Expanding College Football Playoffs: More Teams, More Betting?

Watch Expanding College Football Playoffs: More Teams, More Betting? - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00But we're just a couple of weeks away from the biggest college football playoff that

00:07we have ever seen.

00:0912 teams are going to go at this thing.

00:12Used to be four, used to be two.

00:15Expanded playoffs means more money.

00:16And Sam, I'm guessing it means more wagering as well.

00:21You're spot on, Craig.

00:22I wonder, in a couple years, will we be talking about a 24-team playoff, a 48-team playoff?

00:28Because it seems like, you say, the more teams they add, the more money is involved.

00:31And, of course, where there's more money involved, there's always more betting money.

00:35We've seen sportsbooks be a huge boom for the industry.

00:39So it's no surprise that they're expecting more money to be bet on college football this

00:44time of year than ever before.

00:47You have these marquee matchups now, instead of these meaningless bowl games.

00:51In the past, a lot of players would sit out or opt out in favor of the NFL draft.

00:59Next week, you have SMU at Penn State go Lions, Tennessee and Ohio State, Clemson and Texas.

01:06These are big matchups between big fan bases, which draw a lot of betting interest.

01:11And at the sportsbooks, you know, one, DraftKings is telling me that we're expecting more handle

01:17than ever because people are actually going to care about these games, and these teams

01:20really have a reason to play for.

01:22You know, you have more games just overall going from three playoff games to 11.

01:28That just increases the sheer number of games that you're betting on there.

01:32Then the format itself, you're going to have the five conference champions getting automatic

01:38bids as well.

01:40So betting on those games was up as well, versus just in the past, we've seen some teams

01:45even sit out of conference championship games or rest their players to stay healthy for

01:50the playoffs.

01:51At ESPN Bet, they told me that one of those games, Texas, Georgia, and then another one

01:55of those games, Penn State and Oregon, actually saw as much money or even in some cases more

01:59money than is bet on an average NFL game.

02:02So we've seen this betting interest spike up.

02:05It's only going to continue into the playoffs, and you have more teams with a chance to win

02:09it all, which means more people are betting on the futures for different teams as opposed

02:13to just, you know, one, two or three teams.

02:16And even in the selection Sunday, there was a ton of interest because we didn't really

02:19know who would be playing who.

02:20We didn't know who would be making it, which obviously has a huge part in what ultimately

02:25happens at the end of the day.

02:26So sportsbooks are really happy with the expanded playoff.

02:28It seems like everybody else's so far.

02:31I'd imagine we're going to get, you know, more and more numbers continue to roll in

02:34as we approach the new year.