Eagles center scoring 1st TD would be ‘very bad’ for Circa Sports

As the center for the Philadelphia Eagles, Jason Kelce starts each offensive play with the football in his hands.

But Kelce would need to recover a fumble or be involved in a trick play to finish with the ball in the end zone.

That hasn’t stopped a few bettors at Circa Sports from taking Kelce to score the first touchdown of Sunday’s Super Bowl LVII between the Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs.

“If he scores the first touchdown of the game, it would be very bad for Circa Sports and I might be looking for a new job,” Circa Sports director of risk Chris Bennett said Tuesday.

Circa offers odds on almost every player who took a snap in the conference championship games to score the first touchdown in the Super Bowl. That includes long shots such as offensive linemen, kickers and backup quarterbacks.

Last year, one of Circa’s biggest liabilities for the first touchdown market was Bengals kicker Evan McPherson at 3,000-1.

Kelce opened at 5,000-1 to score the first touchdown, and his odds are down to 1,000-1 after a handful of tickets were written. Bennett tweeted Monday that Circa had more tickets on Kelce to score the first touchdown than the Eagles’ No. 3 wide receiver (Quez Watkins).

Watkins is 45-1 after opening 40-1.

”The small number of tickets on Jason Kelce is exceeding the even smaller number of tickets on Quez Watkins,” Bennett said.

Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce (+550) is the biggest liability at Caesars Sportsbook to score the first touchdown and the most bet prop at BetMGM at +650.

Red Rock Resort sportsbook director Chuck Esposito reported the highest ticket count and liability for the first touchdown market also is on Travis Kelce at 6-1. Wide receiver A.J. Brown at 8-1 has the highest ticket count and liability from the Eagles.

At South Point, Travis Kelce is the biggest liability overall at 5-1 after opening 7-1.

“We got bet on Kelce pretty good,” South Point sportsbook director Chris Andrews said.

The wild card in the first touchdown market, according to Bennett, is Chiefs running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who was activated this week but was not listed at Circa when the prop came out. That places him in the field, which is 40-1.

“It makes that particular entry very interesting because, if you’re betting on it, you don’t really have any other outs other than Clyde Edwards-Helaire,” Bennett said. “We have seen some money on that with people believing there might be some upside that Edwards-Helaire could be involved for the Chiefs.”

For Westgate SuperBook director John Murray, he will breathe easy once the first touchdown is scored. No touchdowns is always the sportsbook’s largest liability, and the odds are down to 300-1 after opening 500-1.

Once the betting public arrives later this week, Murray expects them to hammer the no touchdowns scored prop as well as long shots to score first, such as Eagles running back Boston Scott or Chiefs wide receiver Justin Watson.

“I don’t think the public bettors are going to come out here and bet the Miles Sanders or DeVonta Smith,” Murray said. “They want to take a long shot. They want to win big.”

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.