Why PA Sportsbooks Will Be Cheering On The Eagles On Sunday

• The Philadelphia Eagles will play the Seattle Seahawks in the Wild Card game on Sunday.
• Pennsylvania has legalized sports betting and residents are taking advantage of this by wagering on the game.
• Most of the sports betting tickets that have been taken in by PA sportsbooks are in favor of the Seahawks to win.

PHILADELPHIA – With legal sports betting in Pennsylvania, are football fans across the state betting on the Philadelphia Eagles (+120) to beat the Seattle Seahawks (-140) this weekend? Given that they’re the home team, sportsbooks throughout the state originally were listing the Eagles as the favorite.

However, that has since changed and the Seahawks have become the favored team to win.

“We had Eagles at -1 for a very tiny bit, but the Seahawks seem to be the correct favorite and the line has continued to move their way to support that,” said Pat Eichner, director of communications at PointsBet USA.

Changing The Lines

The lines being moved by Pennsylvania sportsbooks show that they’d rather go with the statistics rather than the emotion of a home team as the favorite to avoid any liabilities to the house.

On Thursday night, sports betting trackers highlighted that 80% of money line wagers and 75% of point spread wagers were for Seattle to win.

It’s safe to say that the sports bettors of Pennsylvania are following the lines when it comes to where they’re putting their money. Pennsylvania may be a state full of Philadelphia Eagles fans and while they can cheer them on, sports bettors will be rooting for the Seahawks to win it as that’ll mean they’ll be winning some money in the process.

Since the start of the NFL season, Pennsylvania has seen a combined sports betting revenue of $50,402,823. That is a huge spike compared to the rest of the year when football was not being played.

If the Eagles lose the game, then PA sportsbooks will be able to keep more of the handle. But, that also means they can be taxed more on their keep which will result in more funding for government programs. This means that sports bettors in Pennsylvania will ultimately win either way. Those looking for an instant payout, however, may want to keep a few pieces of information in mind.

The Philadelphia Eagles have had a season full of injuries but so have the Seattle Seahawks. Franchises in the Wild Card race that have the home field advantage are at a 50/50 split over the last five seasons when it comes to which team wins.

In their last meeting six weeks ago, Seattle beat Philadelphia 17-9. The Eagles will have more benched players than the Seahawks going into this game as well putting them at a bigger disadvantage.

Pennsylvania sportsbooks and fans are smart to bet the changed odds that favor Seattle by 2.5 points to win, statistically speaking.

The game will air on NBC Sunday at 4:40 p.m. EST.

News tags: Pat Eichner | Pennsylvania | Philadelphia Eagles | PointsBet USA | Seattle Seahawks