One of the greatest streaks in sports betting history ended a couple of years ago, and promptly re-began again last season. Sports fans look forward all year to the Super Bowl, NCAA Championship, Stanley Cup Finals, World Series and so on, but for sports bettors for the better part of the past two decades the Army vs. Navy game has been the Holy Grail.
The streak began back in 2006 when Navy beat Army 26-14 in Philadelphia. That would kick off 16 straight unders in a row. That means 16 straight seasons the sports books around the world set the total for the rivalry at a certain number and it ended under that total.
Both Army and Navy use a triple option offensive attack, which means plenty of running, that also means a running clock. A running offense shortens the game and causes unders often, but the book makers know this. As the streak began to get more and more attention the totals kept getting set lower and lower. Sports book directors across the world had to adjust and it still wasn't enough to get points on the board.
While the games as the beginning of the streak had end game totals of 40,41, and 34. Things got to an almost unreal point as the streak continued through the years. Beginning in December 2017 the ending totals landed on 27 two years in a row. We had a small spike to 38 in 2019 but the it cratered down to 15 points the year prior to that.
To put that into perspective if you had bet just If you bet $100 on the under at the beginning of the streak and rolled over your winnings every year (meaning betting what you won year after year), you would have made over $3 million dollars. Of course, you would have lost it all in 2022 when the streak ended, but what a magical run.
Two seasons ago the streak ended. The book makers set the total at an unheard of 32 1/2 points, yet 60% of the money was coming in for the streak to continue. The streak ended but even then it needed double overtime and still only got to a total of 37.
Last year it was right back to the under as Army won 17-11. This season many would argue that Army has the best offense they have had in generations, while Navy's offense also added a passing attack to the fold as well. The books know people are creatures of habit and have adjusted the line yet again this season, but as we have watched in the past, sometimes they simply can't set it low enough. So will the new streak reach two in a row or is it time for sports bettors to course correct? If there was any time to look for offense it would be this year, but those words have been written before only to see 3 yards and a cloud of dust offensive attacks rule the day.