NCAA football kicks off Thursday, Aug. 30, for its 2018 season and sports books in the Las Vegas area are ready to take your week one bets. In fact, they've been at it already for some time.
"The action started a little bit last Saturday but it really gets going this weekend starting on Thursday with a nice slate of games Saturday," says William Hill VP of Marketing Michael Grodsky.
The matchup getting the most interest according to Grodsky is Saturday afternoon's Michigan v. Notre Dame game, but there is a lot of buzz locally surrounding UNLV's matchup against USC. As of Aug. 28, the Rebels were a 26-point underdog against the Trojans.
"It's civic pride," he comments. "Let's [be] hopeful that UNLV gets to a bowl this year and bettors are rewarded along that ride."
For those who are looking long-term at the season, Grodsky says there has been a lot of interest in who might win the Heisman Trophy with Stanford quarterback Bryce Love is currently topping the list. There have also been many bets taken on who will win the College Football Playoff National Championship with the majority of the money William Hill has taken to date being on the Clemson Tigers.
"Clemson to win the national championship has been the favorite by dollars bet," explains Grodsky. "Although we still have the Alabama Crimson Tide as the favorite by odds."
He says William Hill has also seen a lot of interest in Ohio State and more bettors interested in wagering money on NCAA football as a whole.
"College football gets more and more popular every year," he says. "It's just the enormous amount of slate of games -- there's 50 games every Saturday going up against 15 to 16 NFL games every weekend."
The first game on which bettors can place a wager on William Hill's college football schedule for week one is Central Florida at UConn. That game begins at 4 p.m. on Thursday. The final game listed for week one is Virginia Tech at Florida State. That game begins at 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 3.
