The NFL world was shocked (kinda) on Sunday when news broke that Tom Brady was un-retiring and returning to play at least one more season for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
While there were plenty of people around Brady who were happy about the news, one sportsbook started raising concerns over whether or not bettors who placed wagers just before the quarterback’s announcement had inside information that it was coming.
Per Todd Dewey at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Westgate SuperBook vice president Jay Kornegay said Monday that he thinks some bets that were placed with their sportsbook show a pattern of inside knowledge of the decision.
While the Buccaneers had 60-1 odds to win the 2023 Super Bowl and 30-1 odds to win the NFC as of last Thursday, a “sharp bettor” placed what is presumably a large wager on both. As soon as Brady made his announcement, sportsbooks all over slashed the Buc’s Super Bowl odds. At Westgate, the odds dropped to 25-1 on Tampa to win the title and that same bettor made another bet, signaling to them that this person appeared to know something.
“There’s not a doubt in my mind that they knew he was coming back when they placed those wagers on Thursday,” Kornegay told the Review-Journal. “And these were not casual bettors. They would be categorized as educated bettors. It wasn’t a guy with a Tom Brady jersey at the counter. It was a player that we would describe as sharp. With that type of play and the announcement we heard (Sunday) that he was unretiring, there was information that was shared prior to his official announcement.
“There is no doubt in my mind that information leaked sometime in the middle of last week. This is concerning. I don’t think I’ve ever said the NFL really needs to investigate something. But this is something they need to look into and how it got out, because there are many books that took some sizable wagers in the middle of last week.”
According to Dewey, a similar situation played out at the South Point casino, where their sportsbook took “big money” on Tampa Bay to win the Super Bowl on Thursday at 50-1.
Brady seemingly signaled that he was not 100% retired on Saturday in a video alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, but that still wouldn’t explain the major bets that were placed on Thursday.
The NFL didn’t comment on the story for the Review-Journal. We’ll see if an investigation is launched, either by the league or Las Vegas. Regardless, given that this comes on the heels of their suspension of Calvin Ridley for gambling on NFL games, it appears that the league is going to have to be ready to deal with more intersections between their players and sports betting.
