Bettor hits $500K wager on Washington to cover spread vs. Steelers

Tom Gatto

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Bettor hits $500K wager on Washington to cover spread vs. Steelers image

The Washington Football Team was money for a bold bettor Monday.

An anonymous punter in Indiana put $500,000 on underdog WFT to cover the six-point spread vs. the previously unbeaten Steelers, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. The book had to pay out after Washington rallied for a 23-17 straight-up victory.

A six-point spread looks generous in hindsight even though Washington fell behind 14-0 in the first half. WFT is in a divisional race (the bad NFC East) and it came into the game on a two-game winning streak. It also was the more rested team after the Steelers had to play the previous Wednesday vs. the Ravens because of COVID-19 outbreaks. And Pittsburgh didn't look so great against a depleted Baltimore squad in that game.

MORE: Scoring updates, highlights from WFT-Pittsburgh

Radio.com noted that the bettor would have made a much larger profit with a straight-up wager. Washington closed at plus-215 (bet $100 to make a $215 profit) on FanDuel's money line. The point-spread bet paid at minus-106 odds (bet $106 to win $100), which was still a more favorable line than the usual minus-110 for a point spread (bet $110 to win $100).

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.