After a big Week 1 for the public betting masses, the pendulum sharply swung back in the NFL Week 2 odds market. Popular favorites came up big in Week 1 and contrastingly small in Week 2. So the bookmakers beat the bettors, particularly on Sunday. “It was an extremely rough week for the bettors, with five upsets and only seven favorites covering the spread,” BetMGM trading manager Adair Horne said Sunday night. Oddsmakers from Las Vegas and across the country chimed in to recap the weekend that was in NFL and college football betting. This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports. In Week 1, the first wave of Sunday games was a massive boon for bettors. Favorites went wild, there were several high-scoring games, and many big-name players found the end zone, cashing a slew of First Touchdown\/Anytime Touchdown props. In Week 2, not so much. Most notably, the Ravens were 8.5-point home favorites vs. the Saints and lost outright 24-17. Then, in a game with a two-hour weather delay in order to play the final two minutes, the Buccaneers \u2014 another 8.5-point home favorite \u2014 tumbled to the Browns 24-19. Caesars Sports head of football trading Joey Feazel, who after Week 1 declared the public was popping champagne corks, said those two results set the tone for oddsmakers to do some cork-popping. “The Ravens had the book chilling the sparkling water. The Buccaneers\u2019 defeat finally popped the cork,” Feazel said. “The Eagles, Ravens, Bears and Bucs were the most popular moneyline parlay selections, so the book needed at least one significant interruption to the bettors\u2019 Sunday plans. “The book will typically survive the early slate if a touchdown-or-bigger underdog wins outright. We were handed three opportunities to find one.” They got two with the Browns and Saints, and the Titans fell just short of stunning the Eagles. Philadelphia needed a touchdown with nine seconds left to claim a 24-20 victory, though it didn\u2019t cover as a 7-point favorite. The Browns\u2019 win was particularly satisfying at Caesars. “Anytime Cleveland is playing, the entire trading floor becomes Browns fans. We\u2019re honorary members of the Dawg Pound,” Feazel said half-jokingly. “So when that result came through after a long weather delay, there was certainly some excitement in the room.” Horne said BetMGM also thrived off upsets, both early and late. In Sunday\u2019s early window, along with the Browns and Bucs, the Vikings (+4.5) upset the Bears in a 9-3 slog of a game, and the Bengals (+2.5) took out the Texans, 20-6. In one of the five late-window games Sunday, the Raiders were 6.5-point road underdogs vs. the Chargers and landed a 26-14 upset. That helped blow up any moneyline parlays that might\u2019ve survived the early kicks. But the public masses also got smacked by a scoring drought. The Under went 9-2 in the first 11 completed games on Sunday. The Over hit in the final three games, but that wasn\u2019t nearly enough to save bettors\u2019 day. “The best games for the books were basically low-scoring games where the favorite lost outright or didn\u2019t cover the spread,” Horne said. “Vikings vs. Bears, Eagles vs. Titans, Bengals vs. Texans and Raiders vs. Chargers.” Added Feazel: “Underdogs and defenses came out swinging, offenses went quiet, and touchdowns were much harder to locate. In Week 1, it felt like everyone with a jersey found the end zone. “This Sunday, the end zone required a reservation.” The masses managed to claw a little back in the few games where favorites won and covered, and\/or there was some scoring. Thursday night, for example: Bills 41, Lions 31, with Buffalo a 5.5-point home favorite and a 54.5 total, the highest so far in this young season. That was after Week 1 prime-time games saw the Under go 3-1. “The book enjoyed a steady diet of low-scoring prime-time games in Week 1,” Feazel said. “But Week 2 began with an all-you-can-eat touchdown buffet for bettors on Thursday night. “Seven of the eight most popular touchdown scorers cashed.” Bills wideout D.J. Moore was the eighth, and he might\u2019ve scored if not for exiting with a shoulder injury late in the first half. Said Horne: “The best games for betters were Lions vs. Bills, Commanders vs. Cowboys, Dolphins vs. 49ers and Seahawks vs. Cardinals.” Dallas, a 4.5-point home favorite, rolled over Washington 37-20 in a game that cleared the 51.5 total. San Francisco smacked Miami 35-13, covering as a 12.5-point favorite, and Over 45.5 came in, as well. Seattle was a 4.5-point road favorite vs. Arizona and rolled 31-7, though that result fell short of the 41 total. “Overall, it was [still] a great week for the book and a tough one for bettors,” Horne said. The public didn\u2019t quite get what It needed out of college football Week 3 odds, either, particularly BetMGM customers, and especially in the Game of the Day, LSU vs. Ole Miss. The Tigers were 3-point road favorites and lost outright 32-24. “The book had a really solid day, particularly the live [in-game] book,” BetMGM trading manager Seamus Magee said. “A lot of action came in on LSU when it was down in the first half. We needed Ole Miss outright and got there.” No. 9 Texas A&M laying a huge egg vs. Kentucky also boosted the bookmakers. The Aggies were 17-point home favorites and trailed 28-7 late in the third quarter, en route to a 31-21 loss. “A&M going down outright was also a huge game for our in-play book,” Magee said. The wild North Carolina State-Vanderbilt ending wasn\u2019t a notable decision for BetMGM. Still, you had to feel sick for N.C. State moneyline bettors and, perhaps more so, N.C State +3 bettors. With seven seconds left, the underdog Wolfpack led 31-28 while facing fourth-and-7 from their own 5-yard line. Coach Dave Doeren decided to try to have QB Cayden Daniels run out the clock while taking a safety on the game\u2019s final play. But shockingly, Daniels fumbled as he was tackled in the end zone. Vandy recovered with no time left and won 35-31. N.C. State not only didn\u2019t finish off the modest moneyline upset, but didn\u2019t cover as a 3-point \u2018dog either. An absolute double-whammy of epic proportions, and arguably the bad beat of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After a big Week 1 for the public betting masses, the pendulum sharply swung back in the NFL Week 2 odds market. Popular favorites came up big in Week 1 and contrastingly small in Week 2. So the bookmakers beat the bettors, particularly on Sunday. “It was an extremely rough week for the bettors, with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33685"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}