A bettor in Kentucky is backing the Philadelphia Eagles to defeat the Carolina Panthers on Sunday with a $3.1 million wager, one of the largest bets ever reported on an NFL regular-season game.
Circa Sports took the wager on the Eagles money line Thursday afternoon at -700 odds, which would net approximately $442,800. In response, the sportsbook moved its line on Philadelphia to -870 and lengthened Carolina to +650 as of Friday morning. Other sportsbooks have Philly as long as -675, with the Birds giving around 13 points to the Panthers on the spread marketwide.
Circa Sports owner Derek Stevens told ESPN that the bettor first placed $1 million on the Eagles, then asked to bet more, ending up with the $3.1 million on Philadelphia. It's the largest bet the sportsbook has ever taken, Stevens said. "I told my guys in the risk room to go to work and get some buyback on the Panthers," Stevens said Friday. "With us being in five states now, we should have the liquidity to get enough buyback to where we end up needing the Eagles."
"We currently have the best Panthers [money-line] price on the board and will be big Bryce Young fans on Sunday," Circa sportsbook director Jeff Benson told ESPN by email.
ESPN BET reports that Philadelphia is the book's most-bet money line, as well as the second-most-bet on the spread, by total tickets. The Eagles are also the most-bet money-line selection at DraftKings by bets and handle, and BetMGM says the Panthers (+575) are its second-most-bet underdog to win outright by total tickets.
"Eagles-Panthers is our most-bet game of the weekend, and it's been largely one-way traffic with 70% of spread handle and 80% of money-line handle on Philly," ESPN BET's director of North American sports trading Adrian Horton said via email. "We opened the game at -12.5, and it's still moving in the Eagles' direction, now at -13 on Friday morning."
The bet for Sunday's game in Philadelphia is believed to be one of the largest ever placed on an NFL regular-season contest. In Week 12, a bettor at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas placed a $1 million wager on the Los Angeles Rams to cover a three-point underdog spread against the Eagles at -120 odds; L.A. lost the game 37-20. In January 2023, a bettor lost a $1.4 million live money-line wager when the Los Angeles Chargers blew 27-0 lead to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the playoffs.
The largest recorded NFL bets of all time have all been in the Super Bowl. Famed bettor Billy Walters reportedly bet $6 million on the New Orleans Saints with the points against the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV, while Houston-area furniture salesman and bettor Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale has made several wagers in excess of $3 million on recent championship games.