Gamblers who thought they were outsmarting the house by betting on the Bears last week because of Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill’s shoulder injury got a rude awakening from Brock Osweiler on Sunday.
Osweiler’s big game led the Dolphins to an overtime victory over the Bears, meaning people who bet big on Chicago lost. And there were a lot of those people: MGM sports book director Jeff Stoneback told ESPN that multiple six-figure bets were placed on the Bears.
“There wasn’t much money on the Dolphins at all,” Stoneback said.
That’s why, over the course of the week, the point spread moved by as much as six points in some sports books, from the Bears favored by one point to the Bears favored by seven points. All the bets that moved the line in the Bears’ direction lost.
William Hill’s U.S. sports books told ESPN that Bears-Dolphins was the most-bet game early on Sunday afternoon, with twice as much money bet on that game as any other, and 85 percent of the money was bet on the Bears.
All that money going on the Bears before Tannehill was ruled out raises the question of whether someone with inside information was putting the word out to high-stakes gamblers that Tannehill’s shoulder injury was more serious than his “questionable” designation would suggest. That type of thing is a big concern for the NFL.
But just because a starting quarterback is injured, that doesn’t mean a bet against that team is a sure thing. All those bettors who put money on the Bears found that out the hard way.