The Nittany Lions, 24.5-point road favorites at winless UCLA, lost 42-35 to the Bruins in the biggest upset of the season with regard to point spread.
It proved costly for bettors. On Saturday morning at ESPN BET, only Vanderbilt had attracted more spread bets than Penn State. The Nittany Lions drew the third-most money wagered.
Penn State closed as -5,000 favorite on the money line, with UCLA around a 15-1 underdog at ESPN BET.
At BetMGM, 90% of the money wagered on the odds to win the game straight-up was on Penn State. Potentially, the most painful bet on the Nittany Lions, though, was reported by Hard Rock Bet, where a bettor risked $250,000 on Penn State on the money line. The wager would have paid a net $7,500, according to a company spokesperson.
Oct. 1: Ravens swing from favorite to underdog vs. Texans with Jackson injury
Doug Greenberg: Lamar Jackson technically hasn't been ruled out for the Baltimore Ravens' Week 5 game against the Houston Texans, but sportsbooks are wasting no time moving their odds drastically on the rumor that he won't play.
The Ravens opened as 3.5-point favorites over the Texans last Sunday at ESPN BET, but as reports began to surface that Jackson is looking doubtful for Sunday's contest and could even miss two to three weeks because of a hamstring injury, sportsbooks flipped the spread to make Houston (1-3) the consensus favorite, with ESPN BET's line showing Baltimore +1.5 as of Wednesday afternoon.
Other books had the Ravens as even larger favorites (between -4.5 and -6.5) within the last week. "Lamar probably has one of the highest point-spread values of all quarterbacks in the league, so we'll be watching this one especially closely through the week," ESPN BET senior director Adrian Horton said over email. BetMGM's trading team said that the movement is "essentially all" because of Jackson's doubtful status.
DraftKings sportsbook director Johnny Avello said that Jackson's value to the spread is worth "more than a touchdown compared to a quarterback like [Ravens backup] Cooper Rush."
While it's worth noting that Rush compiled a 9-5 record as a starter while he was with the Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore's standing at 1-3 to start the season is weighing heavy on the mind of bookmakers. The Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas, for example, opened its look-ahead line on this game at Ravens -10 several weeks ago before coming down to the consensus spread.
"The Ravens are dealing with injuries and question marks across the board, so it's not just Lamar Jackson's status driving this line toward Houston," Avello said.
Baltimore's sluggish start has had some impact on the futures markets, but sportsbooks aren't entirely counting the team out yet. After opening the season as +650 co-favorites to win the Super Bowl with the Buffalo Bills, the Ravens now sit at +1100, sixth on the odds board. They still hold odds-on favorite status of -250 odds to make the playoffs and -145 odds to win the AFC North.
See more:
Week 5 odds, lines
Super Bowl odds
Sept. 28: Weekend wrap: Dart, underdog Giants play role of 'parlay buster'
Doug Greenberg and David Purdum: Another week, another parlay-crushing upset by a big underdog.
On Sunday, the previously winless New York Giants defeated the previously undefeated Los Angeles Chargers 21-18 as 6.5-point underdogs. It's the second-largest point spread upset of the season, after the Cleveland Browns (+7.5) took down the Green Bay Packers last Sunday, and one that only a few bettors saw coming.
At Hard Rock Bet, only 5% of the money wagered on the game's winner was on the Giants, who were around +250 underdogs to pull the upset. The Chargers on the money line were included on 23% of parlays and accounted for 10% of the money staked on all same-game parlays at Fanatics Sportsbook.
Perhaps still relishing in the good fortune of favorites from the first two weeks, the betting public largely did not latch onto this new trend and instead made the Chargers one of the most backed teams of Week 4. On Sunday morning, Los Angeles garnered 84% of bets -- the highest percentage of any team on Sunday -- and 86.2% of handle on the spread at ESPN BET to be the sportsbook's most-backed team by tickets and money, according to total volume.
Many participants in survivor contests were also just counting on a win and didn't get it: LAC was selected in 19.16% (third-most) of ESPN's Eliminator Challenge submissions but only in 5.7% (sixth-most) of entries in the $1,000 buy-in Circa Survivor contest.
