By Only Players Staff
Updated 10/14/24 2:07am ET
Sportsbooks suffered their worst NFL Sunday of the young season – and the final two minutes of Sunday Night Football caused historical damage to the house.
The betting public typically wagers on favorites, and the volume is decisively higher on marquee and primetime games, which are even further accentuated with parlays. Favorites went 9-2-1 against the point spread, including all four afternoon games cashing the favorite and the over.
Every key decision went against the house, including a Sunday Night Football finish that was easily avoidable and would have prevented significant carnage. Chase Brown of the Cincinnati Bengals scored a 30-yard touchdown run with 1:52 remaining to give the Cincinnati Bengals a 10-point lead (and final margin) over the New York Giants, covering the 3.5-point spread.
If Brown had intentionally fallen to the turf before scoring, as many players often do, the Bengals would have won by three points. New York was out of timeouts so Cincy would have then iced the game with kneeldowns. Thus, all wagers on the Bengals -3.5 would have lost.
“The Bengals covering was a healthy dagger to the heart,” Circa Sportsbook Director of Operations Jeff Benson told Only Players via text message. “Can’t find a game we won on the slate outside of the Bears.”
This comes after the public struggled mightily the first five weeks. NFL favorites of at least 5.5 points were 5-19-1 ATS but everything swung the other direction for Week 6. However, the operators have betting limits for these types of situations and thus can weather the storm.
“As ALWAYS, the lights will come on in the morning. If a bookmaker is whining after today then he hasn’t been in the industry long enough,” Benson posted on X (formerly Twitter).
One oddsmaker told our Doug Kezirian that this NFL Sunday ranks among the five worst, since sports betting became nationally legal in 2018.
Photo Courtesy: Shutterstock
