It's natural for football fans to be excited for tonight's first ever College Football Playoff National Championship game between Oregon and Ohio State. But gamblers seem to be even more excited for tonight's matchup.
The game is on pace to be the most heavily bet upon college football matchup of ever at William Hill's Nevada sports book, according to ESPN.
Nick Bogdanovich, the director of trading at William Hill, predicts that the Ducks-Buckeyes game will garner "20 percent" of the amount wagered on the Super Bowl at his establishment.
A record $119.4 million was gambled on the Super Bowl last year across Nevada sports books.
"It's as big as any college football game that I can remember," Bogdanovich said.
The semifinals - Florida State vs. Oregon and Alabama vs. Ohio State - exceeded last year's championship game between FSU and Auburn in the total amount bet and wagers placed, according to William Hill spokesman Michael Grodsky. But the stakes are expected to increase as tonight's 8:30 p.m. game is expected to surpass both marks.
"It'll be easily as big as one of these games we've got going on today," MGM vice president of race and sports Jay Rood said during Sunday's NFL playoff games. "We'll be into the seven figures (on Ohio State-Oregon)."
Sports books are expected "50-60 percent" of bets to be placed throughout Monday with a heavy increase in the hours leading up to tonight's kickoff.
"To have as much as we've written before day of the game is pretty impressive," Ed Salmons, head football oddsmaker at the Westgate Super Book, said.
Bets have reached the five-figure range, according to executive director of the Wynn Race and Sports Book John Avello.
"There hasn't been any six-figure wagers so far," Avello said. "It's all been $20,000, $30,000, $40,000, a lot of those on both sides."
Sports betting analystics site SportsInsights.com reported Sunday that nearly 55,000 bets had been placed on the game across just the seven online sports books that it tracks.
