Last Minute Touchdown for Ohio State Cost Vegas Sportsbooks $100 Million
A last minute touchdown may not have changed the outcome of Saturday night’s Ohio State vs. Northwestern game, but for Vegas and online sportsbooks, it was a definite game changer.
Bookies in Vegas alone lost $100 million to overjoyed gamblers. More than 90 percent of the bets were coming in on OSU.
Northwestern, which hasn't beaten a Top-5 team since 1959, was a +5.5 underdog with the score 34-30 with just a few minutes left in the game.
Northwestern's Kain Colter was stopped on fourth-and-1 at the Ohio State 34 with 2:43 remaining in the game. A last ditch lateral play was recovered by the Buckeyes, leading to an Ohio State touchdown and changing the 4 point lose margin to 10.
USA Today noted that ABC’s Brent Musburger was immediately aware of the implications. “There are some folks who are celebrating and other folks who are saying ‘you gotta be kidding me,’” he said after the Ohio State touchdown, over the chuckling protests of Kirk Herbstreit.
- Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com
