Nowhere is the relative quiet of the Atlanta Falcons’ march to Super Bowl LI more pronounced than at the sportsbooks.
Sportsbook operator CG Technology told ESPN that fewer bettors placed futures wagers on the Falcons to win the NFL’s title game when the season kicked off in September than the Cleveland Browns, who finished with an anemic 1-15 record.
“We took a $5,000 bet at 40-1 on the Falcons to win the Super Bowl,” CG Technology vice president Jason Simbal told the network, noting that the ticket would net $200,000.
“And we still win almost a million on the Falcons. That’s how few people bet them.”
The Falcons, who were installed as three-point underdogs against the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, opened at 30/1 to win the team’s first championship this summer – a number that drifted to as high as 150/1 after a season-opening loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. William Hill’s Nevada sportsbook said it wrote 184 futures tickets on Atlanta at odds of 100/1 or greater.
The win by the Patriots, who opened at 8/1 odds to win the Super Bowl, would mean a bigger loss for the sportsbooks. William Hill said 21 of the 24 largest remaining futures tickets by total dollars wagered are on New England.
