Last month, Las Vegas sportsbooks, like Bovada, installed Penn State running back Saquon Barkley as the odds-on favorite to go to the Browns with a first overall pick in the NFL Draft.
At the time, quarterbacks Josh Allen, Josh Rosen, Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield all also had decent odds of going No. 1, so there were lots of options for people who wanted to place prop bets on which quarterback wouldn’t get picked first and likely be picked behind Barkley.
After initially being installed as a minus-300 favorite to be drafted ahead of Barkley, Rosen closed as a plus-270 underdog to go after the running back, leading many to bet that prop.
When Barkley was picked ahead of Rosen, it led to the Westgate and William Hill sports books both losing a substantial amount of money.
“I thought there was no way a team with a 37-year-old quarterback (Eli Manning) would be dumb enough to draft a running back,” Ed Salmons, the Westgate Las Vegas Superbook’s head football oddsmaker, told ESPN. “I don’t understand why these guys do what they do. I guess that’s why they get fired all the time.”
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