Rovell’s Bowl Betting Report: SEC Teams Getting Lopsided Action on New Year’s Day

Rovell’s Bowl Betting Report: SEC Teams Getting Lopsided Action on New Year’s Day article feature image
Credit:

Samuel Stringer, USA Today Sports. Pictured: Justin Herbert

Sportsbooks are taking mostly lopsided action for today’s New Year’s Bowl games. The most lopsided game is the Citrus Bowl, where bettors have been pounding Alabama.

At William Hill, 88% of the money is on the Crimson Tide (-7.5). And, among the big New Jersey sportsbooks, the most support we could find for their opponent Michigan was 26% of the money at PointsBet.

The Wolverines failed to cover the spread for their first three games, but since then have gone 7-2 ATS over their last nine games. A win for Michigan would mean four of Jim Harbaugh’s five seasons in Ann Arbor will have ended with a 10-3 record.


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Most sportsbooks will likely be big Michigan fans on Wednesday, but a big bet on the Wolverines has balanced the books at Circa Sports in Vegas.

“We took a limit bet on Michigan +7.5, so we’ve actually had balanced action,” said Circa's Matt Lindeman. “We actually need the under more here than a side. We opened at 56 and it’s up to 61.”

At William Hill, 81% of the money is currently on the over of 60.5 in this game.

More lopsided money has come in on Auburn against Minnesota. PointsBet reports that 84% of the money is on the Tigers (-7), who went a robust 9-3 ATS in 2019. While most of the market is hanging Auburn at -7, Circa has the Tigers at -6.5, which is attracting plenty of money.

“We are the only one at -6.5 and bettors have really liked Auburn in that position,” Lindeman said.

There are plenty of players on Georgia sitting out and that has caused the line to crash from -7 to -4, but the injury news isn't stopping the Bulldog money from showing up. DraftKings reports that 73% of the money is on Georgia.

“The crazy thing about this game is that before this season, this would have been something like Georgia -14,” Lindeman said. “But Baylor has had an incredible year and Georgia has been disappointing.”

Finally, the most interesting game of the day is the Rose Bowl, where bettors are all over the place. PointsBet has 65% of the money on Oregon, while DraftKings has 61% of the money on Wisconsin.

“We opened at Wisconsin -3.5 and while the number hasn’t moved, we’ve pretty much only taken Oregon money,” Lindeman said.

About the Author
Darren is a Senior Executive Producer at The Action Network, covering all angles of the sports betting world. He spent two stints at ESPN, from 2000-06 and 2012-18, he regularly wrote for ESPN.com and contributed to ESPN shows, including SportsCenter and Outside The Lines. He also served as a business correspondent for ABC News, where he made appearances on the network’s flagship shows, including “Good Morning America,” “World News Tonight” and “Nightline.” While at CNBC from 2006-2012, Rovell anchored five primetime documentaries, including “Swoosh! Inside Nike,” which was nominated for an Emmy. Rovell also contributed to NBC News, where he earned an Emmy as a correspondent for the network’s Presidential Election coverage.

Follow Darren Rovell @darrenrovell on Twitter/X.

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