Heisman Trophy odds shift as money starts to come in ahead of awards ceremony
By Andrew Olson
Published:
After the conference championship games, the odds shifted away from Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa to Oklahoma QB Kyler Murray.
The votes are in, but the odds continue to shift as the money starts to pour into various sports books. ESPN Chalk recently looked at some of the books taking Heisman bets.
Murray and Tagovailoa both opened the week at -115 odds to win at the FanDuel Sportsbook in New Jersey, but bets have pushed the Sooners quarterback up to -180 as of Friday night. Elsewhere, Murray is an even bigger favorite: -200 at the DraftKings Sportsbook and -220 at popular offshore book 5Dimes. (-200 means a bettor would need to wager $200 on Murray to win $100.)
With so many bets made on Tagovailoa in months prior, the Vegas books appear to have a clear preference:
One bettor at the SuperBook has a $2,200 bet at 12-1 odds on Tagovailoa to win the Heisman, which would win $26,400. Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook director John Murray told the Las Vegas Review-Journal it would suffer a “mid-five-figure loss” if Tua won.
“We certainly would like to see [Kyler] Murray win,” John Murray told ESPN.
A Caesars sportsbook source told ESPN it would suffer only a “small” loss if Tagovailoa won, but a big win (five times more than the loss) if Murray takes home the trophy Saturday night.
The Heisman Trophy ceremony airs at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
