NFL Week 2 betting roundup: Seahawks goal line stop on Patriots' Cam Newton saves $450K wager
Sunday night’s New England Patriots vs. Seattle Seahawks game came down to the wire in more ways than one.
The Seahawks held on for a dramatic 35-30 win when their defense stuffed a run from Patriots quarterback Cam Newton at the one-yard line with three seconds to go. Not only did that seal the win for the Seahawks, it meant they covered the four-point spread at BetMGM.
That play resulted in a major sigh of relief for one bettor who had a massive $450,000 wager on the Seahawks to cover the spread. At -120 odds, that winning bet yielded a return of $375,000.
AAAAAAAND EXHALE
That'll do it ❗️ pic.twitter.com/SQR6ndhmnV— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) September 21, 2020
When the Seahawks took a 35-23 lead with 4:32 to go, there couldn’t be many that expected such a breathtaking finish. But Newton and the Patriots — with the help of a curious play-calling gamble by Seattle — took it down to the final seconds of regulation. Newton had already scored on two one-yard runs in the game, but the third time was not the charm for the Patriots. Or for sportsbooks.
Jeff Stoneback, the Director of Trading for MGM Resorts, said it was the book’s biggest loss of the day. MGM also took a $100,000 bet on the over, which hit comfortably, so Sunday Night Football was not kind to the folks in Vegas.
“This game came down to the wire and we were on the wrong side of it,” Stoneback told Yahoo Sports. “That, by far, was our biggest loser of the day. We were giving money back and forth all day long and it came down to that last game and we came up inches short.”
But that game wasn’t all bad for MGM, which also received a $225,000 bet to win $204,545.45 on the under 45. The game finished well over the total, which was a win for the book.
Backdoor cover bites Bills backers
The Buffalo Bills got a fight, but emerged with a 2-0 record from a road game against the Miami Dolphins. Miami took a 20-17 lead early in the fourth quarter, but the Bills responded with back-to-back touchdown drives to take a commanding 31-20 lead with 3:09 to play.
From there, the only drama that remained involved the point spread. The Bills were 5.5-point favorites, and MGM received a $110,000 bet on Buffalo to cover. Unfortunately for that bettor, Ryan Fitzpatrick led the Dolphins right down the field and broke the hearts of Bills backers with an eight-yard touchdown pass to Mike Gesicki with 49 seconds remaining.
Final score: Bills 31, Dolphins 28. That brutal backdoor cover cost that one bettor a win of $100,000.
Three $150K wagers from one bettor
That Dolphins backdoor cover was a welcomed development for one bettor who placed three $150,000 bets to win $136,363.65 on Sunday and ended up hitting on two of three.
In addition to winning on Dolphins +5.5, this bettor cashed a ticket from a bet on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to cover an eight-point spread against the Carolina Panthers. They did so comfortably in a 31-17 win, the first for Tom Brady in a Tampa Bay uniform.
The third bet — the Detroit Lions +5.5 against the Green Bay Packers — did not end favorably. The Lions took a 14-3 lead after the first quarter but ended up getting blown out 42-24.
For those three bets in Sunday’s early window, our bettor finished with a $122,727.30 return.
Sunday’s other big winners
In addition to the $450,000 Seahawks wager and the two aforementioned $150,000 bets, there were a few other notable winning bets at MGM.
$200,000 to win $181,818.20 on the Baltimore Ravens covering 6.5 against the Houston Texans. The Ravens won 33-16.
$110,000 to win $100,000 on the over 53.5 points in the Atlanta Falcons vs. Dallas Cowboys game. The over hit comfortably in a wild 40-39 Cowboys win, a game that resulted in the bad beat of the weekend.
10-team parlay: $1,500 to win $37,000.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers, Buffalo Bills, Green Bay Packers, Tennessee Titans, Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs all on the moneyline, plus the Seattle Seahawks at -4.
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