Sportsbooks Exhale After Browns Lose to Texans

The Browns had been sportsbooks' largest liability for Wild Card weekend, for the AFC and for the Super Bowl. And one game into the playoffs — the first three hours of this year's festivities — already they've won out. Go figure.

The Browns losing to the Texans on Saturday night was by far the best outcome of the weekend for books across the country.

The Browns were the largest futures liability in both the Super Bowl and AFC markets at DraftKings. And the Browns on the spread vs. the Texans on Saturday was the most popular pick of the day at both DraftKings and FanDuel — by far.

With the Browns now out, sportsbooks have already profited from their futures liability. What might put a dent in that profit is if the 49ers beat the Ravens. That's because of all the people who bet that chalk exacta matchup at crazy-plus money.

It's a horrible start to the playoff calendar for retail bettors, who lined up in droves to wager on the Browns to cover this game on account of quarterback Joe Flacco, who came off the couch to provide the Browns a much-needed offensive spark during the second half of the season.

Retail had been banking that he'd take that goodwill into the playoffs against a supposedly inferior team. The underlying metrics, though, disagreed with that assessment. With Flacco at the helm, the offense has ranked No. 27 overall on account of turnovers. And of course, those turnovers reared their ugly head on Saturday night.

In addition, the world-class defense from the first half of the season has faltered of late, downgrading from a "historically good" unit to a very good one.

Flacco had been 5-0 ATS during the Wild Card Round prior to this matchup, a record during this stage of the playoffs. In what may be the last game of his career, that record has fallen.