ohio sports bettors — on quite the ride during his first three weeks in the majors.

Through Elly’s first 17 games, the 6-foot-5 infielder hit .333 with a .989 OPS and three home runs, 10 RBI, eight stolen bases and 18 runs. His first career home run was smashed 450 feet and nearly left the stadium at Great American Ball Park.

For those interested in betting on the Reds’ young phenom, we at PlayOhio wondered how a bettor would fare if they used the FanDuel Dinger Tuesday promotion on De La Cruz for every Tuesday game at Great American Ball Park through the rest of the regular season. The Reds will play five more home games on Tuesdays this year.

The FanDuel Sportsbook Dinger Tuesday promotion works like this: Place a $25 bet on any player to hit a home run, and you get $5 added to a bonus bet for every home run during the game by either team. The maximum bonus bet reward you can get is $25.

De La Cruz has played two Tuesday home games at GABP so far, and luckily he did homer in the team’s June 20 game vs. Colorado. The Dinger Tuesday promo offers bonus bets even if you win the home run prop bet, making this an interesting promotion to follow over time.

We’ll track this bet throughout the rest of the season to see how many bets win and how many bonus bets FanDuel Sportsbook disperses based on the cumulative home runs in each game.

How the FanDuel Sportsbook Dinger Tuesday promo works

With the FanDuel Sportsbook OH Dinger Tuesday promotion, even if your bet loses, you’re likely to recoup some of the cost as site credit, especially at Great American Ball Park. The Reds’ home field ranks in the top five best stadiums for home runs; sometimes No. 1, depending on the time frame and how the ranking is figured.

I used the promotion on June 20, De La Cruz’s second Tuesday appearance at GABP. Elly hit a homer in his second at-bat and my $25 turned into $137.50. After the game, I was surprised to find that I also had a $25 bonus bet in my account because there were five total home runs hit in the game ($5 in bonus bets for each). That’s right — you get the $5 per home run even if you win the prop bet.

On the previous Tuesday, the Cincinnati Reds were away. But De La Cruz’s Major League debut was a week earlier on Tuesday, June 6. Had I placed the same bet on that day, it would have been a loser. No dingers for De La Cruz. There were two total home runs in the game, which would have given me a $10 bonus bet using the promo.

The table below shows the results so far for anyone placing the Dinger Tuesdays bet on De La Cruz. We’ll update this table with continued results, so check back to see how it turns out.

It’s important to remember that with bonus bets, sportsbooks do not pay out the initial stake when you win. So if you bet $25 in bonus bets at +100 and win, you’ll be left with $25 in withdrawable funds (not the $25 stake + $25 in winnings).

How likely are home runs at Great American Ball Park?

There are two things working in bettors’ favor here:

1. De La Cruz has huge, huge power. As mentioned, he literally almost hit a ball out of Great American Ball Park. But he also chipped a relatively short, 350-foot home run over the left field fence for one of his homers — a GABP special. (Of course, if he gets hot and hits more home runs, his odds will come down.)

2. Great American Ball Park allows a lot of home runs. Through June 26, there had been 117 home runs hit at GABP (third-most in the majors) for an average of 2.85 per game. Since 2021, GABP leads MLB with a 133 home run park factor, per Statcast, meaning that for batters and pitchers who played both at GABP and elsewhere, 33% more home runs were hit in Cincinnati.

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The Reds’ slugging talent combined with a home-run-friendly field lends a lot of potential upside for the risky home run prop bet using the Dinger Tuesday promotion. Through De La Cruz’s first two-plus weeks in the majors, the Reds averaged two HRs per home game. They put up 30 HRs in 18 games since Elly arrived on June 6 through June 25. Eighteen of those homers were hit at GABP in nine home games.

De La Cruz himself hit three over the fence in his first 17 games played. Other players on the team hit more homers in that time frame, so perhaps there is a better option for a home run prop bet when considering home run rates, pitching matchups and odds available.

However, though the sample size is small, De La Cruz’s rate of at bats per home run is better than most of the Reds’ top home run hitters:

At bats per home run through June 25 | Cincinnati Reds