Everything that happens in sports has additional context when viewed from a betting perspective. From season-changing injuries to record-setting moments and so much more, the news cycle will constantly and significantly affect the sports betting industry.

Our betting buzz file, with contributions from David Purdum, Doug Greenberg and others, aims to provide fans a look at the sports betting stories that are driving the conversation.

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Jan. 15: The AFC is historically wide-open heading into the divisional round

Doug Greenberg: Heading into the divisional round of the NFL playoffs, it truly feels like any team from the AFC could represent the conference in the Super Bowl. The future odds back this notion up in a big way.

The New England Patriots are favored to win the AFC at +230, but the Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos are right behind at +260 each with the Houston Texans at +340, per DraftKings lines as of Thursday afternoon.

Should those odds hold:

• New England would be the longest favorites to win a conference headed into the divisional round, according to historical odds data from SportsOddsHistory.com dating back to 2008.

• Houston would be the shortest longshot to win the AFC and the second-shortest to win either conference going into the divisional round.

Further accentuating the parity, DraftKings has released hypothetical lines for the championship round, and all four possible matchups would feature a spread of 1.5. Notably, the Broncos would be favored in either matchup, the Patriots would be underdogs in either matchup, and the Bills and Texans get one favorite role each. The shortest potential moneyline in that scenario would be Denver over Houston at -122.

Bettors are predicting an AFC East showdown in the conference championship, with Buffalo and New England’s spreads receiving the majority of handle for their divisional round games, per DraftKings splits. At BetMGM, the Bills have 16.5% of the tickets to win the conference but the Broncos are the book’s largest liability with 24.2% of the handle, which includes $100,000, $75,000 and $50,000 wagers at +350 odds.

Jan. 12: Bettors cash in on latest Bears comeback, 49ers upset

By Doug Greenberg

It was truly a wild, wild-card weekend.

The first round of the NFL playoffs kicked off with a bang on Saturday when the Carolina Panthers nearly pulled off a stunning upset of the Los Angeles Rams as 10.5-point home underdogs, the largest such playoff spread in the Super Bowl era.

When the Panthers took the lead late in the fourth quarter, they briefly became live favorites before L.A. stormed back with a Matthew Stafford game-winning drive to win by a field goal. Nevertheless, the highly favored, publicly supported Rams failing to cover the spread was a good result for sportsbooks, according to Caesars Sportsbook’s head of football Joey Feazel.

However, Saturday’s second game — an instant classic between the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears — was an absolute magnet for live action and one that ultimately favored the public in a big way.

Getting off to one of their notoriously slow starts, the Bears were down 21-3 going into the second half and reached live money-line odds as long as +1400 at DraftKings Sportsbook. With bettors understanding Chicago’s late-game heroics throughout the season, they supported the Bears with the majority of in-game wagers at the major books, including 70% of the spread bets and 71% of the money-line bets at DraftKings.

The Bears’ incredible come-from-behind victory was the “best result of the weekend for bettors,” per a representative from BetMGM. When Chicago fell behind, Caesars took a live spread wager at +4.5 (+110) that ultimately paid out $105,000.

“The Bears drew significant attention as momentum shifted in their favor throughout the second half,” Feazel said over email. “Whenever we have a standalone game, especially in the playoffs, there’s typically an increase in volume. With the Bears keeping the game competitive, that only amplified the already elevated activity.”

Sunday kept that momentum going with a high-scoring affair between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars that benefited the public as well. Buffalo closed as a small underdog due to some sharp action, per Feazel, but attracted the majority of wagers and money at BetMGM and theScore Bet.

Then, the San Francisco 49ers took out the reigning champion Philadelphia Eagles. With sharp action coming in all week on Philly, the Niners ultimately prevailed after closing as 5.5-point underdogs, which benefited public bettors that supported San Fran with the majority of wagers across the sportsbook marketplace. According to ESPN Research, this was the second-largest upset in the wild-card round since the playoffs expanded in 2020.

One of sportsbooks’ only wins of the weekend was in the extremely low-scoring contest between the Los Angeles Chargers and New England Patriots. With TE Hunter Henry’s fourth-quarter score serving as the only touchdown, limiting the efficacy of anytime touchdown scorer props, BetMGM reported the game as its biggest win of the weekend.

However, the book still has some liability on its hands going forward. BetMGM senior trading manager Christian Cipollini said before the games that the Chargers or Jaguars winning the Super Bowl would be “the best outcome for the sportsbook.” Of course, both were eliminated from contention Sunday.

Looking ahead

Monday night’s final wild-card game between the Houston Texans and Pittsburgh Steelers features the lowest total (38.5) in a playoff game since the 2016 wild card, according to ESPN Research. Texans -3 has attracted the majority of spread bets (61%) and handle (65%) at DraftKings.

Lines for the divisional round went up Sunday evening and featured a couple of curiosities from the get-go.

The AFC’s top-seeded Denver Broncos opened as slight favorites over the Bills, but that line has since flipped and Buffalo is now a 1.5-point road favorite. Should that hold, it would be the first time a No. 1 seed has been a home underdog since the 2017 Eagles, who also hold the distinction of being the largest home underdogs ever in the divisional playoffs (+2.5), per ESPN Research.

The Rams opened as 4.5-point road favorites against the Bears, but heavy early action on Chicago at DraftKings saw the line drop to -3.5. Should the line return to -4.5, it would tie Los Angeles for the largest road favorite in the divisional round since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger.

Finally, the NFC’s top-seeded Seattle Seahawks opened as 6.5-point favorites over the 49ers and have already jumped up to -7.5 with a high percentage of money backing them.

ESPN’s David Purdum contributed to this story.