Maybe shy away from the team that doesn’t have players
I don’t bet on sports, mainly because I can’t do so legally from where I live, but also because I’m terrible at it. Therefore, me making fun of the betting public for not knowing anything is extremely hypocritical, but I’ll do it anyway. The public juuust couldn’t help themselves this weekend, could they? Even though four of the Cleveland Browns’ top receivers – including Jarvis Landy – were ruled out of yesterday’s game against the New York Jets because of COVID-19 rules and half the offensive line was gone, as well, bettors still believed the Browns would beat the lowly Jets and beat them fairly easily. Lest they forget, as much as it doesn’t look like it, the Jets are still a team made up of professional football players. Because of the public’s forgetfulness, however, sportsbooks did very well on that game.
A 9.5-point favorite, the Browns dropped to just a 6.5-point favorite after the news of the receivers hit the ticker. According to ESPN’s David Purdum, 80 percent of the money was on the Browns before kickoff. And these bets were both on the moneyline and with the spread.
Now, the Jets stink to high heaven, so it was a close game, but New York won by a touchdown and 80 percent of the money went into the casinos’ pockets.
Look, I am well aware that I said people should stop betting on the Jets earlier this season, but in my defense, a) people SHOULD still not be betting on a 2-13 team, and b) the Browns were without an offense Sunday, so if there was a time to put money on the Jets, that would have been it.
Plus, the bets I was talking about before were mostly stupid bets like the Jets to win the Super Bowl. I mean, what is even the point?
What a way to win your first game
The New York Jets were also one of the highlights of last weekend, as they beat the Los Angeles Rams as 17-point underdogs. According to ESPN, there were just three upsets by 17-point or greater underdogs from 1978 to 2017. There has now been such an upset in each of the last three seasons.
Last week’s win destroyed about 80 percent of the parlays placed at BetMGM, sportsbook director Jeff Stoneback told ESPN. The Borgata’s sportsbook director said that there were “literally, no wagers on the Jets all week,” meaning picking the Jets and the points. A few people did take the +950 moneyline on the Jets to beat the Rams.
On bettor actually placed a $100 wager with FanDuel in September that the Jets would get their first win in Week 15 against the Rams. That person won $12,100.
So now the New York Jets are on a two-game winning streak and go into the final game of the season as only 3.5-point underdogs to the normally formidable New England Patriots (though not this year). The Jets might be happy that they have made a lot of bettors upset the last couple weeks, but they have also made their own fans upset. Now that they have won a couple games, they went from having the top pick in the draft to picking number two. The Jacksonville Jaguars have the loser tiebreaker and have locked in the number one selection.
