David Purdum, ESPN Staff Writer 6y

Notable bets: $9,000 on Vikings to win $450? Whoops

NFL, null, College Football

Notable bets is a regular Monday roundup of wagers -- some sharper than others -- made recently at sportsbooks across the nation.


NFL

• Bookmaker William Hill took an $18,000 money-line bet on the Minnesota Vikings to beat the Buffalo Bills straight-up at -1,800 odds Sunday morning. The bet would have netted $1,000. The Bills, who were 17-point underdogs, won 27-6, the largest NFL upset in the last 23 seasons.

• Shortly before kickoff, a bettor at the SuperBook placed a $9,000 money-line bet on the Vikings at -2,000 odds. The bet would have netted $450.

• "That was our biggest win of the morning," MGM director of trading Jeff Stoneback said of the Bills' upset. "A ton of parlays on the Vikings, and a lot of straight bets too. That was by far our biggest game of the day."

• The South Point sportsbook took two $1,000 money-line bets on the Buffalo Bills at +1,200 and +1,100. The bets netted $12,000 and $11,000 respectively.

• There were 255 money-line bets placed on the Bills to pull the upset at 10-1 odds at William Hill books in Nevada and New Jersey, the largest a $1,000 wager that earned a $10,000 profit.

• DraftKings sportsbook in New Jersey kept the Bills as an underdog to win the game, even leading 17-0 at the end of the first quarter. The book didn't make Buffalo the in-game favorite until it went up 24-0 in the second quarter.

• A bettor at an MGM sportsbook in Nevada placed multiple six-figure wagers on the New Orleans Saints, both on the point spread (-3 and -2.5) and on the moneyline. The Saints beat the Atlanta Falcons 43-37 in overtime, delivering MGM its largest single-game loss so far to this season, a "nice-sized six-figure decision," Stoneback said.

• The Saints-Falcons game drew more bets and more money than any other game this season at the new sportsbook at Harrah's Gulf Coast in Biloxi, Mississippi. "Place is rocking with Saints fans. Biggest turnout we have had all year for an NFL Sunday," Harrah's sportsbook manager Rob Portwood told ESPN in an email Sunday afternoon.

• A bettor on Sunday at the SuperBook placed a $50,000 bet on the Rams to win the Super Bowl at 7-2 odds.

• Las Vegas bookmaker Jimmy Vaccaro of the South Point tweeted that his shop took a $20,000 money-line parlay bet on the Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots, Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams. The bet would have netted $41,000.

• A VIP casino customer at the Westgate placed more than a dozen two-team parlays that included the over on the Rams-Los Angeles Chargers game. "He bet it for a lot and he parlayed it," said Ed Salmons, head football oddsmaker at the Westgate. "We needed the under and that game, I would say, had less than a 0 percent chance of going under. He did well." The Rams won 35-23. The over/under was 49.

• The South Point on Saturday took a $5,000 bet on the Cleveland Browns to win the AFC at 50-1.

• The Browns, fresh off a comeback win over the New York Jets, are at the Oakland Raiders this week. The line opened at pick 'em at the SuperBook. The Raiders had been 3-point favorites over the Browns in look-ahead lines posted by the SuperBook last week. Rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield is expected to get the start for Cleveland this week.

• "Unless the [Detroit] Lions win the game, we're going to lose money on the day," Salmons said. Multiple other Las Vegas sportsbooks said they were in the same situation, facing their first losing Sunday of the NFL season if the Patriots covered the spread.

• Two hours before kickoff, eight times more money had been bet on the favored Patriots than had been bet on the Lions. Detroit won 26-10 and easily covered as seven-point underdogs against New England.


College football

• One bettor at the SuperBook is heavily invested in the Crimson Tide. Already this season, the VIP customer has put $66,000 on Alabama to win the national championship at -110 odds and $5,000 on Tide quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to win the Heisman Trophy at 5-2 odds.

• Alabama is now a -225 favorite to win the national championship, and Tagovailoa is a -150 favorite to win the Heisman.

• Alabama opened as a 50-point favorite over Louisiana-Lafayette this week at the Wynn race and sportsbook.

• "We were a small loser [Saturday]," MGM's Stoneback said. "Our three biggest losers were the Alabama game, the Oregon game and the Wisconsin game."

• The South Point took a $72,000 money-line bet on Utah State to beat Air Force at -360 odds on Saturday. The Aggies won 42-32, and the bettor netted a $20,000 profit.

• William Hill took 14 money-line bets on Old Dominion at 30-1 to beat Virginia Tech. The Monarchs, behind a backup quarterback, upset the Hokies, who were 29-point favorites, 49-35. The largest two bets on ODU were each $40 and netted $1,200. William Hill also took a $50 money-line bet on the Hokies at -15,000 odds. The bet would have netted 35 cents.

• Stanford's comeback win over Oregon produced the SuperBook's biggest loss on Saturday. The Cardinal, who trailed by 17 at halftime, were as much as 9-1 underdogs. "We took zero Stanford action," Salmons said.

• Notable Week 5 opening lines from the Wynn race and sportsbook in Las Vegas:

Ohio State -3 at Penn State
Stanford at Notre Dame -3
Ole Miss at LSU -13.5
BYU at Washington -17
Syracuse at Clemson -20


Tiger Woods

• More bets were placed on Tiger to win the Tour Championship than any other golfer at the SuperBook -- and the book still came out a small winner. Woods won the tournament by 2 shots, notching his first PGA victory in five years.

• "We were a very small winner on the tournament," the MGM's Stoneback said. "With Tiger winning that's not a bad result. In the past, that was usually not good for us at all."

• Woods, at 9-1, is now the favorite to win next year's Masters at the Westgate.

• Woods is now a -220 favorite over Phil Mickelson in their pay-per-view match play event in November in Las Vegas, after opening at -130. Westgate head golf oddsmaker Jeff Sherman said over $10,000 had been wagered on the match, the bulk of it on Woods. However, the largest bet to be placed on the event is $4,000 on Mickelson, who finished in last at the Tour Championship.

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