As the first Week 1 matchup between Super Bowl co-favorites in at least 45 years, Sunday Night Football's showdown between the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills was always expected to be exciting. Few probably could have predicted an ending as wild as the one that happened, though, and the betting markets that moved all over the place as a result.
Baltimore came into Buffalo as a 1.5-point favorite, snapping a 34-game regular-season home-favorite streak for the Bills, the longest active streak in the league before it ended, per ESPN Research.
With 4:48 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Ravens were up 40-25 and had a 99.1% chance of winning the game, according to ESPN Analytics.
Around that time, ESPN BET listed the Bills as +2000 underdogs to win, with the sportsbook reporting it took several live bets on them up to that longest point and that 74.3% of live moneyline wagers in general were on the Bills. DraftKings says it took a $1,000 wager on them at +4000 deep into the fourth quarter.
With an assist from a rare Derrick Henry fumble and a questionable fourth-down decision from John Harbaugh, Josh Allen and company ripped off 16 points in the final minutes to lead Buffalo to a massive Week 1 win that had immediate ramifications on the futures markets.
The Ravens and Bills came into the contest as +650 co-favorites, marking the fourth time in at least 45 seasons that the top two favorites for the Super Bowl played each other in Week 1, and the first time for two co-favorites over that span. Before the comeback in the fourth quarter, Baltimore shortened to +500 and Buffalo lengthened to +750.
Immediately after the game, the Ravens briefly maintained that outright lead at +600, with the Bills returning to +650, but within half an hour, Buffalo had pushed past Baltimore and is the Super Bowl favorite at +550 as of Monday afternoon. The Ravens are still second at +650, with the Philadelphia Eagles (+700), Green Bay Packers (+800) and Kansas City Chiefs (+1000) rounding out the top five.
Sunday night's showdown was also notable for matching up 2024's top two MVP vote-getters and potential candidates for 2025.
Lamar Jackson entered the day as the +450 favorite to win his third MVP award this season and increased his lead to +325 by the fourth quarter of SNF. Allen entered the day tied for second on the odds board with Cincinnati Bengals QB (and public darling) Joe Burrow at +600.
After his heroics on Sunday, though, Allen vaulted to the top of the board at +375, with Jackson sliding back to +500 and Burrow maintaining +600. ESPN BET has received a leading 24.4% of handle backing Allen for the award since Sunday.
Ravens-Bills, which had the highest total of the week at 50.5, was one of only two games to hit its over on Sunday; the other was Pittsburgh Steelers at New York Jets, which was the lowest total of the week at 38.5. Pittsburgh was +3000 to be Sunday's highest scoring team before Buffalo (+1300) passed them at the last moment.
Additionally, 28 of ESPN BET's 30 most popular "Sunday Night Football" player props (by total tickets) cashed as a result of the late offensive surge.