Mahomes’ standing sparks a fluid AFC title recreation line

After a number of days of erratic line motion in sports activities betting, the purpose unfold in Friday morning’s AFC Championship recreation had stabilized, with the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs listed as consensus favorites by 1.5 factors over the Cincinnati Bengals.

Kansas Metropolis went from favourite to underdog and again to favourite over the course of the week, with every replace on Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ injured ankle sparking sports activities betting storms for each groups. Mahomes, who was recognized with a extreme ankle sprain in Saturday’s division win towards the Jacksonville Jaguars, was listed as a full participant in follow this week.

“I really feel like I can nonetheless do quite a lot of issues, however we’ll see as we get nearer,” Mahomes mentioned Thursday. “We’ll see in the course of the recreation. You possibly can’t pinpoint precisely what it’s going to be like in these moments within the recreation. All I can do is put together as finest I can after which after we come into the sport, you hope that the adrenaline kicks in and you may make these photographs when it is advisable to.”

The Bengals, opening as excessive as a 3-point underdog, drew many of the motion earlier within the week. The SuperBook mentioned it solely took two bets on the Chiefs within the first few hours after posting the road on Sunday, which noticed the Bengals rapidly change into the betting favourite.

Cincinnati acquired as excessive as a 3-point favourite Tuesday at Caesars Sportsbook in Nevada, albeit briefly. Caesars took the Bengals to -3 for about 5 minutes Tuesday afternoon earlier than rapidly dropping them again all the way down to -2.5.

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Max Meyer, editorial content material author for Caesars Sportsbook, informed CBS Sports activities that the transfer to Bengals -3 “was simply to check the water.”

“The water has actually been examined due to quite a lot of sharp actions [on the Chiefs] got here at +3,” Meyer informed the community.

Chris Andrews, a veteran Las Vegas bookmaker and sportsbook director at South Level On line casino, mentioned he additionally noticed elevated curiosity within the Chiefs from bettors on Tuesday.

“I bear in mind saying [Tuesday] that there needed to be some type of report [Mahomes] wanting fairly good,” Andrews informed ESPN on Thursday. “Yesterday they confirmed this clip of the movie and it gave the impression to be going effectively and after that the floodgates opened.”

The purpose unfold stayed largely at -1 and -2, with each groups favored for a lot of the week. Within the final 5 seasons, together with the playoffs, 9% of video games ended with a margin of lower than three, based on analysis by ESPN Stats & Data.

The Chiefs have been most well-liked in 14 straight playoff video games, the longest such streak within the Tremendous Bowl period.

In Friday’s NFC Championship Sport, the Philadelphia Eagles have been a 2.5-point favourite over the San Francisco 49ers.

“Possibly we’ll get to it [Eagles] -3,” Andrews mentioned. “I feel there’s a very good probability, however I additionally assume if we get to three, the 49ers guys will bounce proper in.”

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