Sportsbooks wins big on defeat of Conor McGregor, NFL upset

On a Saturday night, playmaker Conor McGregor lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov during UFC 229, followed by an NFL Sunday filled with surprises that some bookmakers have called their best.

MGM, which operates sports betting in Nevada, New Jersey and Mississippi, said the wager on McGregor and Nurmagomedov bets on Saturday in Las Vegas was seven digits, the majority of which were underdogs. For every bet on Nurmagomedov at the MGM, there were six on McGregor, and they were not all small bets either.

"It was amazing how many five-digit bets we were getting on McGregor," said Jeff Stoneback, director of sports betting at MGM. "I would see a $ 30,000 [bet] find another $ 30,000, then $ 20,000; therefore, not only did the public wager small amounts, but there was also a large public room on McGregor. "

The price of the fight fluctuated throughout Saturday. Nurmagomedov was worth only -160 in some books, before closing at around 200 favorites. Sportsbooks said that there was much money respected and important about Nurmagomedov too, but not as much as what had been bet on McGregor. Nurmagomedov introduced McGregor in the fourth round, a profitable result for Nevada sports betting in New Jersey.

Caesars Palace said the amount of the Bet on Nurmagomedov-McGregor accounted for about "one-third" of the amount wagered during last year's boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and McGregor, who had generated around $ 60 million in bets on the Nevada scale.

DraftKings' sports betting in New Jersey said that 70% of the money wagered on the fight was on McGregor and compared the general description of the bets on the fight to the amount wagered on an NFL match not at the times of great listening.

Stoneback of the MGM said that the betting handle on Nurmagomedov-McGregor was in the top 10 of all fights, boxing or MMA, during his career of more than 20 years and that the result had limited a good football match university Saturday. House.

"The fight put the icing on the cake," Stoneback said.

Sunday was even better for books.

The NFL outsiders were 8 to 5 against Sunday, which is still a bad omen for the public of betting that usually gravitates to favorites. The Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills have managed to create surprises on the big favorites, the Baltimore Ravens and the Tennessee Titans, respectively.

The knockout for the public was carried by the Los Angeles Rams, who failed to cover the 7-point gap in a 33-31 win over the Seattle Seahawks underdogs . Sports Casino Station Casinos said that it had taken more individual bets on the Rams to cover the Sunday gap than they had done with any team in any game of the season.

The underdogs at home went 4-0 against the spread spread on Sunday and are now 16-6 against the number of the season.

"The best Sunday of the season for us," said Ed Salmons of the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas.

"The season has been good," added Stoneback. "Every week except one has been good for us."