"It certainly was the parlay buster on the morning slate where all the other games went the bettors' way," Caesars Sportsbook head of football Joey Feazel told ESPN over email. "However, the New York faithful took plenty of the Giants +6.5 with the hopes of a successful new era in Giant Land with [rookie quarterback] Jaxson Dart manning the offense."
While most books reported the Giants winning as a win for them, it wasn't as massive as it could have been given the immediate belief in Dart. "There was public support for NYG here at the Westgate," John Murray, vice president of the SuperBook in Las Vegas, said over email. "Maybe they thought the team would be energized by Dart. If that was their thought process, they were right! Good result but not massive."
Dart looked the part, throwing for 111 yards and a touchdown, and rushing for 54 yards and another touchdown in the Giants' big win. The first-round pick out of Ole Miss was +550 to win Offensive Rookie of the Year coming into Sunday's action, just behind Tampa Bay Buccaneers WR Emeka Egbuka (+350) and tied with Indianapolis Colts TE Tyler Warren, according to ESPN BET odds. Dart's teammate, RB Cam Skattebo, was +1600 and no major sportsbooks have reposted OROY odds as of publish time.
Coming out of the game, the Giants were still a distant 300-1 to win the Super Bowl this season, while the Chargers only dropped from +1500 to +1600 with the loss.
Bad Beats & Bad Bets
After surviving the first three weeks of the NFL season, 24 entries failed to submit their pick by the Week 4 deadline in Circa Survivor, a survivor contest with a $1,000 buy-in and a $18.1 million prize pool. Interesting strategy.
Indianapolis Colts receiver Adonai Mitchell, who was +450 to score a touchdown against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, dropped the ball before crossing the goal line after a 75-yard catch and run.
On July 8, the Houston Astros were -20,000 to make the MLB playoffs. The Astros were eliminated from the postseason over the weekend.
Minnesota Vikings receiver Jordan Addison, who was +260 to score a touchdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers, was tackled on the 1-yard line after an 81-yard reception and did not find the end zone the rest of the game.
Leading to 20-13 and needing only run out the final three seconds to secure a victory, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza ran 40 yards backwards into the end for an intentional safety that impacted some point-spread bets. Indiana opened as around a 7-point favorite. The line grew and closed as high as -9 at some sportsbooks. The Hoosiers won 20-15. Pamela Maldonado on X: "I LITERALLY DONT UNDERSTAND WHAT THE WHAT"
College football betting odds and ends; $1.8 million bet on Penn State; 'Pros vs. Joes' in Ohio State-Washington
The Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey reported one of the largest college football bets of the season Saturday -- a $1.8 million money-line wager on Penn State to beat Oregon at -175 odds. The Nittany Lions rallied from 14 points down in the second half, before losing 30-24 in overtime to the underdog Ducks.
"Even the $1.8 million wager aside, the outcome was very good for us on that game," Tom Gable, sportsbook director at The Borgata, told ESPN. "We needed Oregon on the spread and to say we needed them on the money line would be an understatement."
Penn State fell to 4-21 straight-up and 10-15 against the spread versus top 10 teams under coach James Franklin.
Georgia dropped to 0-4 against the spread this season with Saturday's loss to underdog Alabama. The Bulldogs are 3-14 against the spread in their last 17 games.
On Saturday morning at ESPN BET, more bets had been placed on Ohio State to cover the spread against Washington than had been placed on any other team playing. However, at the same time, more money had been bet on the underdog Huskies to cover the spread than any other team. All week sportsbooks had reported sharp action Washington, driving the line down from Ohio State -10 to as low as -8 in the days leading up to kickoff. In the hours before kickoff, though, money poured back in on the Buckeyes driving the number back up to -9.5.
"The move [on Washington] was pure sharp business with the public buying back what was deemed a very light spread for Ohio State," Feazel of Caesars Sportsbook said of the back-and-forth line movement.
Ohio State cruised to a 24-6 win. Murray of the SuperBook said the game was set up like a Pros vs. Joes type game until the late money came in on the Buckeyes.
"I know a lot of sharp groups were betting Washington plus the points during the week," Murray of the SuperBook, said. "And Ohio State was a huge public side. Seemed to be set up like a Pros vs. Joes type game until the end when the Ohio State line went back up. Possibly they were faking the market down to lay the chalk? That wasn't a good result for us, but overall Saturday was great. Great games, great handle, and we did very well. Can't win 'em all!"
