Benzinga - by Chris Katje, Benzinga Staff Writer.
The 2023 National Football League season kicked off Sept. 7 with a primetime matchup between the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday Night Football.
Here’s a look at the viewership and sports betting figures from the opening NFL game.
What Happened: The underdog Detroit Lions defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in the opening NFL game, which also featured the Chiefs raising a banner to celebrate its victory in Super Bowl LVII.
The Lions won with a score of 21-20, after trailing 14-7 at halftime.
Lions quarterback Jared Goff led the way with 253 passing yards and one passing touchdown, connecting with Amon-Ra St. Brown for the first touchdown of the NFL season. New Lions running back David Montgomery had 74 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown.
For the Chiefs, reigning NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes had 226 passing yards and two touchdowns, but a costly interception was also returned for a touchdown by Lions rookie Brian Branch.
The Chiefs' leading rusher was Mahomes and the team’s leading receiver was Marquez Valdes-Scantling, with neither clearing the 50-yard milestone in the game.
Strong Television Viewership: The league’s opening Thursday Night Football game was shown on NBC and streamed on Peacock, both units of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA).
According to NBC, the game was watched by nearly 27 million viewers. This made the game the most watched show for media since Super Bowl LVII. The game saw a peak of over 29 million viewers in the second quarter.
Viewership of 26.8 million viewers for NBC, Peacock and NFL digital platforms was up 24% from the 2022 opener between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams.
The 2023 opener is the second most watched NFL Kickoff Game since 2015, trailing only the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dallas Cowboys opener in 2021 (26.9 million).
The match between the Chiefs and Lions was the second most streamed NBC NFL game ever, passing the figures from three past Super Bowls and trails only Super Bowl LVI for the company.
NBC and Peacock will be the home of Sunday Night Football games throughout the NFL season, including the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys week 1 matchup that saw a lopsided Cowboys 40-0 victory.
The rest of the Thursday Night Football NFL matches will air on Amazon Prime Video, a unit of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), for the rest of the 2023 NFL season.
The strong viewership figures for Thursday Night Football could be a positive for other media companies such as Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS), Fox Corp. (NASDAQ: FOX)(NASDAQ: FOXA) and Paramount Global (NASDAQ: PARA)(NASDAQ: PARAA) that have rights to 2023 NFL games.
The first week of the 2022 season saw an average viewership of 18.5 million, which was up 3% year-over-year. Full viewership figures for the first week of the 2023 NFL season are not available yet.
Related Link: Jets Vs. Bills Kick Off Monday Night Football: How To Watch, Sports Betting Promotional Offers And More
Lions Betters Win Big: At the start of Thursday’s opening kickoff game, the Chiefs were 4.5-point favorites at sportsbooks like DraftKings Inc (NASDAQ: DKNG).
The line started at Chiefs -6.5 earlier in the week before it was announced that Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce would not play in the match.
At kickoff Thursday night, most sportsbooks had the Lions moneyline on a win paying out at odds of around +180. This means that a $100 bet on the Lions paid out a profit of $180.
At DraftKings on Thursday morning, the company said 69% of betting handle and 65% of bets were on the Chiefs -4.5. On the moneyline side, the Lions were getting 51% of betting handle with the higher payout.
BetMGM, a joint venture from MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) and Entain, saw a similar split with John Ewing reporting that 54% of the betting handle was on the Chiefs spread and 57% of the betting handle on the moneyline was on the Lions winning the game.
At the start of the 2023 NFL season, the Chiefs were the favorite to win Super Bowl LVIII with odds of +600. The Lions were ranked ninth with odds of +2,200.
Prior to the first week’s Monday Night Football game, the Chiefs have been passed by the San Francisco 49ers, who are the new Super Bowl LVIII favorites at +650 compared to the Chiefs at +700. The Lions move up to eighth and see their odds improve to +1700.
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