Cleveland Browns and Shedeur Sanders Attract Bettors' Attention
The 2025 NFL Draft, held in Green Bay, saw record viewership and attendance figures, making it one of the highest-watched and attended drafts in league history. But unexpectedly, the Cleveland Browns and one of their fifth-round draft picks provided the event’s biggest news, which is also creating a ripple effect across our best sports betting sites.
Many attribute the hype around the event this year to the drama surrounding rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders out of Colorado, who was coached by his father, NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders.
The Sanders family was very vocal about Shedeur’s prospects and the teams that would match his potential, thus creating a lot of hype and generating interest leading up to the draft. However, as the event opened and teams went through their picks in the first few rounds, Sanders was left waiting for a call that didn’t arrive until the fifth round, making him the 144th pick overall of this draft.
The betting ripple effect
The impact of the draft also made itself felt with our best sportsbooks, particularly as it related to the Browns. While the Browns enter the 2025 season with the lowest projected win total at ESPN BET, the Ohio franchise has become a hot ticket commodity among bettors since the draft.
ESPN BET reported that 93.4% of wagers on the Browns' win total were on the Over. On BetMGM, the Browns were the fifth-most bet option to win the Super Bowl with their long shot 200-1 Super Bowl odds and were the leading bet to win the AFC North division.
These betting trends are impressive, considering that the Browns' quarterback situation is unsettled. The Browns' quarterback room has veteran Joe Flacco, who is 40 now, Kenny Pickett, who has played for his third team in four seasons, Dillon Gabriel, and Sanders.
But there appears to be growing optimism about Sanders, who has quickly become a factor in the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year odds category. Sanders has 15-1 odds at ESPN BET, tied for the fifth-shortest on the board.
Nearly 46% of all money wagered on BetMGM's Offensive Rookie of the Year market has been wagered on Sanders, demonstrating widespread public conviction of his probable contribution. That's despite the Shedeur Sanders vs. Dillon Gabriel debate continuing to rage on.
Football bettors flock to wager on the Browns
The greater bet handle in and around Cleveland, particularly for a team with a projected low win amount and a murky quarterback situation, shows bigger trends within fan wagering that is fanatically based upon draft rumors and off-season narrative. The Browns have not opened a season this large a post-season underdog since 2016, yet betting patterns tell us that those participating in Ohio sports betting want to take bets on Cleveland turning things around.
Draft nearly breaking viewership records
The 2025 NFL Draft viewership was 27% higher than in 2024, surpassing an average of 7.5 million viewers during its three-day broadcast on television networks and other digital platforms. It was the second-most watched draft in history after the 2020 Draft, which benefited from special pandemic-related circumstances keeping more individuals at home.
Round 1 of the draft drew an average of 13.6 million viewers. That's an 11% increase from last year and is the second-biggest opening night in NFL draft TV history.
Friday's Rounds 2 and 3 telecast also performed well, drawing 7.5 million viewers and a 48% increase in viewers over the same week in 2024.
Saturday afternoon rounds, usually lower-rated, hit a record 4.3 million average viewers, up 43% from last year. That is the biggest Day 3 viewership ever, suggesting even more interest in the whole draft process.
In addition to its TV and streaming success, the 2025 NFL Draft attracted over 600,000 in-person attendees to Green Bay. The record attendance of 600,000 is tied with Nashville's 2019 record for the second-largest draft crowd in history.
