Always a popular spot for Philadelphia Eagles fans, a surreal scene played out inside the sportsbook at The Borgata on Sunday in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
"We had so many people betting the Patriots that there were people wearing Eagles jerseys rooting for New England today," Thomas Gable, sportsbook director at The Borgata told ESPN.
However, Pennsylvania sportsbooks, including in Philadelphia, found themselves rooting for the Eagles on Sunday. Bookmaker SugarHouse said that for the first time this season its Pennsylvania sportsbook, including the BetRiver Sportsbook in Philadelphia, needed the Eagles to cover the spread.
It didn't happen. The Patriots beat the Eagles 17-10, covering as 4.5-point favorites and sending sportsbooks to a losing Sunday.
Here is this week's Notable Bets, our weekly wrap-up of sports betting storylines from around the nation.
NFL notable bets
Bookie bath
• Jeff Davis, director of trading for Caesars Sportsbook, joked ahead of Sunday's kickoffs that he would go ahead and drop off his keys to the book and employee badge on his way out the door if the Cowboys and Patriots each covered the spread.
Davis still was employed Sunday night, but the damage had been done. Caesars Sportsbook had suffered one of its worst Sundays of the season, but it could have been much worse.
• "When I plugged all the results in, I was actually relieved that it wasn't worse," Davis said Sunday night. "The Bengals saved us [covering the spread in a 17-10 loss to the Raiders]. That game turned out to be huge. We couldn't get any Bengals money. ... If the Raiders got there, we'd be sitting on disaster tonight."
• "Awful." That's how Chris Andrews, sportsbook director at the South Point Casino in Las Vegas, described his shop's Sunday results.
• "It's not fun," Dave Sharapan, oddsmaker for Las Vegas sportsbook operator CG Technology, said about enduring a losing day on Sunday. "That helpless feeling, watching the Eagles have chance after chance after chance."
• "All in all, it was a complete disaster," CG Technology head of risk Tony DiTommaso said Sunday night. "Definitely a losing day, though, but given the results, I'll take where we are."
• "Today is going to be the second-worst Sunday of the year," said Ed Salmons, vice president of risk for the SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas. "There's nothing that's going to change that. It's going to be a decent-sized losing day, and yesterday was our worst Saturday of the season. But we've been winning like every week, so we were due for one of these."
• MGM sportsbooks in Nevada also reported a losing day. "Bengals covering averted a seven-figure loss," MGM sportsbook director Jeff Stoneback said. "Can't complain though, yet. It's been a great season for the books, so far."
Meaningful 2-point conversion
• Dallas closed as a consensus 7-point favorite over the Lions. The line got as high as -7.5 at some books.
• The Lions cut the Dallas lead to 35-27 on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Jeff Driskel to Marvin Jones with 5:49 to play. Detroit coach Matt Patricia elected to go for two instead of the extra point. The conversion failed, and the Cowboys were able to seal the eight-point win.
Meaningful Monday night
• The Kansas City Chiefs enter Monday as 4.5-point consensus favorite over the Los Angeles Chargers in Mexico. Multiple sportsbooks reported taking big bets on the Chiefs early in the week and even on Sunday after the line had reached its high point.
• As of Sunday night, there had been five times as many bets and four times as much money on the Chiefs as there was on the Chargers at Caesars Sportsbook. "We're staring at a pretty big red number on that game," Davis said.
• CG Technology and the SuperBook each reported taking mid-five-figure bets on the Chiefs at -4 and -3.5, respectively.
• "We already have a lot of liability on the Chiefs tomorrow night in Mexico City," Patrick Eichner, director of content for sportsbook PointsBet, told ESPN. "We only expect that liability to grow, so we'd love a Chargers cover to provide a good ending to an otherwise difficult Week 11.
Other notes
• The Vikings rallied from a 20-0 halftime deficit to beat the Broncos, causing a six-figure swing against the house at the SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas. According to ESPN Stats & Information data, teams had won 97 consecutive games when leading by 20 or more points at halftime before the Vikings' comeback. "We needed Denver to win outright," Salmons said. "That was a huge swing."
