National Football League

Sports bettors win big thanks to Raiders, Vikings and Messi, Argentina

Updated Dec. 19, 2022 2:46 p.m. ET

If you made money betting NFL Week 15, well, you earned it. This was arguably the craziest weekend of the season for bettors and bookmakers alike.

Consider that we witnessed the biggest comeback in NFL history on Saturday. And by Sunday evening, that achievement was fully overshadowed by one of the most outrageous endings you might ever see.

Let’s recap the football betting week that was.

Pitchy-pitchy-woo-whoops

Surely you’ve seen it by now, but in case you didn’t: With time running out and the Patriots-Raiders game tied at 24, New England called a draw play near midfield. Rhamondre Stevenson ran for 23 yards to the Las Vegas 32-yard line, where the play probably should’ve ended, sending the game to overtime.

But inexplicably – again, this is a tie game – Stevenson pitched it to Jakobi Meyers, who incredibly inexplicably then tried a long-distance lateral to quarterback Mac Jones. In stepped Raiders defensive end Chandler Jones, who caught the lateral and stiff-armed the Pats QB into oblivion while rumbling 48 yards for a touchdown.

And just like that, the Raiders win in regulation, 30-24. Oh, and they covered as 2.5-point home favorites and cashed a bunch of moneyline tickets, too.

"That mayhem at the end of the Raiders game made us a small loser as we were dodging the Raiders moneyline," said Casey Degnon, senior risk supervisor at The SuperBook.

Added Zachary Lucas, director of retail sports for TwinSpires Sportsbook: "We had a rough afternoon/evening. That Raiders ending was a big swing for us. We needed the Pats for a sizable amount."

Parlay pick-me-up

Along with the wild win and cover that cashed plenty of straight bets, the Raiders also finished off or kept alive a lot of parlay/moneyline parlay tickets. That was the killer for BetMGM.

"That was no good for us," said BetMGM vice president of trading Jason Scott, noting the Raiders’ win just added to a host of NFL favorites getting victories. "It started with the 49ers on Thursday, then all three favorites won Saturday, then the last slate today was all four favorites."

By "last slate," Scott was referring to the four NFL games leading into Sunday night. The Raiders, Chargers, Bengals and Broncos – all favorites – all won.

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World Cup, Messi helps bettors

And there was that whole World Cup final thingy, too. Don’t think Lionel Messi’s Argentina outfit didn’t find its way into a bunch of NFL parlays. Messi & Co. delivered for bettors in a riveting win on penalty kicks after Argentina and France played to a 2-2 tie in regulation – thanks to a shocking France comeback – and were tied at 3 after extra time.

"Argentina was seven figures bad," Scott said before nutshelling the weekend. "Parlay players 1, BetMGM 0."

Minnesota miracle

The Indianapolis Colts should be grateful for the Patriots. If not for the Pats’ shocking case of unnecessary lateral mania – Did that really happen? Really? – we’d all still be talking about how Matt Ryan now has on his résumé the biggest blown Super Bowl lead and the biggest blown any-game lead in NFL history.

Indy went to Minnesota as a 3.5-point underdog. Oddsmakers have been suspicious of the Vikings all season and still had their doubts with the 11-3 squad entering Week 15. Those doubts looked much more justified when Minnesota found itself in a massive 33-0 halftime hole.

But then the Vikes came all the way back, tying it at 36 to force overtime. Then Greg Joseph, in the final seconds of OT, booted a 40-yard field goal to complete the comeback in an outlandish 39-36 victory.

How outlandish was it? PointsBet USA media analytics manager Wyatt Yearout said that when Indy went up 33-0 with eight seconds left in the first half, Minnesota had 90-1 odds (+9000) on the moneyline.

"We took a couple small bets. The largest was $5," Yearout said.

Those customers got quite the ROI on their $5 investments. Pretty nice to turn five bucks into $450.

