Sports betting roundup: College football, NFL, WNBA provide plenty of excitement

Published Sep. 23, 2024 11:41 a.m. ET

Associated Press

Exciting games in college football, another slate of games in the NFL, the start of the WNBA playoffs and baseball nearing the end of its season all made for a big week in sports betting.

In NFL betting, like in Week 2, there were a number of upsets, including to some of the most-bet teams at the BetMGM online sportsbook.

Trends of the Week

On Sunday Night Football, the Kansas City Chiefs hung on to beat the Atlanta Falcons 22-17. Atlanta turned the ball over on downs on its final two possessions, including on the Kansas City 13-yard line. This was good for bettors, with 75% of the bets and 66% of the money on the Chiefs to cover the three-point spread. The same went for the moneyline with 72% of the bets and 82% of the money on the Chiefs.

One prop did go against the Chiefs in a tough way: the over for Patrick Mahomes' rushing yards (19.5). Mahomes had 30 rushing yards before he took kneel-downs at the end of the game of -5, -4 and -4 yards to finish with 17.

Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever opened the WNBA playoffs at Connecticut, where the Sun were 6.5-point favorites. They took in 32% of the bets and 46% of the money in against-the-spread betting. Connecticut ended up blowing out Indiana 93-69. Clark finished with 11 points, four rebounds and eight assists. Her player props for over points (20.5), under assists (8.5) and over 3-pointers made (3.5) were the most bet for the game. Two of the three did not hit.

Upsets of the Week

The three most-bet teams in terms of money to cover the spread on Sunday in the NFL were the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-6), New Orleans Saints (-3) and Tennessee Titans (-3). Not only did all three fail to cover, but all three lost straight up.

It was a similar story with the NFL anytime touchdown scorer market. Three of the four most-bet players in terms of bets placed did not score. Rashid Shaheed (+150), Davante Adams (+140) and CeeDee Lamb (+100) did not find the end zone, while Justin Fields (+250) did.

One of the best college football games of the weekend was Michigan upsetting Southern California 27-24. USC was a 4.5-point favorite and took in 75% of the bets and 74% of the money.

Coming Up

With one week left in the regular season, the Los Angeles Dodgers (+325) are still the favorites to win the World Series in MLB betting.

Right behind them are the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies, who are both +450. The Houston Astros are right behind at +800. Those four teams are the only ones with odds better than +1000.

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This column was provided to The Associated Press by BetMGM online sportsbook.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports