All eyes for the first noon kickoff of the college football season will be on The Horseshoe on Saturday.
Key Takeaways
- Texas-Ohio State is the most-bet game of Week 1 at most sportsbooks.
- The Longhorns are getting 77% of the moneyline handle at DraftKings.
- Bettors are hoping for a score that surpasses 47 points.
Most Texas vs. Ohio State bets have been on the team visiting Ohio State’s campus in one of the biggest, most-hyped openers of the last decade. There is so much love for No. 1 Texas, a slight, 1.5-point underdog against the No. 3 Buckeyes, in the most-bet Week 1 game at sportsbooks.
“So far, we have seen one-way action on Texas, both on the (moneyline) and the spread at Caesars Sportsbook,” Joey Feazel, Caesars' head of football, told Covers. “Texas has been the hype team of the offseason with the starting debut of the Heisman favorite Arch Manning and the anticipation of a stingy defense.”
Feazel said Caesars had Ohio State at -2.5 early in the week, “but I would not be surprised to see it head back to 1.5 as we get closer to gametime.” As of Thursday night, the online sportsbook dropped the line to Buckeyes -1 with Texas now -105 on the moneyline.
Pound the Horns
The Longhorns, the preseason favorite to win the national championship, opened at +3 and are the most-bet team by tickets at BetMGM among all schools in a headliner-filled first week. They’re second behind Alabama in handle and the most-bet underdog at +100.
FanDuel reported that 61% of the money is on Texas to cover the spread. DraftKings has it at 62%, with a whopping 77% of the moneyline handle backing the Longhorns to escape Columbus with a win. Earlier in the week, DraftKings reported 67% of the money on Texas when the line was +2.5.
ESPN BET also has one of the higher ML handle percentages (73.4%), but the spread splits are much lower, with Texas getting 53.2% of the handle and 54.1% of the bets. The sportsbook with more contrarian bettors is bet365, where 67% of the moneyline bets are on the Buckeyes.
Tried and true total
While the majority of public bettors seem to be backing off the trend of taking home favorites in big games, they’re sticking to a popular totals play. DraftKings reported that 59% of the money and 70% of the tickets are on over 47.5. However, the under is the most-bet total at BetMGM.
ESPN BET has seen 42.1% of the bets but 62.5% of the money on the over, which is down from 51.5 at open, while bet365 reported a whopping 73% of total tickets are on the over.
Prop markets
Bettors aren’t just getting in on sides and totals. bet365 said the over 1.5 passing touchdowns for Heisman Trophy favorite and Texas quarterback Arch Manning is the operator’s most-bet player prop.
In the anytime touchdown market, bet365 reported that 46% are on talented receiver Jeremiah Smith to find the end zone. The OSU star is dominating the field. Manning and Texas running back Quintrevion Wisner are both seeing 10% of the action.
Ohio State running back CJ Donaldson is at 8% in the scoring prop market, with “others” getting 26%. bet365 also said that 95% of bets in the “score first” market are on the home-team Buckeyes.
