Notable bets is a regular Monday roundup of wagers -- some sharper than others -- made recently at sportsbooks across the nation.
The betting public has had better weekends.
First, they flocked to back underdog Conor McGregor with a flurry of five-figure wagers across Las Vegas. Then they woke up Sunday and went against a pair of disrespected home underdogs in the Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills. The knockout punch came late Sunday afternoon, when the public darling Los Angeles Rams suffered their first spread defeat of the season.
It all added up to a big weekend for the books.
"Week 2 was our best Sunday of the season, but that was probably one of the best Sundays we've ever had, other than Super Bowl," MGM sportsbook director Jeff Stoneback said as the Sunday afternoon results were finalizing. "We're not going to get there, but we're having a good day. It's been a good season. All but one week have been good for us."
Here are the notable bets:
NFL
• The Rams on Sunday were the most popular bet of the entire season. More bets were placed on the Rams in Sunday's game at Seattle than had been placed on any other team in any game this season at Station Casinos' sportsbooks in Nevada. The Rams, who were 7-point favorites over the Seahawks, failed to cover the spread in a 33-31 win.
• By the time the Rams' game came to a close, an estimated 90 percent of all parlay bets at the Westgate SuperBook had been eliminated. "It was close to a six-figure win on that game," Westgate head football oddsmaker Ed Salmons said. "Best Sunday of the season for us."
• "We had a ton of parlay liability on the Rams," a sportsbook manager at Caesars Palace said in an email. "The public loved them."
• At William Hill's Nevada and New Jersey sportsbooks, 75 percent of the bets and 79 percent of the money wagered on Rams-Seahawks was on Los Angeles.
• More than 80 percent of the money wagered on Rams-Seahawks was on the Rams at FanDuel's sportsbook, producing the book's biggest win of the day.
• The Westgate took a pair of $40,000 bets on the Rams -7.5 and the Houston Texans -3.5. Both bets lost.
• MGM took multiple six-figure bets from a bettor on the Tennessee Titans, New York Giants and Arizona Cardinals. The bettor, who has played big weekly with MGM during the season, took the Titans and Giants on the spread and the moneyline. Both teams lost on final-play field goals, including a 63-yarder by Carolina's Graham Gano against the Giants. The underdog Cardinals beat the San Francisco 49ers 28-18. The bets were first reported by Covers.com and confirmed by ESPN.
• The Browns' upset of the favored Baltimore Ravens and the Bills' straight-up win over the Titans accounted for roughly 70 percent of MGM sportsbooks' overall win Sunday.
• In addition to the SuperBook and MGM sportsbooks, William Hill, Caesars and Station Casinos each reported a winning Sunday.
• The SuperBook opened the New England Patriots as 3.5-point home favorites over the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs in next Sunday's prime-time game. "We think it's a really good spot for the Patriots," Salmons said. "We were thinking of going a little higher, maybe 4 or 4.5."
• The South Point sportsbook last week took a $20,000 bet on the Baltimore Ravens to win the Super Bowl at 20-1 odds, which would result in a $400,000 net profit. The Ravens lost to the Browns 12-9 in overtime on Sunday, to fall to 3-2.
• The biggest win Sunday for DraftKings' New Jersey sportsbook was the Detroit Lions' 31-23 victory over the Green Bay Packers.
• Home underdogs are off to a 16-6 mark against the spread.
• Top-five teams to win the Super Bowl by money wagered at Caesars Palace:
1. Rams
2. Patriots
3. Packers
4. Vikings
5. Steelers
College football
• Hawaii QB Cole McDonald was held out of Saturday's nightcap against Wyoming with an undisclosed injury. The Rainbow Warriors opened as 3.5-point favorites. The line started to dip sharply at 9 p.m., three hours before kickoff and two hours before media reports began surfacing that McDonald was out. After it was made official, Wyoming closed as a 3.5-point favorite. Hawaii won 17-13. The over/under, after opening at 57.5, closed at 51.5 at the SuperBook.
"The public had no idea he wasn't playing and kept betting Hawaii," Salmons of the Westgate said. "So we really needed Wyoming in that game. That really hurt us."
• LSU-Florida, Oklahoma-Texas and Notre Dame, the three most-heavily bet college football games at Caesars Palace, each attracted twice the amount of money as what was wagered on either of Sunday's two baseball playoff games.
• Notable opening lines at Caesars Palace:
Georgia -7 at LSU
Wisconsin at Michigan -7
Washington -3.5 at Oregon
Michigan State at Penn State -13
Missouri at Alabama -28
Minnesota at Ohio State -29.5
Pittsburgh at Notre Dame -21.5
UFC 229: Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor
• More than $1 million was bet on the UFC main event featuring Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor at MGM sportsbooks, according to Stoneback.
• For every one bet on the favored Nurmagomedov, there were six bets on McGregor at MGM. Nurmagomedov, who closed around a -180 favorite, submitted McGregor in the fourth round.
• MGM took a six-figure bet on Nurmagomedov at -160 odds, but Stoneback said, "It was amazing how many five-figure bets we got on Mayweather."
• The SuperBook said it took a "ton" of five-figure bets on each fighter, helping generate a handle almost identical to how much was wagered on the Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez fight in September.
Odds and ends
• Parlay: On Saturday, a bettor at the SuperBook hit a two-team $25,000 parlay on the Colorado Buffaloes and New York Yankees that paid $68,000.
• Parlay: A bettor at the FanDuel sportsbook hit a $1,000 four-team parlay off all first-half points. The bettor took the Miami Dolphins +3.5, the Pittsburgh Steelers -2.5, the Minnesota Vikings +1.5 and the Arizona Cardinals +2.5. Each covered the number in the first half, and the bettor won $13,771.90, according to FanDuel.
• Penny slots: Nevada sportsbooks won an all-time high $249.7 million in 2017. In just the month of August, Nevada casinos won $265.7 million off of penny slots.
• Parlay: A bettor at DraftKings hit a $5 eight-team money-line parlay that paid $619.42 by correctly picking the winner of each of the eight 1 p.m. games: Browns, Lions, Bengals, Jets, Panthers, Bills, Steelers and Chiefs.