NFL Week 7 betting roundup: One bettor put 23 bets worth $2.56m on four games. How did it turn out?
One bettor at BetMGM had an extremely eventful Sunday.
This particular bettor wagered a whopping $2.56 million (to win as much as $2.3 million) across 23 NFL bets on Sunday. And those bets were made on only four games — all of which were played at the same time.
The bettor had seven bets on three games: Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Football Team, Detroit Lions vs. Atlanta Falcons and Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Tennessee Titans. There were also two wagers on the Green Bay Packers vs. Houston Texans game.
Let’s start with the good. The bettor won all seven bets on Washington, winning $700K on that game in all.
$110K to win $100K on Washington -1
$110K to win $100K on Washington -2
$115K to win $100K on Washington pick ’em first quarter
$110K to win $100K on Washington (-110) moneyline first quarter
$100K to win $100K on Washington -0.5 first half half
$120K to win $100K on Washington (-120) moneyline first half
$115K to win $100K on Washington (-115) moneyline
The good vibes continued with the Lions-Falcons game.
Two bets were placed on the first quarter: Lions +0.5 and Lions (+100) moneyline. Both cashed. Two more wagers came in on the Lions moneyline and +0.5 for the first half. After leading 7-0 after one quarter, the Falcons took a 14-10 lead into halftime. Those two bets were losers.
And it looked like more losers were incoming. The bettor had three more six-figure wagers on the Lions — $110K on the Lions at +1, $100K on the Lions (+100) moneyline and another $110K on the Lions when the spread was a pick ‘em.
After a Falcons fumble, the Lions took a 16-14 lead on a Matt Prater field goal with 3:16 left in regulation. On the subsequent drive, the Falcons drove right down the field and forced Detroit to use all three of its timeouts. At that point, the Falcons had a first-and-goal from the 10 with 1:12 to go.
With the Lions out of ways to stop the clock, the Falcons could run the clock down and kick a chip-shot field goal to win the game. But that’s not what happened. Todd Gurley mistakenly scored on the next play — a play where the Lions were allowing him to score.
All of a sudden, now trailing 22-16 with 1:04 to play, the Lions were alive. They drove 75 yards in eight plays, tied the game as time expired on a Matthew Stafford touchdown pass to T.J. Hockenson, and then won 23-22 on a Prater extra point.
Had the Falcons won, that game would have been a net loss of $305K for this bettor. Instead, the bettor ended up winning a total of $265K on the Lions.
Here is the full list of bets:
$110K to win $100K on Lions +1
$100K to win $100K on Lions (+100) moneyline
$110K to win $100K on Lions pick ’em
$150K to win $100K on Lions +0.5 first quarter
$100K to win $100K on Lions (+100) moneyline first quarter
$125K to win $100K on Lions +0.5 first half
$110K to win $100K on Lions (-110) moneyline first half
With these two games, the bettor was up $965K — but two other games sunk the day.
The bettor lost all seven wagers on the Steelers-Titans game for a loss of $775K. It was a dramatic game, too. The Steelers led 27-7 early in the third quarter, but the Titans embarked on a late-game comeback and had a chance to send the game to overtime. Unfortunately for the bettor, Stephen Gostkowski’s 45-yard field goal try to tie the game in the final seconds was wide right and the Steelers won, 27-24.
$110K to win $100K on Titans -1
$120K to win $100K on Titans (-120) moneyline
$110K to win $100K on Titans -1.5
$110K to win $100K on Titans pick ’em first quarter
$110K to win $100K on Titans (-110) moneyline first quarter
$100K to win $100K on Titans -0.5 first half
$115K to win $100K on Titans (-115) moneyline first half
Finally, there were two bets made on the Packers against the Texans: $90,909.09 on the Packers team total over 10.5 (+110) for the first quarter and $105K on the Packers over 27.5 points for the first half. Both lost, meaning the bettor hit on 12 wagers but lost on 11 others.
In all, $965K was won and $970,909.09 was lost. Net total: -$5,909.09.
Falcons not the only bad beat
The craziness of the Falcons-Lions game did not yield the only bad beat of the early games. The Cleveland Browns were favored on the road against the Cincinnati Bengals. Throughout the week the spread moved between three and four points, eventually closing with the Browns as four-point favorites.
That point proved to be very significant. The game was a back-and-forth affair with the Bengals eventually taking a 34-31 lead with 1:06 to play. From there, Baker Mayfield and the Browns responded with Mayfield hitting rookie Donovan Peoples-Jones for a game-winning 24-yard touchdown with just 11 seconds to go.
That touchdown put the Browns up 37-34 with the extra point to follow. That’s when Cody Parkey stepped in and pushed the extra point, keeping the margin at three points. If you were on the underdogs, it was a cause for celebration. But if you were on the Browns, it was a brutal beat.
And for one BetMGM bettor who had $120,000 on the Browns -3, it was a push, but still a punch in the gut.
Jets leave Cowboys as only team winless ATS
The New York Jets dropped to 0-7 on the year with a loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, but the Jets finally covered the spread. New York closed as a 10-point underdog, but ended up losing 18-10 to stay inside the number.
It was the first time all year the Jets had covered. Now just one team has yet to cover the spread in 2020: the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys opened as two-point favorites against the Washington Football Team, but the line swung to Washington -1 at close.
It wasn’t close as Washington destroyed the Cowboys 25-3. Dallas dropped to 2-5 on the year with the loss and is now a miserable 0-7 against the spread.
Dallas was once one of the main teams the public loved to bet on. It has swung in the opposite direction in 2020.
“The Cowboys used to be a public team, now people like to bet against them. They opened up as a two-point favorite and closed as a one-point dog and got spanked by Washington,” Jeff Stoneback, director of trading for MGM Resorts, told Yahoo Sports.
Tough Sunday for sportsbook
Sunday was a rough day for the sportsbook, with Washington-Dallas as one of the five biggest losers of the day. The roughest outcome for MGM was the Los Angeles Chargers covering the nine-point spread against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Kansas City Chiefs covering seven points against the Denver Broncos was another big loser for the book.
“The public was all over the Chiefs like they are every week even though the professionals were on the Broncos. That game went from an opening number of 9 down to 7,” Stoneback said.
The Falcons-Lions game was also a tough beat for MGM, as was the Packers (-2.5) over the Texans.
“The Lions opened up +3 and went all the way down to a pick ‘em. The Falcons could not fall down close enough to the end zone there and they did their second-half collapse in one minute, four seconds,” Stoneback said.
“Last play of the game. That one really hurt.”
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