Tyson Fury’s victory over Deontay Wilder on Saturday night wasn’t a big upset based on the odds, but it led to a boxing betting windfall for sportsbooks.

When the heavyweight title fight became official in December, Fury was actually a slight favorite. But money poured in on Wilder’s side to make him as high as a -145 favorite at William Hill on Saturday.

Fury won the match and the WBC heavyweight title with a TKO in the seventh round, and the result was surely upsetting for many bettors.

As of Friday night, 76% of the handle was on Wilder -130 at William Hill. The margin was even wider at PointsBet with 88% of the handle on Wilder -125 and 86% of the handle on Wilder -108 at FanDuel as of Friday, and 75% of the handle was on Wilder at DraftKings, too.

“It was great,” Nick Bogdanovich, director of trading for William Hill, said of the result. “All the money was for Wilder. We didn’t take any really big bets, but it just kept adding up and adding up. So, it was a good decision for us.”

The first match between Wilder and Fury ended in a split draw in December 2018, and bettors were ready for the much-anticipated rematch between the two undefeated heavyweights. Fury entered 29-0-1 while Wilder was 42-0-1.

“This wasn’t a typical fight,” Bogdanovich said. “This was a really big fight, so there was bets on everything — side, total, props, pick the exact round, five-way. This isn’t a fair fight to compare to a normal fight because this was a monster and it was in Las Vegas, and it was the rematch of a classic.”

The one bet the public seemed to win was the under on total rounds with William Hill taking 77% of the handle on under 10.5 rounds as of Friday night.

However, because most of the public was on Wilder, many of the other props didn’t work out. PointsBet had 45% of tickets on Wilder to win by KO, TKO or DQ and 21% of tickets on Wilder to win by decision. There was actually more action on a draw (13%) than on Fury to win by KO, TKO or DQ (12%) or decision (9%).

This was also the case at DraftKings and William Hill, too. DraftKings took 54% of the handle on Wilder by KO, TKO or DQ, and 22% on Wilder by decision while just 13% of the handle was on Fury to win by KO, TKO or DQ. William Hill had 50% of the handle on Wilder by KO, TKO or DQ, 28% on Wilder by decision and just 9% on Fury by KO, TKO or DQ.

Despite it being a heavily bet fight, Bogdanovich said he was surprised William Hill didn’t take any six-figure bets.

“Meanwhile, the handle was unbelievable, so that tells you the masses were heavily involved in the fight,” he said.

College Basketball Upsets

Saturday’s college basketball slate featured three of the top five teams in the Associated Press poll losing. That was another nice bonus for the books.

No. 1 Baylor lost to No. 3 Kansas, No. 2 Gonzaga lost to No. 23 BYU and No. 4 San Diego State lost to unranked UNLV.

“Three projected No. 1 seeds lost, so that was wild,” Bogdanovich said. “That’s actually standard operating procedure for this year in college basketball.”

One DraftKings bettor won big with a $15,000 wager on the Jayhawks covering in the first half. DraftKings was still pulling for Kansas in the game with 57% of the handle on Baylor -1.5.

William Hill was actually hoping Baylor would win, but the other two upsets were good decisions for the book.

”More money for Kansas because people just still believe in Kansas, but the other two were really good,” Bogdanovich said. “The BYU-Gonzaga game was excellent because it was the last game of the night, and people were obviously rolling over winnings or trying to get out from their losing.”

Rookie NFL MVP Sensation?

FanDuel already has NFL MVP odds available, and projected No. 1 overall pick Joe Burrow is listed at +20000.

An article on the sportsbook’s website lists six returning NFL quarterbacks with worse odds: Gardner Minshew +25000, Tua Tagovailoa +25000, Kyle Allen +40000, Alex Smith +40000, Case Keenum +50000 and Josh Rosen +50000.

It’s possible none of those quarterbacks win starting jobs by Week 1 in 2020, but it’s still crazy to think about Burrow as an MVP candidate right away. However, few expected him to win the Heisman Trophy at LSU last season, so maybe someone will take the action.

Notable Bets

• A DraftKings bettor hit an 11-leg parlay on NBA and college basketball to turn $50 into more than $9,000.

Monday's aren't so bad when you hit on a 11-leg parlay on Sunday ?#MakeItReign pic.twitter.com/IwM5j14bc8

— DraftKings Sportsbook (@DKSportsbook) February 24, 2020

• One DraftKings bettor put $90 on Patrick Reed to win the WGC Mexico Championship and won $4,140.
• One FanDuel bettor made $58,478 on a $200 bet, converting a 14-leg multi-sport wager.

One customer in New Jersey hit this INSANE 14-team multi-sport parlay yesterday to turn a $200 wager into $58,478 ? pic.twitter.com/ykenuM1PsW

— FanDuel Sportsbook (@FDSportsbook) February 24, 2020

• A two-leg Europa league parlay paid out a massive sum for a DraftKings bettor. A $225 wager won $10,125 thanks to a 1-1 draw between FC Copenhagen and Celtic and a 2-0 Inter win over Ludogorets Razgrad.