LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Sports gambling is coming to Kentucky, hopefully by October. Consider this week a colossal missed opportunity.

The sports book story of the day Tuesday became a talker in Lexington, Louisville and beyond:

Money flowed into multiple gaming sites that Kentucky quarterback Will Levis will be the No. 1 overall pick by the Carolina Panthers in the NFL Draft Thursday night in Kansas City.

Not just a first-round pick. The No. 1 of No. 1s.

Huh?

Multiple NFL mock drafts and talent evaluators have Levis ranked the fourth-best quarterback in the class — behind C.J. Stroud of Ohio State; Bryce Young of Alabama and Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson.

While the Vegas odds still reflect the likelihood that Carolina will select Young with the top pick, enough money was bet on Levis on Tuesday to dramatically move his odds.

At FanDuel the price on Levis to be taken first dropped from 50-1 to 5-1. At PointsBet, the odds tumbled from 50-1 to 20-1 to 10-1. BetMGM removed Levis from its board.

On Tuesday at 4 p.m. EDT, here were the latest prop bets odds on the top overall pick at VegasInsider.com:

2023 NFL DRAFT - No. 1 OVERALL PICK ODDS

Bryce Young (Alabama, QB) -1350

Will Levis (Kentucky, QB) +700

CJ Stroud (Ohio State, QB) +3000

Anthony Richardson (Florida, QB) +7500

Will Anderson (Alabama, LB) +20000.

Translation: If you bet $1,350 on Young to go first, you’d win $1,000. If you bet $100 on Levis, you’d win $700.

"Given the nature of the draft, we drastically cut the price based on this action and eventually came to a price where the bets stopped," a DraftKings spokesperson told ESPN. "We are still seeing some small bets trickle through at the current price, but the speculation is all the action was off the back of a Reddit post."

What is going on here?

Levis has not played in a game since he completed 11 of 19 passes while leading Kentucky to its 26-13 victory over Louisville at Kroger Field Nov. 26. Levis skipped Kentucky’s appearance in the Music City Bowl before participating in NFL pre-draft events.

Multiple scouts have been reluctant to identify Levis as the overall top prospect because he failed to throw for even 250 yards in his last seven games with the Wildcats.

His touchdown/interception ratio of 19/10 was ordinary. Levis went 1-2 in games against Top 25 opponents during the 2022 season, defeating Mississippi State while losing to Tennessee and Georgia. In the games against the Vols and Bulldogs, he threw one TD pass with four interceptions.

According to several stories, the information that inspired the bets was a poster on the Reddit platform who claimed that Levis is telling friends and family members that the Panthers have told him they will take him first Thursday night.

Could it happen?

Sure.

Could it be a smokescreen?

It would not be the first pre-draft misdirection story planted.

The Panthers obviously intend to select a quarterback. They paid a significant price in draft picks and players to acquire the top pick from the Chicago Bears. With a new coaching staff led by Frank Reich, a former quarterback, the Panthers need a new face for their struggling franchise, which has endured five consecutive losing seasons.

Last week there were multiple media reports that teams were concerned by a test result on Stroud. Young measured at slightly more than 5 feet, 10 inches tall, at least five inches shorter than the three other top QB prospects. Levis, for the record, measured closer to 6-foot-4.

Richardson is the clearly the least proven quarterback in the group. He completed less than 54% of his throws last season for the Gators, who finished 6-7 while losing to Vanderbilt and Oregon State.

Looking for more information (or disinformation)?

Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com filed a mock draft at that web on Tuesday and has Levis going first to Carolina, Young second to Houston, Stroud fourth to Indianapolis and Richardson fifth to Seattle.

Wrote Prisco: "Fast forward to last season. Levis didn't play as well as expected. There were reasons. He had a terrible new offense with a coordinator who was fired after one year. He had a bad line, no receivers and he played hurt the entire season, taking pain injections for a variety of injuries that probably should have kept him on the sidelines.

So the projected jump in his play didn't happen. But a closer look at the reasons why show how understandable it was that it happened. Levis didn't have a chance."

Should be a fun Thursday night.

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