The bookmakers dared bettors to make all the Tampa Bay Buccaneers bets they wanted and it paid off. The New England Patriots lost 19-17 and covered the 6.5-point spread as sportsbooks came away with one of the biggest wins in recent history.
"It was the biggest regular-season decision in the sportsbook's history, with very lopsided Tampa Bay money," said PointsBet spokesman Patrick Eichner. "Winning by just two was a great result."
Virtually every sportsbook had more than 85 percent of the money on the Buccaneers, with the exception of Caesars, who took two $500,000 wagers on the Patriots. One was Patriots +3.5 at the half, the other was Patriots +7 for the game — both of which cashed.
Eichner said if the Patriots' 56-yard field goal went through the uprights, it "would have been the icing on the cake," knocking out all of the parlays that had the Bucs moneyline and the bettors that were able to tease down Buccaneers -6 to -1.5 and get the win.
"We were certainly hoping for that field goal, but we'll take it," said the Superbook's Jay Kornegay.
Kornegay said it was a big win for the book but needed the field goal to be "10 inches to the right" for it to be the biggest win of the year.
Sportsbooks also won on the popular Tom Brady throwing for more than 300 yards prop and on the bet that the game would go over 49.5 points. Thanks in part to the rain, Brady finished with 269 yards passing, and the total fell short by two touchdowns.
Other big wins for the sportsbooks today included the 5.5-point underdog New YorkJets beating the TennesseeTitans outright and the 7-point underdog New York Giants beating the New Orleans Saints.
The biggest loss was the Kansas City Chiefs covering as 7-point favorites over the Philadelphia Eagles. Big money, as always, was on the Chiefs, who covered for only the third time in their last 15 tries.
