The unpredictability of Week 14 of the NFL season ended up being a wash for bettors and sportsbooks alike and in some ways, that result was apropos given the kind of wackiness everybody had to live through last Sunday. Whether it was all the snow that caused a number of games to be played like sandlot games, or the unusually high number of spreads hovering around the 3-point line, Week 14 pretty much had anything and everything you’d want from a dramatic day of football.
In the end, the results ended up costing some books small losses whereas others broke even and some posting small gains. Overall, the weekend’s games ended up being a push, which is a pretty safe indication that both sides came out with bruises but ultimately no cuts to the face.
Some games went the side of the public, including the New Orleans Saints‘ dismantling of the Carolina Panthers after only getting three points from sportsbooks. With the Saints being virtually unbeatable at the Dome, sportsbooks kept the line at three, prompting the public to jump all over the Saints and making the house regret underestimating Drew Brees and company in their own field.
On the flip side, the Miami Dolphins’ win at Pittsburgh helped sportsbooks knock out a lot of parlays from the early games. Notwithstanding the incredible ending that never was (keep your feet in bounds, Antonio Brown!), the Dolphins would have covered in either case, giving books a huge win that would’ve turned disastrous if it had gone the other day.
Overall, favorites went 9-5 against-the-spread with the Over sporting a similar 9-5 record. Some bettors capitalized on the high number of games hovering around the three points to scatter some wins throughout the day. None of the games with three-point lines steered clear from that number, but in the end, all the dramatic endings and incredible surges in touchdowns gave both bettors and sportsbooks enough reason to sweat out a lot of the day’s games.
