The point spread on the National Championship Game got popped Sunday.
It happened in Las Vegas and offshore during a three-hour flurry of action on Florida State that caused the line to move two points and prompted speculation that the biggest of bettors was involved.
Cantor Gaming, which operates multiple Vegas sports books and caters to some of the biggest players in town, took an influential bet on the Florida State money line Sunday morning and took another significant play on Florida State -8.5 around 11 a.m. PT. By 5 p.m., Florida State was a 10-point favorite.
At the same time, a similar move was taking place at the MGM Mirage, which, like Cantor, is known to offer some of the highest limits to select players.
“There, right now, we just took another bet from a sharp on Florida State that made us move to 9.5,” said Jay Rood, MGM Vice President of Race and Sports, in an 11 a.m. PT phone interview Sunday.
Soon after, every Vegas book had made Florida State a double-digit favorite.
Meanwhile, the offshore market also was on the move. BetCris.com is considered to have the most influential clients of the offshore books. BetCris sets and moves the U.S. betting market. In the past five days at BetCris, Florida State has grown from an 8.5-point favorite to now giving 10.5 as of Monday afternoon.
Public Pete isn’t forcing a prominent book like BetCris to move its line through a key number like 10. In fact, multiple industry sources said only one man could cause that kind of move – Vegas mega-pro Billy Walters.