Welcome to Gaming Today’s 2023 Bookies Battle! Many of our bookies have started the NFL season with a victory thanks to Detroit’s surprising win in Kansas City. How does the rest of Week 1 shake out?
Nearly 60 bookies, consisting of managers, directors, and more from top sportsbooks across the country, have submitted picks for the opening week. Quite a few NFL Week 1 odds have value compared to the current market prices.
Let’s review the top consensus picks and how our bookies are leaning for each NFL game this week.
Top NFL Week 1 Bookies Battle – 2023 Consensus Picks
- Las Vegas Raiders – 79% of picks (Contest line: +4.5, Current line: )
- Detroit Lions – 67% of picks (Contest line: +6.5)
- Washington Commanders – 66% of picks (Contest line: -7, Current line: )
- Jacksonville Jaguars – 66% of picks (Contest line: -4.5, Current line: )
- Seattle Seahawks – 66% of picks (Contest line: -4.5, Current line: )
Running Down the Consensus NFL Week 1 Picks
By a large margin, most of our bookies are tailing the Raiders at +4.5 against the Denver Broncos. This is a general consensus favorite and likely a value play with the current line dropping closer to a field goal.
For what it’s worth, Denver did find their rhythm on offense late in 2022. But it was far from expectations with Russell Wilson at quarterback. Meanwhile, the Raiders will be moving on to Jimmy Garoppolo after the Derek Carr era ends.
The Detroit Lions took care of business on Thursday Night Football against the Kansas City Chiefs. It didn’t matter that the bookies had great value on the game, which likely led to the amount of picks. The Lions took advantage of the dropped passes and injury to tight end Travis Kelce to win outright.
There’s a three-way tie for two-thirds of the picks for the Commanders, Jaguars, and Seahawks. Our bookies don’t see much hope for their opponents, including an Arizona team everyone loves to put last in their power rankings and an LA Rams squad without Cooper Kupp.
All Consensus Picks for NFL Week 1
Matchups listed will include the percentage of picks for the most-selected team and the contest spread for the opponent.
- Panthers (+3.5) at Falcons (54%)
- Texans (+9.5) at Ravens (63%)
- 49ers (-2.5) at Steelers (59%)
- Bengals (52%) at Browns (+1.5)
- Buccaneers (+6) at Vikings (63%)
- Titans (+3) at Saints (61%)
- Jaguars (66%) at Colts (+4.5)
- Rams (+4.5) at Seahawks (66%)
- Raiders (79%) at Broncos (-4.5)
- Dolphins (55%) at Chargers (-3)
- Packers (+1.5) at Bears (61%)
- Eagles (61%) at Patriots (+4.5)
- Cowboys (-3) at Giants (59%)
- Bills (52%) at Jets (+2.5)
The biggest division for our bookies was on Cincinnati over Cleveland and Buffalo as field-goal favorites in New York. Another close call is an enticing matchup between Miami and the LA Chargers, with an edge given to the Dolphins as field-goal underdogs on the road.
Other observations: Baltimore isn’t as high of a consensus pick with a 9.5-point spread against Houston. The impact of Aaron Rodgers out of Green Bay is immediately felt with 61% of bookies taking Chicago to win by a point and a half.
Bookies Battle Contest Rules and Prize Structure
All of our bookies must set their picks prior to kickoff of Thursday Night Football. Each Friday, we’ll provide an article that details what the picks are for the upcoming week.
There’s an $8,000 purse that will be distributed across the entire 2023 NFL season. $3,000 will go to the regular season winner and $1,000 goes to the runner-up.
$500 is given out to quarterly winners over the course of the regular season. Weeks 1-5 is the first quarter, and the remaining quarters are divided up into four weeks each.
For the playoffs, $2,000 will be given, which includes the top 10 regular-season winners and all four quarterly winners.
Results from 2022 Bookies Battle
Robert Kowalski (Baldini’s Casino – Sparks, NV) won the 2022 regular season championship with a 150-111 record. The runner-up was Kyle Wainscott (Rivers Casino – Des Plaines, IL). In the playoffs, Max Schmerin (Rivers Casino – Pittsburgh, PA) took the crown with a 9-4 record.
Check back every week during the 2023 NFL season to find out how our bookies are doing.
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