The Arizona Cardinals didn’t just shock the NFL world with their surprise win over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, they made shock waves in the sports-betting landscape, as well.
The Chargers entered their Week 1 matchup with the Cardinals as 8.5-point home favorites, not only the biggest favorite of the week but also one of the biggest opening-game favorites in years, as Los Angeles was projected to be a playoff competitor in the AFC while Arizona was projected to be a bottom dweller in the entire NFL.
Experts and casuals alike didn’t expect the Cardinals to win, and perhaps there’s no better proof of that than how much was lost by those who placed their win prediction on the Chargers.
The best visual of that comes from NFL survivor pools, where members submit an entry of one team they think will win every week — the kicker being that once you pick one team, you aren’t allowed to use them again for the rest of the season.
The Chargers were overwhelmingly the most popular Week 1 pick on most platforms, as users believed their win would be a guarantee to advance them on a season-long contest that typically ends with a cash prize for the winner.
On Yahoo’s survival pool platform, 32.5% of users picked the Chargers. Each one of them is now out before the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs could even kick off their first game.
It’s a similar story on Circa Survivor, the pool with arguably the highest stakes. It has a minimum $1,000 entry fee and the final entry standing wins $20 million. This season brought in a record 25,017 entries, 7,585 of which were eliminated by the Chargers’ loss to the Cardinals (30.3%).
The Los Angeles Chargers’ loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday eliminated $10.3 million worth of Circa Survivor entries, per @dustinswedelson.
➡️It’s the most $$ lost on any single pick in Circa’s NFL contest history
— Ben Fawkes (@BFawkes22) September 14, 2026
Many who lost will be unforgiving of the Chargers for failing to deliver as a heavy favorite, but perhaps more credit should go to the Cardinals as a team that drastically overperformed expectations in Week 1.
Arizona began last season 2-0 before finishing 3-14, but this time around feels different with first-year head coach Mike LaFleur and new offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett.
Time will quickly tell if the Cardinals can maintain their Cinderella-story run, as survivor pool entries will likely continue picking against them with NFC West powerhouses Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers next on the schedule.
