How Sportsbooks Are Reacting to the Andrew Luck Injury News

In the words of Colts GM Chris Ballard: "This is not 2017."

That's the good news for Colts fans, who do not want to see Andrew Luck miss another entire season. The bad news is that the Colts staff is clearly not confident that Luck will be ready for Week 1.

What was initially diagnosed as a calf strain is now becoming a mysterious ankle injury that will likely keep Luck out for the entire preseason. Ballard spoke highly of backup QB Jacoby Brissett and didn't seem extremely concerned about the possibility of him having to start in Week 1.

With that said, sportsbooks have started to take notice of the situation, as Luck is obviously a very valuable player when it comes to betting.

Before last season began, Luck was considered a "Tier 3" quarterback worth 4-5 points to the spread, per CG Technology. Given the Week 1 spread of Chargers -3, it's quite possible that we'd see the line jump up to the next key number of -7 if Luck was confirmed out, which probably wouldn't be for some time based on today's comments by Ballard.

Some books, including DraftKings Sportsbook, are playing it safe for the time being and taking this game off the board.

Others, like the Westgate SuperBook and FanDuel, have kept the game on the board as of Tuesday night at 10 p.m. ET. The juice on LAC -3 had risen to -120 at most books earlier in the day on Tuesday, while the over/under has remained at 47.5/48 since the news.

If you were on the fence about taking the Chargers before the news, now may be a good opportunity if you are still able to do so given the potential closing line value. If you like Indy, you'd certainly be better off waiting for this situation to have more of a definitive answer, as you truly have nothing to gain by betting them now.

Stay tuned over the coming weeks for the latest news and analysis.