Sportsbooks don't like the Super Bowl favorite Lions very much

For the first time ever, the Detroit Lions are the betting favorite to win the Super Bowl. We also know that quarterback Jared Goff speaks for the entire team when he was asked what that means right now during a radio appearance last week .

"Absolutely zero. Nothing. Nothing. Zero. Nothing. What does it mean right now? I mean, someone else was the (Super Bowl) favorite (in) Week 1, so what does it mean for them? Like, I don't know. Yeah, (it) means nothing."

With the Lions being a betting favorite in general, let alone to win the Super Bowl, that status does mean something to some people. Namely, the sportsbooks that take bets from the public and ideally profit handsomely from that intake.

The Lions are not well-liked by sportsbooks

Ben Fawkes of The Athletic took a look at the Lions as the betting favorite to win the Super Bowl going into Week 11 and why the sportsbooks aren't fond of that development.

BetMGM trader Christian Cipollini had some pointed comments.

"They’re by far our biggest Super Bowl liability and pretty much our only one at this point,” Cipollini said. “Anything inside of 10-1 [odds] we don’t tend to build crazy liability that we’re worried about, but everybody has been on them. At this point, the Lions winning the Super Bowl would be a huge problem for us. If I could remove them from futures, I would.”

Cipollini added that the Lions have also been an issue on a weekly basis this season.

“We hate the Lions,” Cipollini added “I haven’t seen something like this in my time at BetMGM. Every single week, they’re our worst team. I think something like 95 percent of the bets last week [vs. the Jaguars] were on Detroit.”

According to The Athletic, DraftKings Sportsbook had 31 percent of bets and 31 percent of total money wagered on the Lions to win the Super Bowl earlier this last week.

Michigan being a state with legalized sports betting surely fosters wagers, and fans also tend to favor home teams with wagers

Cipollini is obviously not alone in his sentiment, as the Lions have moved from 12-1 odds to win the Super Bowl before the season to just 3-1 now.

"The betting momentum in favor of Detroit started prior to the season as they attracted a large number of Super Bowl future wagers,” said Brad Bryant, general manager at Mohegan Sun FanDuel Sportsbook, noting the Lions have been one of the Mohegan Sun’s “top-wagered teams on a weekly basis.”

The Lions are a league-best 8-2 against the spread this season entering Week 12, They are an almost unfathomable 41-16 against the spread (72 percent) in their past 57 games since the middle of the 2021 season, including a 22-8 mark in the first half since the start of last season.

If the Lions do win the Super Bowl, the sportsbooks will join the ranks of those who just can't handle their success. But at least the sportsbooks would have a little bit better reason for their distaste-money.