NFL divisional round betting recap: Underdog Rams, Bengals both spoil $500K bets

The NFL’s divisional round brought an incredible amount of drama for bettors.

Three of the four games were decided by a last-second field goal. The other ended with a walk-off touchdown in overtime, capping off one of the most exciting weekends in recent memory.

After what transpired in Sunday night’s thriller between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs, it’s easy to forget just how crazy the Los Angeles Rams vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers game was.

The Bucs, the defending Super Bowl champions, fell behind 20-3 at halftime and then trailed 27-3 late in the third quarter. The Rams, though, got a little sloppy and allowed the Bucs to get back into the game. That might be putting it lightly.

The Rams lost three fumbles and missed a field goal and the Bucs took advantage, rallying all the way back to tie the score at 27-27 with 42 seconds to play.

No matter what side of the betting equation you were on, you were feeling an enormous sense of anxiety. The Rams closed as 2.5-point underdogs at BetMGM and looked like they would cruise to an outright victory.

One Rams backer at BetMGM was sitting pretty. That bettor wagered $200,000 on the Rams moneyline at +130. All of a sudden, with the game now tied, a $260,000 profit looked like it may have evaporated. At the same time, another BetMGM customer who put in a massive wager — $575,000 on the Bucs -2.5 — had a glimmer of hope.

Instead, the Rams managed to gain 64 yards in two plays, both Matthew Stafford throws to Cooper Kupp. A 44-yard bomb up the seam to Kupp put the Rams in field goal range. But with no timeouts and the clock ticking, the entire offense needed to sprint to the line of scrimmage to spike the ball and stop the clock.

They did just that and Matt Gay coolly drilled a 30-yard field goal to give the Rams a heartstopping 30-27 victory.

While Rams bettors breathed a sigh of relief, a potential miracle cover for Bucs bettors went up in smoke.

Rams-Bucs total had drama, too

There was also drama surrounding the total in this game — for both the first half and the full game. The first half total was 23.5 and the Rams had a 20-3 lead in the final minutes of the second quarter. And when Nick Scott intercepted Tom Brady to give the Rams a short field, first-half under bettors were in bad shape.

However, they were saved by the first of four Los Angeles turnovers when Cam Akers fumbled on a second-and-goal play from the 6-yard line. Akers was originally ruled down by contact at the 1, but replay overturned the call on the field and gave the ball to the Bucs with 14 seconds remaining in the half.

The Bucs then ran out the clock and went into halftime trailing 20-3, keeping the first half total under the 23.5.

And then there were those who had the under for the game. The total closed at 48.5 at BetMGM and the Rams had a 27-13 lead for the majority of the fourth quarter. With 3:20 to play, Brady found Mike Evans behind the defense for a 55-yard touchdown to make it 27-20.

The game was still under the total, but the Rams needed to run out the clock to keep it that way. Instead, Akers fumbled again and the Bucs tied it up with 42 seconds to play, delivering a crushing blow for under bettors and allowing over bettors to rejoice.

Bills bettors crushed by Mahomes heroics

The late game in Kansas City was even crazier than the early game in Tampa Bay.

The Chiefs closed as 2.5-point favorites at BetMGM, but Josh Allen and the Bills made play after play on offense and were on the brink of an upset.

The Bills went ahead 29-26 on a fourth-and-13 Allen touchdown pass to Gabriel Davis at the 1:54 mark, sparking an incredible series of events that included 25 total points scored from that point until regulation expired.

It took 52 seconds for the Chiefs to regain the lead on a 64-yard touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes to Tyreek Hill with 1:02 to play. But Allen and the Bills responded again, this time a 19-yard strike to Davis that put Buffalo back in front 36-33 with only 13 seconds remaining.

At that point, it looked like the Bills were headed back to the AFC Championship Game. But Mahomes wasn’t ready to concede just yet. The Chiefs needed just two plays and 10 seconds to gain 44 yards and Harrison Butker sent the game to overtime with a 49-yard field goal as time expired.

The coin toss went the Chiefs way and the exhausted Bills defense had no answers. Mahomes quickly led his offense down the field and won the game with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Travis Kelce, handing a brutal loss to Buffalo.

With the 42-36 win, the Chiefs became the only favorite of the weekend to cover the spread. It was the lone winner of the weekend for the betting public, Jeff Stoneback, the Director of Trading for BetMGM, told Yahoo Sports. Stoneback said the Chiefs were a “small winner” for the public.

It was the opposite of wild card weekend, when five of the six favorites covered the spread, resulting in a losing weekend for the sportsbook at BetMGM.

“It was just the opposite of last week with only one favorite covering,” Stoneback said. “They got a little bit of it back on the late game, but they gave all of their money back from last weekend.”

Bengals spoil monster Titans bet

In the early game on Saturday, the Tennessee Titans were 4-point favorites over the Cincinnati Bengals. The Titans, the AFC’s No. 1 seed, were on the receiving end of one of the biggest bets of the weekend at BetMGM.

That bet was $550,000 on the Titans when they were favored by 3.5 points. But when Ryan Tannehill threw an interception on his first attempt of the afternoon, it set the tone for what ended up being a crushing 19-16 loss for the Titans.

The Bengals took a 9-6 lead into halftime and extended the lead to 16-6 midway through the third. The Titans, though, tied things up by scoring 10 points in the span of just 1:21 late in the third. They first made it 16-9 with a field goal before an interception put the offense back on the field. Tannehill delivered a dime to A.J. Brown from 33 yards out to tie the score at 16-16 with 15 seconds left in the third.

The Titans had two chances to take the lead in the fourth quarter. First, two attempts to gain one yard from the Cincinnati 35-yard line were stopped by the Bengals defense. Later, with the clock ticking under two minutes, Tannehill threw his third interception of the game.

That INT gave the ball back to the Bengals. Joe Burrow got Cincinnati into field goal range with a perfect pass to former LSU teammate Ja’Marr Chase and rookie Evan McPherson won the game with a 52-yard field goal as time expired.

McPherson’s clutch kick, his fourth make of the day, officially turned that massive Titans bet into a loser. At the same time, it kept a $1 million dream alive for another BetMGM customer who wagered $50,000 on the Bengals to win the Super Bowl at +2000.

With two more Cincinnati victories, that bettor would receive a $1 million payout from the book.

49ers come through with upset over Packers

The sportsbook at BetMGM was rooting hard for the San Francisco 49ers against the Green Bay Packers on Saturday night.

Not only were the large majority of the bets on the Packers to cover the spread as 5.5-point favorites, but the Packers were the biggest liability for the book in terms of futures bets.

Of all the Super Bowl bets at BetMGM, Packers received more bets (10.2%) and money (14.2%) than any other team. The numbers were even more lopsided for NFC futures. The Packers received 21.1% of the NFC title tickets and 44.7% of the NFC title money.

And for Saturday night’s game, 72% of the bets and 70% of the money was on the Packers covering the spread. Instead, on a snowy night at Lambeau Field, the 49ers pulled out a shocker and won 13-10.

The Packers scored on their opening possession and held that lead for almost the entire game. The score was 10-3 late in the fourth, but the 49ers managed to tie the game by blocking a punt and returning it for a touchdown.

The 49ers then won it with a walk-off 45-yard Robbie Gould field goal as time expired.