College Football Betting: Bookies Make Out Like Bandits

In what was arguably the best showing for online bookmakers and the Vegas shops of any College Football season opener, the public lost nearly every game this past weekend.   The carnage was enough to provide books with a substantial early bankroll.

"I don't know if I've ever seen anything quite like this," said Don Shapiro of Gambling911.com, who revealed that nearly every big public favorite getting 70 percent or more of the action had failed to cover.  "This was a great week for the bookies and terrible situation for the majority of sports bettors."

It began with a Thursday Oregon loss to Boise State.

"Most of the betting action was coming in on Oregon," Shapiro said. 

Killer games, however, included Illinois' loss to Missouri Saturday.

"The majority of bets were coming in on Illinois with Missouri getting little support from the gambling public."

The Georgia Bulldogs were another big public favorite though they were actually a +5 ½ underdog that failed to cover against Oklahoma State.

Likewise, at one point Minnesota had been getting the most betting action of any other team but also failed to cover.

And even as a -22 ½ point favorite, the Oklahoma Sooners still managed to pull in more than 75 percent of the betting action.  BYU stunned Oklahoma with an outright win and anyone who had that money line bet made out just as well as the bookmakers did this weekend.

It didn't end on Saturday as Colorado State managed to shock Colorado as the underdog whereby more than 70 percent of the public was on Colorado. 

Alabama was one of the few bright spots for sports bettors as was Mississippi on Sunday. 

Among the Big Bookie win: 

Boise State
BYU
Oklahoma State
Missouri
Notre Dame

Washington

Syracuse
Akron 

Colorado State

Sports bettors can find a list of the top online sportsbooks at Gambling911.com here