Eagles' meaningless freak touchdown on game's final play leads to a huge payday for some bettors and a six-figure hit against Vegas sportsbooks
- Las Vegas sportsbooks got burned on two wild endings during Sunday's NFL action.
- First, the Eagles pulled out a miraculous cover against the Redskins with the help of a scoop-and-score on the final play of the game.
- Just hours later, the Falcons-49ers game would go over the total in a similar fashion.
- Both outcomes proved to be six-figure decisions against various sportsbooks across Las Vegas, including one bettor who turned $200 into $75,000 with the help of both dramatic endings.
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Las Vegas bookmakers had a brutal day on Sunday after two wild endings wound up swinging six-figures worth of winning back into the hands of the public.
The chaos began in Washington, where the Eagles were facing off against the Redskins. The Eagles entered the game as 6.5-point favorites, meaning that those that bet on Philadelphia needed their team to win by at least a touchdown in order to cash their ticket.
With just five minutes remaining in the game, the bet looked dead in the water - trailing 27-24, Philadelphia needed a touchdown to get the lead, but would somehow need two scores in order to cover the spread.
The Eagles got the first score they needed thanks to a touchdown from Greg Ward Jr., taking a 31-27 lead with just 26 seconds left on the clock and effectively ending the game.
Almost every time, Eagles bettors' dreams would have ended there as well, but on Sunday, they got a miracle.
On the final play of the game, Philadelphia sent pressure at Washington quarterback Dwayne Haskins, who attempted to lateral the ball to keep the game alive only to watch as Eagles linebacker Nigel Bradham scooped up the loose ball and ran it into the end zone.
Eagles win, 37-27. Eagles bettors cash their bets.
Jay Kornegay of the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook told Business Insider that the Eagles' unlikely cover represented "a six-figure swing to the bad" for their book.
Normally, one wild ending is enough for a week of NFL action, but the late afternoon games proved to be just as costly to some bookmakers.
After the Falcons scored a go-ahead touchdown with just two seconds remaining against the 49ers, the game looked to be over, with Atlanta set to win 23-22.
But the Falcons would instead add another touchdown on the ensuing kickoff thanks to a similar scoop-and-score against a 49ers side that was desperate to keep the play alive, bringing the final score to 29-22.
While the spread was irrelevant in that game, the total was set at 49.5 at kickoff, meaning the late touchdown had pushed the game over in miraculous fashion.
One lucky bettor was reportedly on the winning side of both wild outcomes. According to ESPN's David Purdum, a bettor placed a $200, nine-leg parlay that included the Eagles and concluded with the total of the Falcons-49ers game at the CG Technology sportsbook at The Cosmopolitan.
With the help of those two shocking upsets, that bettor cashed his $200 bet to the tune of $75,000. According to Purdum, the Falcons-49ers total was another six-figure swing against the bookmakers.
Over the course of a long season, the house will always win, but on Sunday, the public got not one, but two miraculous blessings from the gambling gods.
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