Andrew Luck's retirement on Saturday impacted the odds to win the Super Bowl for six teams, flipped the perceived hierarchy in the AFC South on its head and even caused some bookmakers to refund bets on the former Indianapolis Colts quarterback.
Luck announced Saturday that he was retiring from the NFL after seven seasons, citing mental fatigue and injury concerns. The landscape-altering news sent bookmakers scrambling to halt betting on much of the NFL. When odds on the Colts began to re-emerge and stabilize on Sunday, there were significant changes.
The Colts went from second-tier Super Bowl contenders, with odds in the 15-1 range, to 60-1 long shots, along with the New York Jets. The Los Angeles Chargers, Pittsburgh Steelers and the Colts' three AFC South divisional opponents -- the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans -- each saw their Super Bowl odds improve.
Indianapolis had been the odds-on favorite to win the AFC South, but without Luck it became an underdog in the up-for-grabs division. The Texans are now the favorites in the division at most sportsbooks.
"Just basically everything we have involving the NFL, we changed," Jeff Sherman, vice president of risk for the SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas, said Sunday morning. "From the Week 1 number to the Games of the Year, to the season wins, odds to make the playoffs, division, conference, Super Bowl ... yeah, it affected everything."
The Chargers had been 3.5-point favorites over the Colts in their Week 1 meeting, before concerns over Luck's lingering injury status increased. Luck had not appeared in the preseason while dealing with a strained calf. With his status in question, several sportsbooks stopped betting on the Colts-Chargers matchup earlier in August. The SuperBook, which elected to keep the game open for betting, reported taking a limit bet on the Chargers -3 (-120) on Thursday.
The MGM sportsbook took multiple limit money-line bets on the Chargers from respected customers in mid-August and took the game off the board.
"Once we took a couple pops on the money-line, we said maybe someone knows something, and we suspended it," MGM director of race and sports Jeff Stoneback said.
After Luck's announcement, the line on the game grew to as high as Los Angeles -9.5 at Las Vegas sportsbook operator CG Technology before settling back at -7 at most books on Sunday. Jacoby Brissett is expected to become the Colts' starter.
Indianapolis' season win total was sitting at 10 or 9.5 on Saturday. New Jersey sportsbooks DraftKings, FanDuel and PointsBets each trimmed the number to 6.5 after the Luck news. In Las Vegas, the SuperBook moved to 7.5, and Caesars Sportsbook went to 7.
"We did take two sharp plays on the under this week," the MGM's Stoneback said.
Las Vegas sportsbook operator Circa Sports also reported taking multiple limit bets on the under on the Colts' win total earlier in the week.
Luck was a popular bet to win NFL MVP at sportsbooks, with 12-1 odds. Only favorite Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs had better odds than Luck at some shops. The SuperBook and PointsBet elected to refund bets on Luck to win the NFL MVP.