Sportsbook got what they want Saturday night when, after LSU lost outright, Alabama failed to cover.
Bettors couldn’t get enough of the Crimson Tide, betting them up to -29 against Missouri, and the bets continued.
BetMGM said the most tickets it wrote on college football this weekend said “Alabama -28” on them, while 96 percent of the money at William Hill sportsbooks was on Alabama to cover — the most money on a spread of any game.
In fact, William Hill put out a graphic before games kicked off and not a single one of the four spread bets with the most money on them won:
Alabama -28
UCF -27.5
West Virginia +6.5
Texas -17.5
“Missouri was our biggest need of the day in college football,” said John Murray, the director of the race and sportsbook at the Superbook in Vegas.
The defending National Champions going down in their first game of 2020 was also a big result for some sportsbooks.
For PointsBet, the majority of bettors took Mississippi State as more than two-touchdown underdogs. But a healthy amount of money came in on the Tigers' moneyline — even at -740.
"We took some action on Mississippi State live," PointsBet's Patrick Eichner said. "But still, over 80% moneyline tickets and handle on LSU makes this one of the best, and most likely the best, college football result of the day."
It was hard to tell who this LSU team was given the tremendous turnover of talent, as we noted pregame.
And how big a decision LSU was varied depending on what they took in. FanDuel took 77 percent of the money on LSU covering, while William Hill only had 54 percent of the money on the Tigers.
Eric Osterman at the Superbook said they took some Mississippi State moneyline action, but that LSU losing outright wasn’t a big decision.
Two books took massive bets involving the Tigers.
One person bet $261,652 on the over of 57 points at DraftKings. That bet net $238,103 since 78 points were scored.
The other was a $100,000 five-team parlay that involved LSU's moneyline.
