Colorado attracts huge interest, dramatic Heisman odds movement

David Purdum, ESPN Staff WriterSep 4, 2023, 09:30 AM ET
Contents
Editor’s Picks Odds and ends NFL Week 1 lines Q&A with a bookmaker
Close
- Joined ESPN in 2014
- Journalist covering gambling industry since 2008

Only a select handful of games last season generated as much betting interest as Colorado‘s upset of TCU on Saturday, and money was still showing up on the Buffaloes at sportsbooks Sunday.

Colorado opened the Deion Sanders era with a 45-42 victory over TCU as 21-point underdogs. Sanders became the first non-interim coach to win his FBS debut as a 20-plus-point underdog since the 1978 FBS/FCS split, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

Simplebet, which provides in-game odds to U.S. sportsbooks, told ESPN that Colorado-TCU accounted for 16% of all college football bets Saturday, the greatest percentage of any game on the slate and larger than all but six games from last season. DraftKings said more bets were placed and more money staked on Colorado-TCU than any other game on the day “by far.”

FanDuel reported new bets on Colorado to win the national championship at 300-1 came in Sunday, and at DraftKings, more bets and more money had been placed on the Buffaloes to win it all than any other team over the weekend.

Bookmakers aren’t overly concerned with Colorado winning the national championship, though, at least not yet, and are still offering the Buffaloes at triple-digit odds. The Heisman Trophy odds are a different story.

Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the coach’s son who passed for a school-record 510 yards, saw his odds to win the Heisman Trophy move from 100-1 to 28-1 at Caesars Sportsbook, while running mate and two-way star Travis Hunter‘s Heisman odds went from 80-1 to 22-1. By the end of Saturday’s game, more bets had been placed at FanDuel on both Sanders and Hunter to win the Heisman Trophy than any other player.

Bookmakers first felt the “Prime Effect” in the winter as soon as they put up early odds on the 2023 college football season. The Buffaloes were installed as giant long shots, with national championship odds of around 300-1. Enough bets came in at those long odds that multiple sportsbooks entered the season with Colorado as the biggest liability in their national championship markets.

“They are being backed as if they were one of the favorites to win it all,” Ethan Useloff, a trader for PointsBet/Fanatics, said of the Buffaloes.

“It’s been pretty extraordinary,” Seamus Magee, college football trader for BetMGM, added.

Magee said BetMGM took a “big, six-figure” bet on Alabama to win the national championship earlier last week, which somewhat balanced out the action on Colorado.

“We’re rooting for the field vs. Alabama and Colorado,” Magee said on Friday, adding that he had been joking around with his boss about how big the hype around the Buffaloes would get if they pulled the upset against TCU.

“Every day,” he added, “I see a bet that we have to approve coming through over the limit on Colorado to do anything, whether it’s to win over 3.5 games, win the Pac-12, make the playoffs or win the whole thing.”

Odds and ends

Alabama opened as a consensus 7.5-point home favorite over Texas in the biggest game of Week 2, with a handful of sportsbooks opening the line at -7. The Crimson Tide were three-touchdown favorites over the Longhorns in Texas last season. Alabama won 20-19.

Other notable Week 2 lines

via Caesars Sportsbook

College football favorites went 32-33-1 against the spread Saturday. There were 36 overs and 30 unders.

Penn State, a 21-point favorite over West Virginia, had the ball at the Mountaineers’ 6-yard line with six seconds left and a 31-15 lead. A kneel down would’ve sealed the win, but Nittany Lions coach James Franklin called a quarterback keeper and Beau Pribula scampered into the end zone in the final seconds to give Penn State a 38-15 win that covered the spread.

NFL Week 1 lines

per Caesars Sportsbook, as of Sunday Sept 3

Detroit Lions at Kansas City Chiefs (-6.5, 54) (Thursday)
Carolina Panthers at Atlanta Falcons (-3.5, 39.5)
Houston Texans at Baltimore Ravens (-10, 44)
Cincinnati Bengals (-2.5, 47) at Cleveland Browns
Jacksonville Jaguars (-5, 45) at Indianapolis Colts
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Minnesota Vikings (-6, 45.5)
Tennessee Titans at New Orleans Saints (-3, 41)
San Francisco 49ers (-2.5, 41) at Pittsburgh Steelers
Arizona Cardinals at Washington Commanders (-7, 38)
Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears (-1, 43.5)
Las Vegas Raiders at Denver Broncos (-3.5, 44)
Miami Dolphins at Los Angeles Chargers (-3, 51)
Philadelphia Eagles (-4, 45) at New England Patriots
Los Angeles Rams at Seattle Seahawks (-5, 46.5)
Dallas Cowboys (-3.5, 46.5) at New York Giants
Buffalo Bills (-2.5, 46.5) at New York Jets (Monday)

Q&A with a bookmaker

In 2008, Joe Brennan was one of the original lobbyists encouraging New Jersey lobbyists to attempt to legalize sports betting. Fifteen years later-and five years after his quest for sports betting legalization was realized — Brennan is preparing to launch a new sportsbook with a different bookmaking and business strategy.

He spoke to ESPN’s David Purdum recently to discuss his upcoming sportsbook, Prime, and the contrarian approach he believes will make it successful. Prime is aiming to launch in Ohio in mid-September, followed by New Jersey and Kentucky.

Q: How would you describe Prime sportsbook?

A: It’s an American-style sportsbook. We’re willing to take fair limits and offer them to everyone, guaranteed if you’re [renowned pro bettor] Billy Walters. If we say it’s a $5,000 limit on an NFL side, then you can bet and rebet it as long as you like the number. We won’t limit you and we won’t close your account down.

Q: That’s a contrarian approach to most sportsbooks, which prefer to make their target audience recreational bettors, not professionals considered to be sharp. Why do you believe your approach will be successful?

A: All you’ve got to do is see how players vote with their food, with their dollars. They continue to play (bet) on the street and offshore. And because you’re a smart guy, you’re like, oh, well, they’re betting credit. A large number of post-up players continue to play offshore. In fact, most of the players who were serious players offshore prior to PASPA being overturned, continued to play offshore. They didn’t really migrate into the new U.S. regulated marketplace.

Q: How big of staff do you need to open a sportsbook? How big is yours?

A: We have 20 people full time in Cherry Hill (New Jersey). That’s primarily geared toward our service, payments, fraud prevention and compliance. (Prime outsources its oddsmaking and bookmaking process to international firm Plannatech).

Q: As someone who has seen the modern betting landscape come together from the beginning, how does it feel to be opening your own sportsbook soon?

A: I remember in 2008, when I was first starting all this, my wife asked me, how long is this going to take? I said to her, ‘three years, tops.’ Boy, did I miss that one. Fifteen years to get to this spot, but at the same time, in being late, we’re kind of arriving at just the right time.”