Bettors have finally lost faith in Raiders

Bettors have finally lost faith in the Raiders.

In a matchup of two of the NFL’s most disappointing teams, gamblers are backing the Broncos in a big way to cover as small home favorites over the Raiders.

A BetMGM bettor placed a mid-$400,000 wager on Denver -2½ (-115).

“This is our largest wager heading into the weekend,” MGM Resorts director of trading Lamarr Mitchell said Friday afternoon.

Sharp bettors and the betting public alike are on the Broncos at the Westgate SuperBook.

“Almost all of the action is on Denver,” SuperBook vice president Jay Kornegay said. “The sharps were the first to hit them at -1½ and -2. The public followed and pushed the market to -3. Those 3s didn’t last long as sharps hopped back on the +3.”

The consensus line is 2½, with the Broncos -3 (even) at Circa Sports.

The Raiders (2-7, 3-6 ATS) lost and failed to cover the spread for the third straight game in Sunday’s 25-20 home loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

Denver (3-6, 3-6 ATS) lost and failed to cover in Sunday’s 17-10 defeat at Tennessee.

In a rarity at Station Casinos, more tickets have been written on the Broncos than the Raiders.

“The number has not moved since it opened at -2½ in favor of the Broncos. That’s definitely not the norm for a Raiders game,” Red Rock Resort sportsbook director Chuck Esposito said. “Ticket counts are almost identical at this point with 52 percent on the Broncos. Again, not the norm for a Raiders game this year.”

At BetMGM, 75 percent of the tickets and 83 percent of the money are on Denver.

The total is 41½, and bettors are all over the under. At BetMGM, 87 percent of the tickets and 92 percent of the money are on the under.

The Broncos are the NFL’s best under team this season at 8-1 and have gone under in 20 of their past 26 games. The only Denver game that went over this season was their 32-23 loss to the Raiders on Oct. 2 at Allegiant Stadium.

The Raiders have dominated the series, winning seven of the past eight meetings while going 6-2 ATS. They’re also the league’s lone winless team away from home with an 0-5 road record.

Professional sports bettor Jeff Whitelaw doesn’t like either side in this one.

“Sharp people I respect are on the dog +3. I just stayed away from it,” he said. “You’ve got two teams that are somewhat in disarray. Denver is playing horrible, and it’s the same thing with the Raiders. They seem to play very close games but sort of fall apart in the second half.

“(Derek) Carr had his little outburst last week. But it’s hard to know how they’re going to respond to that. Whether it’s positive or negative. Both teams are out of the playoff picture, so it’s hard to know if the teams are motivated or not.”

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.