Thursday night’s NFL kickoff between the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs will be one of the marquee games of the entire 2024 season.
The game is a rematch of last year’s AFC Championship and features the two teams favored to return to that game this season. It’s a big deal.
The Chiefs are three-point favorites at home, but bettors aren’t convinced the defending champs are a lock to win. Though 54% of bets on the spread at BetMGM had the Chiefs covering, 57% of the money was on Ravens +3 as of Wednesday morning. Furthermore, 58% of the moneyline handle and 61% of bets took the Ravens.
Public bettors and sharps seem to agree this is a good spot for the new-look Ravens led by Derrick Henry to get a little payback.
They might be on to something. Since 2021, defending Super Bowl champions are 0-3 ATS in this game and 1-2 overall. That includes Kansas City’s loss to the Detroit Lions in last year’s opener.
Two losses in three years hardly counts as a significant trend that should support any kind of bet. But it’s a stark departure from the seven years prior when the champs lost just once and failed to cover twice. And it carries a little more weight when it includes the Chiefs themselves.
As for the total, 60% of bets have it going over 40 points, while 54% of the money is on the under.
