Patriots Popular Bet to Open, but Eagles’ Bettors Bring Line Down

The current line for Super Bowl LII has New England -4 against the Philadelphia Eagles. The line opened up at Patriots -5.5 the night of the two conference championships but over the past two weeks has gone to -5, -4.5, and now the current -4 on most sportsbooks.

Tom Brady brings the New England Patriots to their eighth Super Bowl during his Hall of Fame career. However, a big comeback during the AFC Championship game was needed for he and his teammates to reach this point. New England on the season is 15-3 SU and 12-6 ATS.

The Pats trailed 14-3 during the first half to Jacksonville and 20-10 halfway through the fourth quarter, before rallying to win 24-20 behind two Brady scoring drives. But the Patriots failed to cover as 7.5-point chalk.

The Eagles defeated the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship 38-7 to reach the Super Bowl. This season the Eagles are 15-3 SU and 12-6 ATS. The Eagles covered as 3-point home dogs.

Over the past week Philly bettors are 2 to 1 in money and the tickets are 3 to 2 in favor of the Eagles. The drop of 1.5 points in the spread has coincided with the moneyline moving. The Patriots opened at -200 and that is now down to -175, while the Eagles plunged from an opening of +190 to +155.

However, things could and likely will change. The final 30 to 36 hours before the opening kickoff will see as much as 75% of the volume in money and tickets.

The increase in Eagles volume has surprised some as even when Rob Gronkowski was cleared from being on concussion protocol has not slowed down the volume of Eagles bets.

Sportsbooks are not used to needing the Patriots to win to win themselves as they are one of the most popular public bets on any sportsbook but it appears with this year’s Super Bowl, the books will need a cover by the Patriots to come out on top, unless a huge change in volume takes place between Saturday morning and Sunday’s kickoff.