Bookmakers: Canceled minor bowl games 'no big deal' as big action on College Football Playoff games looms
The unprecedented havoc that COVID-19 has wreaked upon the college bowl schedule left only small ripples of effect on the nation’s sportsbooks.
The cancellation of Monday’s Military Bowl in Annapolis, Maryland, along with the scrapping of Wednesday’s Fenway Bowl and Friday’s Arizona Bowl, triggered refunds to bettors who already wagered on the games.
After surveying of some of the nation’s leading bookmakers, the impact looks minimal.
“We had less staked on these games because 1) These games didn't consist of highly ranked, popular teams and 2) A majority of the wagers taken on our book happen on the day of,” Tipico Sportsbook’s Sunny Gupta said.
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The Military Bowl pitted unranked East Carolina (7-5) versus Boston College (6-6), who finished last in the ACC Atlantic division.
A COVID outbreak among Boston College players triggered the cancellation.
"We just do not have enough players to safely play a game,” Boston College Coach Jeff Hafley said in a statement. “My heart goes out to our seniors who will not have one final opportunity to wear a B.C. jersey, and I can't thank them enough for all the contributions they made to our program."
Similar fates struck Virginia (6-6) ahead of what was to be the inaugural Fenway Bowl against SMU (8-4), along with Boise State (7-5), which was supposed to meet Central Michigan (8-4) in an Arizona Bowl streamed on YouTube and sponsored for the first time by Barstool Sports.
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Central Michigan wound up increasing its bowl money because of the cancellation.
Following the COVID-linked withdrawal of Miami from Friday’s Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, Central Michigan took the four-hour drive east to fill in as the opponent for Washington State (7-5).
CBS will televise the noon ET game. Being nationally televised sets the game’s value at $4.55 million while the Arizona Bowl offered a far smaller pool of $350,000.
Tipico was among some of the prominent bookmakers yet to set a line on the game as of Tuesday afternoon, pending a fuller examination of the revised matchup.
BetMGM’s Director of Trading Jeff Stoneback said there were “no big wagers” on the scrapped bowls.
“Losing bowl games isn’t that big of a deal, but we would certainly rather (have them to) book,” said Las Vegas Superbook Race and Sports Director Jay Kornegay. “Those games (the Arizona Bowl and Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl) are on the same day as the playoffs and would a take a back seat to those games.”
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