Sunday night’s Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers matchup was certainly a fun watch for fans, but sportsbooks got the last laugh as the Bears easily covered the 6.5-point closing spread in the day’s most heavily bet game.
According to The Action Network’s proprietary public betting data, Bears-Packers attracted almost 82,000 bets. Cowboys-Panthers finished a distant second with 50,677 total tickets wagered.
Sixty-eight percent of bettors laid the points with the Packers on Sunday Night Football, meaning the combination of a massive handle and one-sided Green Bay betting resulted in a big win for the books.
Scott Cooley, an odds consultant for BetDSI, confirmed that this was a huge win for his company as well.
“Sunday Night Football almost always draws the largest handle of the week, and this Week 1 matchup was easily our biggest action game. Green Bay is one of the most public teams in terms of square support, so the Bears’ cover was a big win for BetDSI,” Cooley said.
Cooley also mentioned that not only did Green Bay spread and parlay tickets lose, but BetDSI took a lot of early teaser action when the line was Packers -7.5, which also ended up falling short.
Last night’s game was not only the day’s most popular game among bettors, but it was also the most heavily bet Sunday night season opener since the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys attracted more than 93,000 tickets in 2015.
Sportsbooks also cleaned up when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the New Orleans Saints straight-up as 10-point underdogs. Behind 74% of spread tickets and 79% of real dollars wagered, New Orleans was the most popular public side of Week 1.
With recreational bettors losing on Sunday night, the Rams (-4.5) are tonight’s “public chaser” as bettors look to make back what they lost with the Packers.
At the time of publication, 73% of tickets and 77% of dollars are on Los Angeles, so the books will certainly be big Oakland fans tonight.