Survivor Pools, Public Ravaged By NFL Underdog Wins in Week 1

NFL survivor pools were in shambles on Tuesday morning after the most popular Week 1 favorites faltered on a historic scale.

At the Circa in Vegas, 3,399 of the 6,133 $1,000 entries (55.4%) were eliminated this week, as the second (Colts), third (Titans), fourth (49ers), fifth (Broncos) and seventh (Bengals) most popular choices all lost. Only one entry picked the Seahawks, who beat the Broncos 17-16 on Monday Night Football.

Meanwhile, each of those five losing favorites had at least 60% of the public on them to cover. Of course, each failed to do so.

In fact, out of the nine teams that had a supermajority of public support, only the Ravens covered.

At DraftKings, their $1 million survivor pool lost 5,795 of 13,072 entries, which bought in at $333 a pop. That’s 44.3% of all entrants.

Monday Night Football was the primary killer, with 13.2% of those who were eliminated taking the Broncos.

Another massive private pool with 9,361 entries saw 63% of their pool wrecked. The most common pick in that competition was the Ravens. After that, the next five most commonly picked teams lost.

It could have been worse. The Falcons lost by one to the Saints, who were the next-most picked team.

One gambler in the pool who survived by taking the Ravens told the Action Network that "it's bittersweet as I'm a diehard Broncos fan."

On Twitter, a user named @andrewtiptonsd shared his 10-person survivor pool league, which had a winner after Week 1. Three bettors took the Colts, four took the Broncos and two took the 49ers, leaving the one who slotted the Ravens as the winner.