Bettors flock to Oregon State after sportsbook's initial line favors USC by nearly two touchdowns

An outlier opening line on USC - Oregon State prompted a flood of bets this week and left one sportsbook with more money on the game than any of the other games.

USC was a 13 point favorite over Oregon State. The USC was only a 5-point favorite minutes later. Bettors pounced on the discrepancy, causing the line to drop significantly at Caesars and tick up slightly at other sportsbooks, before they settled at a consensus number of USC -6) on Sunday night.

Joey Feazel is the lead college football trader for Caesars Sportsbook. We put out a number to try and get Oregon State money. It worked.

Feazel moved the line down aggressively because of the action from influential gamblers. Caesars went from USC to -9 within 30 minutes and was down to -7 less than an hour after the opening number was posted.

A $110,000 bet on Oregon State +7 was placed Tuesday in Nevada and it was reported that 88.2% of the money wagered was on the USC-Oregon State point spread.

The sportsbooks that opened USC as less than a touchdown favorite reported a lot of USC action. 80% of the money bet on the game's spread was on USC, while the other 20% was on the other side of the ball.

John Murray is the executive director of the Super Book. The USC is once again a public darling.

More money was bet on the USC-Oregon State spread than on any other game. The amount bet on a college football game is usually less than the amount bet on an NFL game.

According to Feazel, USC should be a double-digit favorite after bouncing potential opening lines off colleagues. He acknowledged the danger of opening numbers that move a lot if he had an opportunity for a do-over.

Professional bettors often play both sides of games to reduce risk and hope for a bigger margin of victory in order to land where they win both bets. A bettor could have taken USC -5 and Oregon State +3.5 at the same time. The bettor would win both wagers if the USC win by more than six. The teams don't matter when the point spread is large. If the margins of victory are three and seven, savvy bettors will bet the different numbers.

Feazel said you don't want to lose both ways. You're trying to get to the right number, but at some point you have to understand that there could be a middle.