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David Purdum, ESPN Staff Writer
Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel is now the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy with +750 odds at ESPN BET after moving past Georgia quarterback Carson Beck and Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers in an atypical July change for college football’s highest honor.
Beck and Ewers, who had been the favorites since February, are +800 and +900, respectively.
Gabriel began July with 10-1 odds at ESPN BET. He had been as long as 14-1 at other sportsbooks before an uptick of action showed up on the Ducks quarterback over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
The SuperBook in Las Vegas started receiving bets on Gabriel on Sunday, causing his odds to tighten from 14-1 to 9-1.
“I think there were some maybe influential people that hopped on it and said they liked it on some public spaces,” Chase Michaelson, oddsmaker for the SuperBook, told ESPN. “It’s people we respect that like Gabriel, and I think there are lots of reasons to like him.”
Gabriel has put up gaudy numbers at Oklahoma and UCF. He passed for 3,660 yards with 30 touchdowns and six interceptions with the Sooners last season before transferring to Oregon, where he inherits what’s expected to be an explosive Ducks offense.
More money has been bet on Gabriel to win the Heisman than any other player at ESPN BET. At BetMGM sportsbooks, the senior has attracted more than twice as much money as any other player offered in the Heisman odds since July 4.
Gabriel, at +750, would have the longest odds of any Heisman favorite entering the season in the past 15 years, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Michaelson said the SuperBook received bets earlier in the year on Beck, Ewers and Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe, but the action on the Heisman Trophy odds had been quiet for months before this week.
“This thing is fairly static during this time, because there’s not much going on,” Michaelson told ESPN. “Unless there are injuries or quarterback battles, we don’t see much movement, but we definitely did this week.”