Packer Central

Las Vegas Sportsbooks Bracing for Rodgers’s Retirement

One sportsbook has taken the entire NFC North off the board in anticipation of Aaron Rodgers not returning to the Packers at quarterback.

Bill Huber

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Las Vegas sportsbooks are preparing for Aaron Rodgers to retire and not return to the Green Bay Packers.

Because of the importance of the reigning NFL MVP, Westgate SuperBook recently closed all its NFC North markets, including projected wins, playoff odds, divisional odds and weekly lines for the four division teams, one oddsmaker at the sportsbook said via a Twitter direct message.

Two other sportsbooks contacted after that initial message said the expectation is Rodgers is going to announce his retirement sometime before the first practice on Wednesday. In response, one of those sportsbooks pushed out its prices on the Packers to win the NFC North and shortened the odds for the other teams. It also shortened the odds of Patrick Mahomes winning NFL MVP.

RELATED: IF RODGERS RETIRES, WHAT COULD PACKERS GET IN TRADE?

The Packers, in some form or fashion, are open for business at most sportsbooks. At FanDuel, Green Bay’s over/under win total is 9.5 and is a considerable favorite to win the NFC North. Considering the Packers won 13 games during a 16-game season in 2019 and 2020, the 9.5 for a 17-game season reflects the uncertainty, if not the expectation that Rodgers will not return for the 2021 NFL season.

The Packers are the favorite to win the NFC North at DraftKings, too, but their win total is not on the board. At PointsBet, the Packers are +1600 to win the Super Bowl, tied for the seventh-shortest odds, and Rodgers (+1000) is behind only Mahomes (+450) for MVP. However, neither their season win total nor the make/miss playoff bet is available.

Bovada has over/under touchdown and passing yardage totals for the projected starting quarterbacks but no line for Rodgers. At another offshore sportsbook, Bet Online, Rodgers is a distant eighth on the MVP board and the Packers are not available on the yes/no playoff bet.

Circa Sports posted updated NFC North odds on Friday night. The Vikings are the favorite, with the Packers second, Bears third and Lions fourth.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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