Skenes set for MLB debut, girlfriend Dunne stealing the spotlight

Sometimes the story off the field is just as big, if not bigger, than the story on the field.

The Pittsburgh Pirates calling up their No. 1 pitching prospect is a baseball story. 

Paul Skenes, drafted No. 1 overall by the Pirates in the 2023 Draft, will make his MLB Debut on Saturday. 

The 22-year-old has dominated Triple-A this season, sporting a 0.99 ERA in 27.1 innings with 45 strikeouts and only 17 hits. 

FanDuel has set his over/under for strikeouts at 5.5 against the Chicago Cubs on Saturday. 

The debut of Skenes’ has been so highly anticipated that it feels very safe to assume Pittsburgh will show up to sell out PNC Park on Saturday. 

One person who is expected be in attendance to watch Skenes is his girlfriend, Olivia Dunne. 

Dunne is one of the biggest stars in NCAA Athletics, with eight million followers on TikTok and another five million on Instagram. 

Her TikTok sharing the news of Skenes getting called up was seen by nearly three million people.  

According to On3 NIL 100, she has the second-highest Name Image and Likeness (NIL) valuation of any college athlete at $3.9 million, behind Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders ($4.6 million).

We saw how much the NFL’s media teams leaned into Taylor Swift's stardom at Travis Kelce’s games. I can only imagine how many people at MLB HQ are trying to figure out how they can spotlight one of America’s biggest stars landing cartwheeling into the sport of baseball. 

At the Super Bowl, FanDuel dug into their bag and produced special markets for Swifties to have some extra skin in the game. 

Now, they’re doing the same for Skenes and Dunne ahead of his highly anticipated debut.  

Let’s get to the fun. 

FOLLOW THE LEADER 

The first market we’ll look at is how many Instagram followers Skenes will gain from the start of the game to the finish. 

FanDuel's price for at least 20,000 followers is -162. That number represents an implied probability of 61.83 per cent. 

A range of 9.9k or less to 100k+ is available, with 100k+ having the longest odds at +2500. 

Here is the full list. 

Skenes currently has 267k followers on Instagram. 

THE CONTENT NEVER STOPS 

Let’s talk Livvy. 

Earlier, we discussed her number of TikTok followers. Now, FanDuel is wondering how many videos she’ll post to her main account on Saturday. 

At Skenes's most recent start, Dunne filmed a short video for her followers. It was her only post of the day, and the video reached 1.8 million accounts. 

Dunne is -520 to post one or more videos on Saturday, an implied probability of 83.87 per cent. 

She is +3500 to post five or more on Saturday. Here is the full list. 

*Based on total number of tiktoks posted by Dunne's offical account on May 11 2024.*  

Because I care about you, I took a dive through Dunne’s TikTok page. 

Livvy hasn’t posted two TikToks in a day since March 23, the day LSU and Dunne won the SEC gymnastics championship. 

Before that, she posted twice on Dec. 27 and Dec. 6. 

She had three posts about Halloween this year, but those were spread out over two days. 

WHO ARE YOU WEARING? 

It wasn’t long ago that Kristin Juszczyk’s designs were all the hot topic of NFL WAG conversations.

When the Chiefs made the Super Bowl, FanDuel priced Swift at -420 to not wear one of her designs to the Super Bowl. 

Swift did wonders for Juszczyk’s brand when she sported one of her puffer jackets in Kansas City during Super Wild Card Weekend.

While puffer coats dominate the conversations about Juszczyk’s designs, we have also seen Juszczyk herself sport a few different looks that would make sense for a baseball game in Pittsburgh in April. 

FanDuel has priced Dunne at +136 to wear one of her designs and -176 to not. 

We have also seen gymnastics star Simon Biles in one of her designs, so maybe there is a connection with Juszczyk and USA Gymnastics we all are missing.