The bad beat of one gambler is the lucky luck of another. The last play of the Monday night thriller between the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns produced both.
A desperation, a multilateral play by the Browns as time went on resulted in a safety for the Ravens who covered the difference and traded millions of dollars in bets on sports betting across the country.
The Ravens closed as three-point road favorites by consensus over the Browns. In a round-robin battle with major playoff implications, Baltimore player Justin Tucker scored a 55-yard field goal that gave the Ravens a 45-42 lead with two seconds to go. .
After a touchdown on the back throw, Cleveland had time for a play. It would be fortuitous for players who supported the Ravens and costly for those who sided with the Browns.
Baker Mayfield completed a pass to Kareem Hunt with a short incline in the middle. Hunt turned side to Rashard Higgins, the first of the play’s seven sides. The ball ended up in the hands of Jarvis Landry, who was pushed out of bounds in the end zone for safety, giving the Ravens a 47-42 victory.
The Ravens opened as 1-point favorites early last week in most sports books. The line grew over the course of the week and reached Baltimore -3 on Friday and even reached -3.5 in some sports betting in the hours leading up to Monday’s launch.
“In the last two hours, we made significant money to the Browns, when we went to 3.5,” Jason Scott, vice president of trading at BetMGM, told ESPN.
Despite the rain of late money in Cleveland, Scott said his book ended up needing the Browns to cover the difference, primarily because of the Ravens’ legal liability.
“We wish it hadn’t happened,” Scott said of the safety of the final play. “We were a little worse in Ravens, but it wasn’t significant.”
The betting action on the game was relatively balanced and produced mixed results for sports betting. Several sports books ended up with a little more money in Cleveland before the release, but there was a lot of support for the Ravens.
Betting broker William Hill US reported that he bet $ 126,000 on Baltimore -3, which went from a boost to a six-figure payday on the safety of the final play. FanDuel sports betting director John Sheeran said that, including in-game betting, the Ravens covering the distribution cost their store.
“A pretty big swing. I would rank it in the seven-digit range,” Sheeran said. “Pretty expensive, but I think the bettors had to win because of how the season has gone.”
PointsBet sports betting money was lower for the Browns, with 78% of Cleveland’s points distribution handle. PointsBet communications director Patrick Eichner said the Ravens winning by five instead of three produced “one of the biggest changes of the season” in favor of the book.
The game featured five leadership changes and three draws. The Browns won a 14-point deficit to advance in a fourth quarter that accounted for 35 points. Ravens starting quarterback Lamar Jackson, after leaving the game on ramps, returned in the fourth quarter to throw a touchdown pass to Marquise Brown in a fourth play that gave Baltimore the difference. Jackson led the Ravens in the final minute to set up Tucker’s winning field goal.
The wild finish produced major changes in the odds of live betting. The Browns’ odds of winning the game changed from +980, when they finished 14th, to -420 after taking the lead in the middle of the fourth quarter.
“One of my colleagues who traded [the live odds] he said he felt like he was playing the game instead of changing it. It was pretty exhausting, “Sheeran of FanDuel said.” It was a very popular game overall and the game increased total control. Without a doubt, it was our game with the most bet of the weekend in a certain way “.