The point spread on the College Football Playoff National Championship game dropped Friday, with influential money showing up on underdog Alabama and moving the line across the U.S. betting market.
Multiple sportsbooks reported receiving bets on the Crimson Tide +3 Friday afternoon, driving the line back down to +2.5, where it opened last week. The line had remained at Georgia -3 since last Saturday before moving around 2 p.m. ET, Friday.
Circa Sports, the Las Vegas-based sportsbook known to cater to influential bettors, has taken multiple $100,000 limit bets on Alabama from respected customers this week, including Friday afternoon when a wave of Crimson Tide money hit the market from Nevada to New Jersey. "I respected those bets [on Alabama]," Matt Metcalf, sportsbook director for Circa, told ESPN on Friday. "To me, this number has a lot more room to go down than it does up."
Caesars Sportsbook also reported line-moving money coming in on Alabama on Friday, but that overall, Georgia was attracting the bulk of the dollars on the game's point spread. As of Friday, 72% of the bets on the point spread were on Alabama, but 70% of the money that had been wagered was on the Bulldogs.
"I thought there'd be some money come in on Alabama at some point, and today was the day," said Adam Pullen, assistant director of trading for Caesars Sportsbook.
The betting on the outright winner of the College Football Playoff National Championship (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) is much more one-sided at Caesars Sportsbook, where 91% of the bets and 90% of the dollars wagered on the money line are on the Crimson Tide.
The lopsided action includes a $1.2 million bet on Alabama (+125) to win straight-up that was placed by Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, the Houston furniture store owner who often uses the betting market to hedge promotional giveaways. The bet would win a net $1.5 million.
Caesars also reported taking a $300,000 money-line bet on the Crimson Tide (+125) from a Louisiana bettor earlier in the week. The over/under total was 52.5 at most sportsbooks entering the weekend.