2024 Oscars Best Bets & Favorites: Top Academy Awards Value Picks

With the 2024 Academy Awards taking place on Sunday, we're looking at our Oscars best bets and the favorites based on the odds from our best sports betting sites.  

The Oscars are finally (almost) here, and all of our best sports betting apps have posted odds for nearly every market ahead of Sunday's highly anticipated awards show.

As we outlined in our Best Picture predictions and Best Director predictions, several awards have been all but decided. Along with those expected wins for "Oppenheimer," the film appears poised to find success in a couple of acting categories, too, with our Best Actor predictions and Best Supporting Actor predictions outlining those very likely victories.

However, there are still many enticing bets to make, and we've diving into four of our favorites ahead of Sunday's reveal.

To complement our breakdown of the 2024 Oscars odds, here are our Oscars best bets for the 2024 Academy Awards based on the odds from our best sportsbooks.

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Oscars best bets

• Best Lead Actress: Emma Stone (+190 via Caesars) ⭐⭐
• Best Animated Feature: "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" (-188 via bet365) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Best Visual Effects: "The Creator" (+140 via Caesars) ⭐⭐⭐
• Best Makeup and Hairstyle: "Maestro" (-140 via FanDuel) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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2024 Oscars favorites

Best Lead Actress: Emma Stone ⭐⭐

Best odds: +190 via Caesars

We discussed the competition between Lily Gladstone and Emma Stone in our Best Actress predictions, saying the former is likely to win this award at the Oscars. However, Stone still stands a better chance than these +190 odds at Caesars suggest.

Based on this price, Stone is being given just a 34% implied probability of winning. Meanwhile, FanDuel's +140 odds come with a 41% implied probability, which feels more representative of Stone's odds of a victory.

Gladstone won at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which many consider to be nearly the ultimate precursor event. She also won at the Golden Globes for Best Actress in a Motion Picture: Drama, while Stone took the equivalent award in the Musical or Comedy category.

Stone is a previous Best Lead Actress winner at the Oscars - whether that helps or hurts her case is up for debate - and she won a handful of awards for her performance in "Poor Things."

She won at the BAFTAs (Gladstone wasn't nominated) and Critics Choice Awards (that time defeating Gladstone), as well as various other awards that different film critics associations decided.

This is a bet on these odds as much as it is on Stone herself. I would leave FanDuel's +140 offering alone, but this price is long enough to make it a two-star bet.

Best Lead Actress odds 2024

(Odds as of March 7)

Best Animated Feature: "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Best odds: -188 via bet365

This pick is much different than the last one, as you can tell from our star rating and the best odds available.

Yes, this is a very short price, and betting on odds nearing -200 isn't for everyone. However, I think we're getting better value on this bet than the 65% implied probability suggests.

"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" should be nominated for Best Picture ahead of both "Barbie" and "Maestro." It's one of the best animated pictures of all-time and quite easily served as one of the top films of 2023. 

There aren't as many precursor awards for animated films as there are for live-action ones. But "Across the Spider-Verse" has recorded countless wins during many awards shows this past year. 

Of course, there's some worry after "The Boy and the Heron" won at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs. But "Across the Spider-Verse" carries more momentum into the Oscars with its recent victory at the Annie Awards.

Additionally, the Academy - as well as the voting bodies for other awards events - has made it a point in recent years to more properly recognize films that inspired people to go to the movie theater. In that regard, "Across the Spider-Verse" grossed nearly $700 million worldwide, while "The Boy and the Heron" was much more of a niche film, grossing only $168 million.

Hayao Miyazaki, the director of "The Boy and the Heron," is an absolute legend in the animated film space, and it's possible the Academy rewards him with his second Oscar following his win in 2003 for "Spirited Away."

However, I'm riding with one of the most popular (and best) films of 2023 to win after its prequel "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" did so in 2019.

Best Animated Feature odds 2024

(Odds as of March 7)

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Best Visual Effects: "The Creator" ⭐⭐⭐

Best odds: +140 via Caesars

"Godzilla Minus One" has gained plenty of momentum in the Best Visual Effects category, moving from as long as +137 to a best price of just -150 in only a couple of weeks.

If you asked me for my best bet in this category toward the end of February, it would have been to take the plus-money odds on both "Godzilla Minus One" and "The Creator" at two of our best live betting sites as a hedge of sorts - yes, there are other films involved, but one of those two is sure to win - and pocket whatever gains you get from it. But with the former now trading as a rather significant favorite, I'm targeting the underdog with its plus-money odds.

My most significant takeaway after watching "The Creator" was that it looked absolutely stunning. Is it an amazing film? No. But is it incredible to look at? Definitely.

It also features many of the same visual characteristics as previous winners, with the movie effortlessly combining practical and computer-generated effects to provide a realistic look at a world we don't know to exist. "Dune" (2022), "Tenet" (2021), and "Blade Runner 2049" (2018) all featured a similar aesthetic before emerging victorious in this category.

Best Visual Effects odds 2024

(Odds as of March 7)

Best Makeup and Hairstyle:  "Maestro"⭐⭐⭐⭐

Best odds: -140 via FanDuel

Similar to "The Creator," my initial thought upon completing "Maestro" was that Bradley Cooper looked just like Leonard Bernstein. 

Despite all of the controversy surrounding Cooper's use of a large prosthetic nose in the film, Bernstein's children supported the decision, which I think will help the film's chances in this category.

Beyond the nose, the aging techniques used for "Maestro" were flawless. When I watched "Oppenheimer," I thought the crew did a terrific job of aging the cast when necessary. However, the crew behind "Maestro" blew their work out of the water.

Cooper looks so authentic throughout the film that it's sometimes hard to remember what he looks like in real life. The work performed on "Poor Things" is also flawless, but it's easier to create a look from scratch rather than replicate that of an actual person in history.

Additionally, half of this award is for hairstyle, and "Maestro" gets a massive bump for adding to its characters' look through the use of different hairstyles across many years.

Overall, this movie comes with many flaws, but that doesn't include the way it looks. Beautiful cinematography combined with some of the best hair and makeup in recent years made "Maestro" at least an interesting watch.

Best Makeup & Hairstyle odds 2024

(Odds as of March 7)

Oscars betting odds pages

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