Looked great for Baltimore
I didn’t catch much of the Monday Night Football game between the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens this week. Neither team interests me, so it wasn’t going to be appointment viewing, anyway, but my son has also discovered the show “Lost” on Hulu, so we watched some of that. I watched much of the second half, however, and I am glad I did because it was probably the best game of the season. That ending, though. It had to be a bit heartbreaking for the Browns to come out on the short end, but bettors that put money on them…oh, man.
The Ravens were favored by three points and when they took a two touchdown lead late in the third quarter, it looked like they would have no problem covering. But the Browns roared back to take the lead with 6:33 left while Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was in the locker room dealing with “cramps” (read: he was pooping). When he returned, he led his team on a touchdown drive and two-point conversion to regain the lead by seven with less than two minutes left.
Then it got crazy
In less than a minute, Cleveland tied it up again and then with two seconds left, Justin Tucker, who has the highest field goal percentage in NFL history, kicked a 55-yarder to give the Ravens a three point lead with two seconds on the clock.
Baltimore kicked it into the endzone, so Cleveland had one desperation play. As expected, it was a Yackety Sax mess, as Browns players kept lateraling the ball to each other, looking for some daylight to make a run downfield. But again as expected, it didn’t work out. Three-point win for the Ravens and a push for most bettors, right?
Oops. Though it was obvious that the Browns didn’t have a miracle in them, they kept trying to pitch the ball backwards until one lateral ended up in their own endzone. Wide receiver Jarvis Landry picked it up and stepped out the back of endzone to end the game. It tacked on a meaningless two points for a safety to give the Ravens a 47-42 victory.
The ultimate bad (or good) beat
But those two points were far from meaningless in the sports betting world, as it took the game from a push or even a Browns win for those who got 3.5 points to a Ravens win against the spread. According to ESPN, that silly, meaningless play at the end swung millions of dollars in bets at sportsbooks around the country.
Some books were stung because they took more money on the Ravens, while others were happy because their customers bet on the Browns.
“Pretty big swing. I’d classify it in the seven-figure range,” FanDuel sportsbooks director John Sheeran told ESPN. “Pretty expensive one, but I think bettors were due one given the way the season’s gone.”
William Hill reported taking a $126,000 bet on Baltimore -3, unfortunately for them.
And with all the back-and-forth in the fourth quarter, the live odds swung dramatically. The Browns went from +980 at one point to -420.
“One of my colleagues who was trading [the live odds] said he felt like he was playing in the game rather than trading it. It was pretty exhausting,” Sheeran said.
