The university itself has raked in plenty of revenue — selling out all six of its home games at Folsom Field in Boulder for the first time in school history. But gambling sportsbooks across the nation have also enjoyed plenty of cash exchanged over what Sanders and his team will do each week.
Even before the season started, wagers on CU had taken off: People bought into the Sanders-led hype and placed futures on Coach Prime's squad making it to the National Championship, the Pac-12 Championship and the College Football Playoffs. The most popular bet was the over on the win total for the season — set at 3.5.
With the team sitting at 3-2 on the season so far, bettors' wallets could fatten this weekend with a win at Arizona State University. CU is currently favored by four points at most sportsbooks.
Steve Zlobin, director of gaming for Monarch Casino Resort Spa in Black Hawk, says even a name as big as Prime Time's isn’t enough to completely drive betting numbers, but the increased focus on the school has likely contributed.
“There's no single thing I can place for being responsible,” he explains. “When there's a lot of media attention, when there's a lot of new players, staffing changes that excite the fan base...that does lead to an increase in wagers being placed on the team.”
Last weekend’s game against the University of Southern California was the first time CU wasn’t part of the most-bet-upon college football game this season — and it still came in second. This week, CU is favored on the road for the first time since 2020.
On the BetMGM website, CU versus ASU is the only highlighted match-up where neither team is in the AP Top 25.
“We definitely have seen an increase in betting on the University of Colorado," Zlobin says. "We're actually seeing an increase in all Colorado teams this year, especially compared to last year."
The extra attention on CU has spilled over to all local teams at Monarch Casino — from the Denver Broncos to the Air Force Academy. Monarch has both an app and a physical sportsbook in Black Hawk, which has seen a boost in guests coming to watch games on Saturdays.
“Colorado is such a great state, and it has some great people, great fans, that follow these things passionately,” Zlobin says. “It's really great to be a part of this.”
While business has been great, sportsbooks were forced to pay up big following CU’s early-season upset of Texas Christian University — a 21-point favorite — and after the 36-14 drubbing of the University of Nebraska, when the Buffaloes were favored by just three points.
“Nebraska was huge,” says Chase Howell, CU alum and contributor at sports-betting media company the Action Network. “Everybody was betting on Colorado at that time, so the sportsbooks got wrecked in that game.”
Generally, sportsbooks try to set a line so that there’s equal money on both sides. Then they adjust based on the actual wagers people place. “In terms of setting the line, probably they've been annoyed because nobody really knew what to expect from Colorado,” Howell says. “Nobody knew how good they were. Nobody knew how to set the power ratings, and you see a lot of that with line movement throughout the week.”
For example, when the CU vs. University of Oregon line was originally released, it opened with the prediction that the Buffs would get within two touchdowns of the Ducks. But after CU struggled versus Colorado State University in the Rocky Mountain Showdown, the line moved to 21.
“They don't actually know what kind of number they're supposed to put on CU,” Howell says. “You don't see that type of line movement for any other college football games. … The big reason for that has been the transfer portal. It’s just so hard to actually gauge talent.”
In 2021, the NCAA altered its rules to let student athletes change schools once without the penalty of sitting out a year, as they were forced to do before. Sanders has taken advantage of the new rules, encouraging former CU football players to “jump in that portal” upon his arrival in late 2022 because he intended to replace them with transfers. His largely new roster includes 47 students who came from other schools.
Because of this, betting experts say it's been impossible to predict the level of play for the Buffaloes this season, which led to the big swings and losses for sportsbooks. Things could be evening out now, though, thanks to the bigger sample of games from the team.
Deion Sanders and son Shedeur Sanders have likely helped spur some of the betting on the University of Colorado.
Evan Semon
“The lines are set by historical patterns,” he tells Westword. “What we'll look at is what team has gotten more wagers historically whenever there's a match-up. … Us being in the local market, being part of Colorado, we have a slightly more unique perspective than the sportsbooks that operate nationwide, because the majority of our audience are local, and thus they tend to bet heavier on the Colorado teams.”
Monarch's lines, like all sportsbooks, will move. But that movement looks different because it’s all about Colorado for the Black Hawk operation. And what’s been incredibly predictable this season is the interest in the biggest football teams in the state: CU and the Denver Broncos.
“It's been very consistent since [the season] started, even when the preseason started,” Zlobin says. “Every week, it seems like there's greater excitement for the games.”
Colorado has slightly more restrictive regulations on betting than some other states, prohibiting propositional bets on individual college athletes. So betting on CU stars like Shedeur Sanders or Travis Hunter to have a big game statistically — or win the Heisman Trophy — isn’t allowed.
At Monarch Casino, the goal is to instead engage fans over the course of a game, especially if they’re watching from the physical sportsbook; futures don’t further their main objective.
“We're a local operator,” Zlobin says. “We like fans to have that game-time experience at our property and in our sportsbook, whereas some of the national sportsbooks, they spread out across all different games and the entire season.”
Although Monarch Casino doesn’t offer many futures bets — like those predicting playoff berths — other gambling houses in Colorado do, and Howell predicts this will end up as a boon for those sportsbooks.
“When we're talking about futures and taking a bunch of 150-to-1 bets on CU winning the College Football Playoff, they're willing to take all of that action because they know CU is never going to win the College Football Playoff," he says. “So they love that. All these people are going to bet on CU, they’re not going to win, and they're just going rake in all that money.”
No matter how you place your wager, it’s obvious that CU's gamble on Coach Prime last year has paid off for Colorado sports bettors and sportsbooks.
“It's been exciting and entertaining for us,” Zlobin says. “The more people have been engaged in Colorado sports, and engaged in the entertainment of sports betting and gambling, has definitely been very exciting for us, especially having people come visit the property.”
