How has the team fared against Vegas?
It’s no secret that the Carolina Panthers have been a bad team in the NFL in 2024. Though it is worth noting that they are a uniquely bad team as they are the only team currently projected to earn a top ten draft pick who are also on a winning streak. Talk about sending mixed signals to your fanbase.
What hasn’t been a mixed signal is the relatively sure bet over the last several years of betting against the Carolina Panthers. FanDuel Sportsbook has favored the Panthers opponent in every game through the first ten weeks of the 2024 season by no fewer than four points and by no more than eight-and-a-half points. The Panthers’ opponents have been 7-3 in covering the spread, which is to say that the only times FanDuel (or most other sportsbooks, for that matter) really lost money on the Panthers were on the occasions of their three wins.
The point spread can still lose a sportsbook money if a team favored to lose does so in a particularly close fashion, or within the margin of points that the team favored to win was supposed to win by. Since the Panthers haven’t lost a game by fewer than ten points this season, they have not covered the spread against any of their opponents outside of their outright wins against the Las Vegas Raiders, the New Orleans Saints, and the New York Giants.
All of that is to say that betting against your favorite NFL team has been good business. Their current two-game winning streak could be a sign that those times are changing or just a simple bump in the road. We’ll find out more after the bye.