Caesars Sports said its Minnesota-to-win odds peaked at 35-1 (+3500), with "a few small winners." The largest winner at Caesars was a customer who got down $2,000 on Minnesota at 12-1 (+1200) to win $24,000.

When Minnesota fell behind 17-0 late in the first quarter, I thought, "Well, what the hell," and put a little money on Vikings moneyline +225. And I figured that bet was long gone by halftime. But that’s the NFL for you, at least in this wild week.

The SuperBook actually did well to the Vikings comeback – because it wasn’t quite enough of a comeback. Keep in mind, Minnesota closed as a 3.5-point favorite and only won by 3.

"We needed the Colts to cover for a pretty decent decision, so we went from having our feet up in the back room to sweating," Degnon said. "But we ended up on the plus side there, even with the historic comeback."

Back to school

Lest we forget, college football bowl season also kicked off over the weekend, with several games across Friday and Saturday. These early games generally don’t generate much interest as the matchups are often far from intriguing. But one game was key for The SuperBook.

"Saturday night, the Frisco Bowl was a really good decision for us," Degnon said. "There was tons of public money on Boise State to cover 12.5 and 13. Luckily, North Texas kept it close."

Indeed, the Mean Green fell just short in a 35-32 setback.

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Bettors winners at WynnBet

The Vikings’ comeback and the Raiders’ insane walk-off victory weren’t the only eye-opening decisions in the NFL Week 15 odds market. The Jacksonville Jaguars – who, despite sitting at 6-8, are still alive for the playoffs – pulled a big overtime shocker against the Dallas Cowboys.

First, the Jags overcame a 27-10 deficit to tie it at 34 and force OT. Then Rayshawn Jenkins took an interception to the house to give Jacksonville a 40-34 victory. At WynnBet, that worked out well for bettors and not so much for oddsmakers.

"Today wasn’t really ideal for the book, as two plays significantly changed our day," WynnBet senior trader Chris Youn said. "The Jags’ pick-six to end the game and the Raiders’ [lateral]-recovery touchdown basically flipped our day to negative, going into the Sunday night game."

Cincinnati also bolstered bettors. The Bengals fell behind 17-0 at Tampa Bay but then scored 34 straight points in coasting to a 34-23 victory as 3.5-point favorites.

Cincy, now 10-4 straight up (SU) and 11-3 against the spread (ATS), has won six in a row on the field and 11 of 12 at the betting window.

"The Bengals coming back in the second half and eventually covering, along with the Over getting there, was another not-so-great result," Youn said.

The Bengals-Bucs total was WynnBet’s largest decision on any NFL Week 15 total. The total opened at 42.5 and climbed all the way to 47.5 by kickoff.

I like big bets and I cannot lie

One high-roller at Caesars Sports was firing on all cylinders in the NFL Week 15 odds market. Among the bets:

$110,000 on Falcons-Saints Under 43.5 (win)
$110,000 on Giants +4.5 (win)
$110,000 on Bengals-Bucs Over 44 (win)
$110,000 on Jets pick ‘em vs. Lions (loss)
$100,000 on Raiders moneyline +100 (win)

So that ended up being a pretty good Sunday for the customer, who finished $290,000 into the black. And the same bettor is on Packers -7 for another $110,000 on Monday night.

But here’s something that’s probably more relatable, presumably from someone who only had a couple dollars left in their mobile app and figured, "What the hell?" The bettor put $2.25 on Jets tight end C.J. Uzomah to have two touchdowns vs. the Lions at +6000 (60-1).

Uzomah then went out and scored both of the Jets’ touchdowns on receptions of 40 yards and 1 yard. New York ultimately lost to Detroit 20-17, but the Uzomah bettor cashed that 60-1 play for … $135.

Much like those $5 bets on Vikings +9000, though, you can’t beat the ROI. And it all spends.

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Patrick Everson is a sports betting analyst for FOX Sports and senior reporter for VegasInsider.com. He is a distinguished journalist in the national sports betting space. He’s based in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golfing in 110-degree heat. Follow him on Twitter: @PatrickE_Vegas.