Last Play Safety on Monday Night Football Game Swings Millions at Sportsbooks

On Monday, December 14^th, 2020 the Baltimore Ravens played the Cleveland Browns on Monday Night Football from First Energy Stadium located in Cleveland, Ohio. This highly anticipated divisional rivalry carried major playoff implications, and it was broadcasted on national television for the entire country’s viewing pleasures. A game of this magnitude often results in an extremely large amount of bets placed on this contest by sports bettors all over the world.

On the last play of this match up between the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens the final snap of the game ended up being a desperation multilateral attempt to somehow score by the Cleveland Browns. The last second effort to miraculously get into the end zone by the Cleveland Browns failed miserably. The play resulted in a safety for the Baltimore Ravens, and the two points that were awarded to the Baltimore Ravens swung millions of dollars in wagers at sportsbooks across the country.

Details of the End of the Game

 The away team in the Baltimore Ravens were unanimously favored by the 3 points over the Cleveland Browns. The place kicker for the Baltimore Ravens, Justin Tuck, calmly nailed a huge 55 yard field goal that provided the Ravens with the lead over the Browns with a score of 45 to 42 with only 2 seconds remaining on the game clock. As the subsequent kickoff was kicked into the end zone for a touchback, the Cleveland Browns were left with a very long field to cover and only time left for one play.

The Cleveland Browns quarterback, Baker Mayfield, threw a completed pass to Kareem Hunt on a slant route over the middle of the field, and Hunt then pitched a lateral back to his teammate Rashard Higgins which was the first of a total of 7 laterals on this final play of the ball game. Wide receiver Jarvis Landry was the last Cleveland Browns player to receive a lateral, and after he was eventually shoved out of bounds in his own end zone by the Baltimore Ravens defense the play resulted in a safety for the Baltimore Ravens. The finals score ended up being 47 to 42 in favor of the victorious Baltimore Ravens.

The Effects of the Safety on the World of Sports Betting

 Due to fact that the Baltimore Ravens closed at – 3 or – 3.5 by most of the sportsbooks across the nation as well as the world that final play of the game had catastrophic results. Prior to the safety the Cleveland Browns would have covered the spread, but this freak occurrence swung millions of dollars the other way according to major sportsbooks across the country. These types of incidents are the reason why betting on sports is immensely interesting. The unpredictability of a sporting event, and the fact that you never what can happen makes it quite the rollercoaster of entertainment for so many individual bettors as well as sportsbooks everywhere.                

Media Statements

 “In the last two hours, we took significant money on the Browns, when we went to 3.5,” the vice president of trading for BetMGM, Jason Scott, explained to ESPN.

 “We wish it wouldn’t have happened,” Scott goes on to say regarding the safety on the final play of the game. “We were a little worse on the Ravens, but it wasn’t significant.”

 “Pretty big swing. I’d classify it in the seven-figure range,” FanDuel’s sportsbook director, John Sheeran, expressed to the media. “Pretty expensive one, but I think bettors were due one given the way the season’s gone.”

 “One of my colleagues who was trading [the live odds] said he felt like he was playing in the game rather than trading it. It was pretty exhausting,” Sheeran proclaimed. “It was a very popular game overall, and the in-play boosted up the total handle. It was definitely our highest-bet game of the weekend by quite some way.”

 Box Score

 Baltimore Passing

 Cleveland Passing

 Baltimore Rushing

 Cleveland Rushing

 Baltimore Receiving

 Cleveland Receiving

 Baltimore Fumbles

 Cleveland Fumbles

 Baltimore Defensive

 Cleveland Defensive

 Baltimore Interceptions

 Cleveland Interceptions

 Baltimore Kick Returns

 Cleveland Kick Returns

 Baltimore Punt Returns

 Cleveland Punt Returns

 Baltimore Kicking

 Cleveland Kicking

 Baltimore Punting

 Cleveland Punting