Singled out on a Saturday, with a remarkable streak in play, Army-Navy will go down as one of the most-heavily bet regular-season college football games ever at U.S. sportsbooks, with tens of millions of dollars at stake across the nation.
• More bets were placed on Army-Navy at Caesars Sportsbook than were placed on any other regular-season college football game except one — Ohio State-Michigan.
• More money was riding on Army-Navy than any other event on a Saturday featuring a full slate of NBA, NHL and college basketball games and a UFC card.
• At some sportsbooks, Army-Navy attracted more money than the majority of Sunday’s NFL games. And, get this: Army-Navy wasn’t even on the board in the largest betting market in the U.S. New Jersey prohibits sportsbooks from taking bets on collegiate events that take place in the state. The game was played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
There were plenty of big bets in other spots, though. Jason Scott, vice president of trading for BetMGM, said the amount bet on Army-Navy was greater than what’s bet on an average non-primetime NFL game. A large chunk of the money bet on this year’s game, Scott said, came from five high-rollers, who combined to bet $1 million on Army-Navy.
“The big boys needed somewhere to bet today,” Scott told ESPN. “All standard behavior for these guys. It’s their average bet size.”
The Midshipmen upset the Black Knights as seven-point underdogs in a 17-13 win.
Much of the intrigue surrounding the game for bettors was the over/under total, which closed at 35.5, tied with Iowa-Wisconsin for the lowest of the season. It was the 16th straight Army-Navy game that stayed under the total, much to the delight of a bettor at Caesars Palace, who put $135,000 on under…
Source : espn
