Georgia-Texas showdown sees wild movement in betting line

Something happened late in the afternoon on Wednesday regarding the betting line between Georgia football and Texas. Something that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.

The sportsbooks set the initial line for this showdown about a week ago, marking Texas as a 2.5 point favorite. From there the line moved to 3.5 points after the public got their initial bets in on the game. The line then stayed put for a couple days, that is until the craziest 20 minute stretch occurred on Wednesday that left the sportsbooks panicking.

Two point increase within 20 minutes

On Wednesday afternoon, the sportsbooks saw some heavy bets come in favor of Texas to cover the spread on Saturday. Because of those very large bets, the sportsbooks had to move the line of this game from 3.5 points all the way to 5.5 points in the Longhorns’ favor. After that the line did move back down to five points where it eventually held firm once again.

If you’re someone who isn’t familiar with sportsbooks and betting lines, it isn’t super uncommon for a shark (someone who bets large amounts of money and gambles on sports for a living) to impact the lines of a game. But for their action to cause a spread to move a whole two points within 20 minutes? That’s uncharted territory.

“You can imagine for us to move that much in 20 minutes, we really respected that action,” Head of PrimeSports Joe Brennan shared with ESPN.

So what does this mean for Georgia?

This line movement is not ideal for Georgia. This movement means that the people who bet on sports for a living really love Texas to win this game. Not only do they think Texas will win, they think they will by a somewhat comfortable margin.

Now I know the game is played on the field, and that betting doesn’t impact the final score whatsoever, but this news makes me nervous. There’s a reason these sharks are so high on Texas because why else would they wager this large amount of money?

Hopefully Georgia is able to prove them wrong so next time maybe they’ll think twice before doubting the Bulldogs.