Most Bet on College Football Games

Published|Updated

This just in: people like to bet football.  Thanks to the folks at sports information site www.sportsinsights.com we were able to get our hands on some pretty fascinating numbers.  From the big name programs to bowl games to the college football playoff, these figures tell a remarkable narrative.  SportsInsights betting data doesn't represent bet volumes from every sportsbook worldwide but does provide a representative aggregate from a handful of large offshore operations, allowing us to get a great snapshot of what games moved the needle this fall.

Most Bet on Games

The numbers below represent total wagers placed; not how much money was actually wagered on each of the games.

20. Alabama - Mississippi 44,655

19. Georgia Tech - Mississippi St. 45,278

18. Florida State - Louisville 45,294

17. Georgia - South Carolina 46,759

16. Wisconsin - Ohio State 47,950

15. Arizona - Oregon 48,493

14. Missouri - Alabama 49,534

13. Miami Florida - Louisville 50,770

12. Mississippi - TCU 51,130

11. Boise State - Arizona 52,120

10. Mississippi St - Alabama 53,033

9. UCLA - Kansas State 53,873

8. Auburn - Kansas State 54,553

7. Florida State - Georgia Tech 55,779

6. Michigan State - Baylor 58,701

5. Michigan State - Oregon 59,429

4. Florida State - Miami Florida 62,906

3. Ohio State - Alabama 102,175

2. Ohio State - Oregon 102,267

1. Florida State - Oregon 112,644

Points of Interest

Teams that appeared on the 20 most bet games list the most:

Florida St: 4

Oregon: 4

Alabama: 4

Ohio St: 3

The inaugural college football championship game was NOT the most bet college football game this season.

Super Bowl XLIX only generated about 10,000 more bets than the most heavily bet college football game: 122,370 compared to 112,644.  It should be noted the 122,370 documented bets represented nearly a 25% decline from the previous year.  Some of which is attributed to absence of a substantial moneyline on the underdog.

Only (I use the term facetiously) 3 games generated more than 63,000 bets: the semifinals and national championship. EXPAND THE PLAYOFF!

60% (12 of 20) of the most heavily bet college games were either conference championships or bowl games.  This statistic alone proves yet again why ratings will always be high for postseason games even with the newly formed college football playoff.  Bettors want action and if you feed them brand names they'll flock to the betting window.

The SEC conference game that created the least amount of betting buzz was the "instant classic" played between Georgia and Vanderbilt on October 4.  If you predicted Vanderbilt wouldn't move the needle for sports bettors any more than it does for SEC fans give yourself a pat on the back.

Our "Mr Irrelevant" award for a game played between FBS members goes to the clash between Wyoming and New Mexico on November 29. There were only 1,459 bets placed on this game from the cross section of books where Sports Insights collects data.  The game that produced the fewest bets in all of college football was Richmond against Morgan St; allowing 207 degenerates to get their action fix.

According to Sportsinsights there was a pointspread listed for 894 college football games this season.  However, there is no truth to the rumor that Clay Travis was personally invested in roughly half of them.

A grand total of 12,774,988 bets were placed during the college football season at just the offshore sportsbooks included in the study.  Our American government taxed not a single dollar won or lost on these wagers.  If this isn't a large enough sample size to make legislators believe sports betting needs to be legalized and regulated I'm not quite sure what it will take to move forward.

 

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Clay Travis is the founder of the fastest growing national multimedia platform, OutKick, that produces and distributes engaging content across sports and pop culture to millions of fans across the country. OutKick was created by Travis in 2011 and sold to the Fox Corporation in 2021. One of the most electrifying and outspoken personalities in the industry, Travis hosts OutKick The Show where he provides his unfiltered opinion on the most compelling headlines throughout sports, culture, and politics. He also makes regular appearances on FOX News Media as a contributor providing analysis on a variety of subjects ranging from sports news to the cultural landscape. Throughout the college football season, Travis is on Big Noon Kickoff for Fox Sports breaking down the game and the latest storylines. Additionally, Travis serves as a co-host of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, a three-hour conservative radio talk program syndicated across Premiere Networks radio stations nationwide. Previously, he launched OutKick The Coverage on Fox Sports Radio that included interviews and listener interactions and was on Fox Sports Bet for four years. Additionally, Travis started an iHeartRadio Original Podcast called Wins & Losses that featured in-depth conversations with the biggest names in sports. Travis is a graduate of George Washington University as well as Vanderbilt Law School. Based in Nashville, he is the author of Dixieland Delight, On Rocky Top, and Republicans Buy Sneakers Too.