Sportsbooks, Stanford Bettors Are Real Winners Of Colorado Meltdown

Patrick Everson Sports Betting Expert

3 minute read

Just when it looked like the Colorado Buffaloes train was back on track, Coach Prime and Co. got derailed in a huge way in the college football Week 7 odds market.

A disastrous second half led to a stunning home loss against Stanford on Friday night.

Here's more from the sportsbooks on how the result impacted bettors.

Stanford vs Colorado Odds

Half-Baked in Boulder

With Colorado leading Stanford 29-0 at halftime, Buffaloes point-spread and moneyline bettors surely felt mighty good about cashing out to kick off the college football betting weekend.

After Stanford scored 19 unanswered points in the third quarter, Colorado spread bettors surely started to squirm. The Buffs closed as 13.5-point favorites. And moneyline bettors probably felt a little jittery, too.

Then the Cardinal kept going in the fourth quarter, eventually tying it at 36 on a final-seconds field goal. Stanford then went on to win 46-43 in double overtime.

"It was a very good result," SuperBook senior risk supervisor Casey Degnon said. "At halftime, we were just hoping for a backdoor cover. But Stanford outright was a great result for the book, killing a lot of moneyline parlays."

And also killing all those moneyline and spread straight bets. But a few savvy – or more likely fortuitous – bettors did well to Stanford.

At DraftKings Sportsbook, it was a dream finish for a couple of customers who took in-game fliers on Stanford moneyline +4000. When the Cardinal were down 22-0, one bettor got down $500 on Stanford +4000, to pocket a hefty $20,000. The same customer used an odds boost to make a $50 bet at +6000, winning another $3,000.

Another DK customer put down $150 on Stanford +4000 and ended up winning $6,000.

Those three winners represent spectacular ROI, if you can get it!

A few PointsBet customers also fared well on the in-game moneyline, though not at nearly the odds of the DraftKings bettor. The longest shot was $100 on Stanford +1540, to win $1,540. The biggest in-game bet came on a $1,000 bet on Stanford +480, to net $4,800.

Books Make Bank

Despite those Stanford in-play fliers, sportsbooks far and wide did great to Colorado's shocking collapse.

"Excluding college football conference championships and playoff games, the matchup between Stanford and Colorado was one of the larger handles we have [ever] had for a Friday night college football game," DraftKings director of sportsbook operations Johnny Avello said. "We did well on the game and would have done slightly better if the Buffaloes won and didn't cover."

Going into Friday night, DraftKings reported that the Buffaloes had taken the most spread money and second-most spread tickets of any team on the college football Week 7 odds board.

Further, Colorado was No. 1 in tickets and dollars on college football Week 7 moneyline wagers. Granted, part of the reason for those numbers was that the Buffs played on Friday night; other teams surely surpassed Colorado on Saturday, particularly with high-profile matchups such as Oregon-Washington and USC-Notre Dame.

Still, the public clearly continued to pile on Colorado, giving bookmakers a great start to the weekend in the college football odds Week 7 market.

"PointsBet actually did quite well on the game, as the overwhelming majority of pre-match handle came in on Colorado," trader Evan Gould said. "And we still saw the majority of in-play moneline bets come in on Colorado, as well, despite being a massive favorite."

Patrick Everson

Patrick Everson is a senior reporter for VegasInsider. Based in Las Vegas since 1994, he's worked in the sports betting journalism/content space for more than a decade. He's most known for his deep roster of contacts behind sportsbook counters, providing readers and viewers with the ins-and-outs of how events are being bet. He's also a thought leader in the sports betting space, often appearing on or moderating panels at national conferences. More from Patrick Everson