Colorado win leads to another ‘ugly’ result for sportsbooks

Deion Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes are now 2-0, winning the games in very different fashion.

Last week, it was a shocking 45-42 upset of then-No. 17 TCU as a 21-point underdog, which cost sportsbooks dearly because of the +800 odds that were offered on the Colorado ML, and ended up cashing.

The lookahead line on Colorado-Nebraska had been Nebraska around an 8.5-point favorite at sportsbooks; after Colorado won, it re-opened Nebraska -1.5 and quickly moved to Colorado -3.

This week, the public was all over the Buffs against Nebraska, coming out in historic droves. At PointsBet/Fanatics, as of Thursday, more money had been bet on Colorado to cover than on 30 NFL teams, with the exception of the Chiefs and Lions.

Colorado to cover was the most-bet game at multiple sportsbooks, including BetMGM, where 85% of the bets were on Colorado -3, three times the number of bets as on any other Week 2 college football game.

With Colorado winning 36-14, most sportsbooks lost on the game.

“It was a disaster,” Zachary Lucas, retail sportsbook director at TwinSpires texted. “We took a boatload of spread cash today and second-half bets. Worse this week than last week.”

“Ugly!” Chuck Esposito, sportsbook director at Station Casinos, texted. “Late sharp action was on the Huskers, but public was backing the Buffs, We need Nebraska straight, parlays and ML.”

It wasn’t all bad for sportsbooks, though, as many bigger bets from respected players were backing the Cornhuskers.

“We definitely needed Nebraska, but we had some big bets on the dog,” Chris Andrews, South Point sportsbook director texted me. “I’d had results that were much worse. Last week was worse because of the [Colorado] ML.”

“It was mostly Nebraska money here,” Thomas Gable, sportsbook director at The Borgata in New Jersey texted me. “Absolutely a good result.”

The biggest reported bet came at FanDuel sportsbook, which took a $1 million on wager on Colorado -2.5 before kickoff.