In the aftermath of Tom Brady announcing he will unretire and come back for his 23rd season, a sportsbook is calling on the NFL to investigate bets that were placed just a week prior to Brady announcing his return to the league.
In a story from Todd Dewey of The Las Vegas Review-Journal, WestGate SuperBook vice president Jay Kornegay believes that there were some huge bets placed on the Buccaneers last week and they were made with inside knowledge that Brady would return.
Quite the claim, but Kornegay is asking the NFL to look into the alleged wagers that include a sharp bettor [aka a bettor with an edge on the books] placing a large bet on Thursday on the Buccaneers to win the NFC at 30-1 and the Super Bowl at 60-1. The bet was large enough to shift Tampa Bay's odds of winning a Lombardi at 25-1.
"There's not a doubt in my mind that they knew he was coming back when they placed those wagers on Thursday," Kornegay said. "And these were not casual bettors. They would be categorized as educated bettors. It wasn't a guy with a Tom Brady jersey at the counter. It was a player that we would describe as sharp. With that type of play and the announcement we heard [Sunday] that he was unretiring, there was information that was shared prior to his official announcement."
"There is no doubt in my mind that information leaked sometime in the middle of last week. This is concerning. I don't think I've ever said the NFL really needs to investigate something. But this is something they need to look into and how it got out, because there are many books that took some sizable wagers in the middle of last week."
WestGate is not the only sportsbook that is experiencing something like this. South Point sportsbook is claiming that they too had someone place a large sum on the Bucs to win the Super Bowl at 50-1, at 30-1, and at 25-1.
While the league chose not to respond to the Review-Journal's story, this is most certainly something that they can't ignore considering they just suspended Calvin Ridley for an entire year for betting on games.
Kornegay added that if Tom Brady were to lead the Bucs to yet another Super Bowl title, they would be a six-digit hole.
"If it was Jameis Winston at quarterback, we wouldn't have a problem with it," Kornegay said. "But when it's Tom Brady you have a six-figure liability with, we're certainly not comfortable with it. That's a biggie. It's not about a player being in or out of a game tonight. You're talking about the best quarterback of all time playing or not playing."
Follow Jasper Jones on Twitter: @jonesj2342
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