By: Daniel Gunn (@DanielGunn)
Week 1 of Season 21 is in the books, meaning the first bit of betting data is in. With only one week of data, this recap will be a broader overview of the betting landscape (the more data I get, the more detailed info I can review). In future week’s recaps, I will have rankings for each section covered in this series.
Who Covered
Week One was fairly balanced between the favorites and the underdogs covering the spread, with the underdogs taking a slight advantage. The favorites covered 45% of the time, while the underdogs covered 55%.
Outright Winners
It should be no surprise to anyone that the favorites won 72% of their games outright. However, we had three schools (UNC, Oklahoma, and Tennessee) come away with victories as underdogs.
Pick’em
We had our first “Pick’em” game of the season, in which Texas A&M won by 12 points.
Defense Wins Championships (and Bets)
The best way to win money in Week 1 was to hammer the under. 10 out of the 12 games hit the under. If you were to bet $1,000 on every under this week, you would have won $8,974.30. Season 21 average points scored league-wide was 64.83333 which is down 15.5% from Season 20 Week 1.
Top Teams Against the Spread
This will be a weekly ranking of how teams perform against the spread. The positive numbers are how much a team beat the spread and the negative numbers are how badly they have lost against the spread. This will be a cumulative ranking each week.
| Rank | Team | Against the Spread |
| 1 | Kentucky | +39.5 |
| 2 | North Carolina | +35.5 |
| 3 | Tennessee | +28.5 |
| 4 | USC | +21.5 |
| 5 | Oklahoma | +17.5 |
| 6 | Texas A&M | +12 |
| 7 | Ohio State | +9.5 |
| 8 | Alabama | +8.5 |
| 9 | Michigan | +4.5 |
| 10 | LSU | +2.5 |
| 11 | Florida | +1.5 |
| 12 | Georgia | +0.5 |
| 13 | Virginia Tech | -0.5 |
| 14 | Penn State | -1.5 |
| 15 | Florida State | -2.5 |
| 16 | Auburn | -4.5 |
| 17 | Miami | -8.5 |
| 18 | Colorado | -9.5 |
| 19 | Michigan State | -12 |
| 20 | Oregon | -17.5 |
| 21 | West Virginia | -21.5 |
| 22 | Notre Dame | -28.5 |
| 23 | Texas | -35.5 |
| 24 | Clemson | 39.5 |
Sportsbook Leaders
It is very early in the season and you still have plenty of time to crack the leaderboard for the biggest Sportsbook earners. Here are the leaders so far.
| Rank | Name | Total Winnings |
| 1 | ktolbert77 | 59,102.83 |
| 2 | dthall79 | $57,747.70 |
| 3 | Iamjustshau | $49,917.90 |
| 4 | State | $45,350.90 |
| 5 | WakeandBlake | $38,196.78 |
| 6 | Jordanhaack | $36,305.20 |
| 7 | JustinC | $34,902.28 |
| 8 | DannyHanson | $32,181.82 |
| 9 | ColbyW | $29,140.87 |
| 10 | Nismo24 | $29,000 |
Bookies vs Bettors
They saw the house always wins. The Sportsbook is up $577,917.60 this year.
