As bettors know well, there’s a big difference between rooting for a team and putting money on them. Die-hard fans are behind a team through thick and thin, but gamblers need to be far more selective to win over the long term — especially when it comes to wagering on spread picks. A good note for those participating in Kentucky sports betting.
Very few teams perform consistently against the spread (ATS) over a long period of time — and that’s by design. They don’t keep the Las Vegas lights aglow by losing money.
But with College Football season on the horizon, we here at BetKentucky.com are looking at whether or not the state’s top NCAA teams have been profitable to fans who can’t help but back them every game.
So how did Louisville Cardinals bettors fare over the past decade?
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Spread Betting History of Louisville Football (Following an $100 Bettor Record)
To find out we decided to see what an individual gambler’s profit/loss would be assuming they wagered $100.00 on every single Lousiville CFB game from 2013 to 2022.
For the purposes of this thought experiment, we assumed the standard -110 odds offered for most ATS bets. Below you’ll see the win/loss totals over the past 10, 5, and 3-year spans.
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Betting on Louisville Cardinals Football Results
As you can see, it’s been a rough decade for anyone that’s been blindly backing the Louisville Cardinals. In fact, you’d be down about 11% after “investing” $100 a game — or $12,700 total — into the team over this time. And in case you needed another reminder about the importance of responsible gambling, that same amount of money invested in the S&P 500 between 2013 and 2022 would have grown to $33,532.74 — nearly tripling in value.
These disappointing returns come despite the Louisville Cardinals being a winning team over the past ten years, going 74-53 in non-Bowl games.
Quite frankly, when it comes to ATS picks, the team has been a major letdown to gamblers. In 2016, their best season over the span surveyed, they went 9-4 straight-up. Quarterback Lamar Jackson won the Heisman Trophy after throwing 31 touchdowns and rushing in another 21 more as part of a ground campaign that yielded Jackson — just 19 years old at the time — over 1,500 yards. A career year in every imaginable sense, but Louisville still only managed to go 5-7-1 ATS.
Amidst Lamar Jackson’s departure as the 32nd overall NFL draft pick in 2018, the Louisville Cardinals would crumble, recording a pitiful 2-10 record — yet somehow managing to do even worse ATS by going 1-11.
There’s a gambling adage that says “good teams win, great teams cover,” and by that notion, greatness has certainly eluded Louisville throughout the past ten seasons.
However, after the team went 8-5 last year — with a Fenway Bowl win to boot — there may be some reason for hope. There’s certainly lots of hype now that Louisville’s prodigal son Jeff Brohm has returned home as the team’s new head coach.
Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Jeff Brohm was the Cardinals Quarterback from 1989 to 1993, starting every game during his final two years, and forever ingratiating himself to the city of Louisville after he threw two TDs in the final minute of the 1993 Liberty Bowl to defeat Michigan State.
After going undrafted, Brohm spent 6 seasons in the NFL — only appearing in 8 games. He fared much better in the XFL during the rebel league’s infamous inaugural season. Brohm led the Orlando Rage to a 8-2 record and finished the year with the highest QB rating in the XFL.
In 2002, Brohm would begin his coaching career as the Louisville QB coach, before moving on in 2009. Since he became a head coach in 2014, Brohm has gone 66-44. He was officially hired as the Louisville head coach on December 7th, 2022.
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