Bookmakers avoided a historic, multimillion-dollar loss on Sunday night’s regular-season finale, when Las Vegas Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson broke a tie with a 47-yard field goal on the final play of overtime in a 35-32 win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
For sportsbooks, it would’ve been the most expensive tie in NFL betting history.
Bookmakers acknowledged that they were on the hook for millions if the Chargers and Raiders had ended in a tie. The books endured an overtime sweat for the ages but escaped mostly unscathed.
Upsets by the Jacksonville Jaguars and Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday afternoon created a scenario in which the Chargers and Raiders would each earn playoff berths with a tie, while a loss would end either team’s postseason hopes. The incentive to play for a tie had increased.
Since overtime was implemented in 1974, 27 regular-season games — less than 1% — have ended in a tie. Sportsbooks typically offer anywhere from 60-1 odds or higher on a tie. This week, at The Borgata in Atlantic City, the odds of the Chargers-Raiders game ending in a tie were bet down from 50-1 to 11-1.
The most popular two-team parlay Sunday afternoon at sportsbook PointsBet was Jaguars on the money line and a Chargers-Raiders tie. Before the Sunday night game kicked off, PointsBet’s liability on a tie had reached seven figures, according to a spokesman for the book. DraftKings was in a similar situation.
“It could get worse and probably will,” Johnny Avello, sportsbook director for DraftKings, said.
Bettors posted pictures of betting slips with long odds and big payouts, all built around the game ending in a tie.
Some bettors kept it simple, parlaying the underdog Jaguars and underdog Steelers on the money-line along with Chargers-Raiders ending in a tie. With Jacksonville a 14.5-point underdog to the Indianapolis Colts and Pittsburgh a 3.5-point underdog to the Baltimore Ravens, odds on such parlays were longer than 600-1 at some shops.
Other bettors got more…
Source : espn