• The Texans-Ravens game staying under the total produced one of the biggest wins of Sunday for Caesars Sportsbook. The total opened at 49, grew to as high as 52 and closed at 51.5 at Caesars. "We had a big but not too crazy decision [on the over]," Davis said. "Then about three minutes to post, a house player came in and gave a big five-figure wager on the over."
• The wild, last-play fumble return for a touchdown in the 49ers' 36-26 win over the Cardinals produced mixed results for bettors. The 49ers had been favored by as many as 13.5 earlier in the week. The line dropped below 10 at some shops.
• Las Vegas sportsbook operator CG Technology reported taking a $110,000 bet on the Bears +6 against the Rams on Sunday. "The Rams and under is our best-case scenario," DiTommaso said.
The Rams won and covered in a 17-7 win over the Bears. The game stayed under the total of 40.
Early Week 12 lines
From Caesars Sportsbook, at completion of Sunday night game.
Thursday
Indianapolis Colts at Houston Texans (-3.5, 46.5)
Sunday's games
Carolina Panthers at New Orleans Saints (-9, 48)
Denver Broncos at Buffalo Bills (-5, 36.5)
Detroit Lions at Washington Redskins (Off)
Miami Dolphins at Cleveland Browns (-10.5, 44.5)
New York Giants at Chicago Bears (Off)
Oakland Raiders (-3, 47) at New York Jets
Pittsburgh Steelers (-6.5, 39) at Cincinnati Bengals
Seattle Seahawks at Philadelphia Eagles (-2.5, 49)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Atlanta Falcons (-4, 53)
Jacksonville Jaguars at Tennessee Titans (-3, 41.5)
Dallas Cowboys at New England Patriots (-6.5, 46)
Green Bay Packers at San Francisco 49ers (-3, 45.5)
Monday
Baltimore Ravens at Los Angeles Rams (Off)
Byes: Arizona Cardinals, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, Minnesota Vikings
College football roundup
The largest home underdog in 32 years (2,000-1)
• Rutgers closed as a consensus 52.5-point underdog to Ohio State, making the Scarlet Knights the largest home underdogs since Kansas State was a 57-point home underdog to Oklahoma in 1987. Rutgers and Kansas State are the only two home teams to be an underdog of more than 50 points since 1978.
• The Buckeyes opened as -600,000 favorites on the money line at the sportsbook at the South Point Casino, with Rutgers a +200,000 (2,000-1) underdog to pull off the outright upset. The money line closed at Ohio State -250,000 and Rutgers +15,000.
• Just over $1,200 total was bet on Rutgers on the money line at South Point, the largest $200, according to Andrews. Ohio State won, 56-21, but Rutgers covered.
Largest SEC underdog
• Las Vegas sportsbook operator Circa Sports installed Arkansas as a 46-point underdog against No. 1 LSU this week. It's the largest point spread in an SEC game since 1978.
Bettors' successful on Saturday
• Multiple sportsbooks said Saturday's college football results were the worst of the season so far.
• "We needed Baylor outright," Salmons said. "That was going to be our day." The Bears squandered a 28-3 lead in a 34-31 loss to Oklahoma.
Odds & ends
• On Thursday evening, the SuperBook accepted a $1,000 bet on the Golden State Warriors to win the NBA title at 1,000-1 odds. The bet would pay a net $1 million.
"We contemplated making [the Warriors] higher than 1,000-1" Jeff Sherman, a vice president at the SuperBook, which oversees NBA odds, told ESPN on Sunday.
With mounting injuries, the Warriors have plummeted in Sherman's power ratings, bottoming out 12 points lower than where they were at the beginning of the season.
"It's probably the most drastic change, just weeks into the season, that I can recall," Sherman said.
• New Jersey sportsbooks won a net $46.4 million off a record $487.9 million in bets in October.
• NASCAR: Sunday's Ford EcoBoost 400 generated the most handle the SuperBook had ever taken on a NASCAR race.