Books capture Week 14 win
By Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com
The Las Vegas sport books all had mixed results in Week 14 NFL action Sunday, but the thing every book was united with was they needed the New York Giants to cover Sunday night against the Dallas Cowboys to call the day a win, break even or lessen the losses.
"We're up a little on the day, but the late game risk will give a lot back," said MGM Resorts race and sports VP Jay Rood prior to kickoff.
"If we lose with the Dallas game, we'll make a ham sandwich on the day."
Rood brought in a classic old school bookmaking term 'ham sandwich' reference regarding a small win for the day most often used famously by Jerry "Shoes" Zimny, which means the book will basically make enough cash on to buy a ham sandwich.
Chris Andrews took it one step lower with an old school term by saying his South Point sports book "will make a peanut" with a Giants cover. One peanut, wow! Now that's a small win.
John Avello at the Wynn Las Vegas book said "We can probably eek out a win (with the Giants) or get buried (with Dallas covering)."
After sweating out each and every score of the first 13 Sunday games, a span of six-and-a-half hours, once again all that stress of trying to break a lengthy losing streak was for naught and came down to another late game to deciding the fate of their day.
The entire city got their wish with the Giants covering (+4) and the total staying 'under' (46.5) in a 10-7 outright win, but most book bosses were feeling greedy hoping for the ultimate decision with Dallas winning by 1-to-3 points to knock out the Giants money-line payouts of +170.
"We were kind of hoping for our best scenario, like we're usually in with the Super Bowl where we want the favorite to win, but not cover," said Westgate SuperBook VP Jay Kornegay.
It was a small window of opportunity for the books that didn't happen, but what they get was the Cowboys to finally lose after 11 straight wins following a Week 1 loss to the same Giants. It was the third straight game the Cowboys accelerated rating did not cover the spread after covering nine straight.
The result now gives bettors something extra to think about in the final three weeks of the regular season rather than simply taking Dallas on almost every parlay played in the city. Sharps have been cashing the last three weeks by betting against the Cowboys inflated numbers, but just like the books they're having trouble cashing on a few other teams.
The winless Browns failed to cover again for the seventh straight week in a 23-10 home loss to the Bengals. The books opened high with Cincinnati -6 and sharps took the 2.5-points of perceived value, again, and pushed the number all the way down to -4.5 by kickoff. However, the public didn't care what the number was, they just wanted whoever was playing against the Browns and they were correct again.
Betting against bad teams has been the public's winning strategy weekly and the books keep inflating numbers against them, but not enough. However, one of the bad teams showed up in Week 14 to help avoid a total disaster.
The Chicago Bears (+7) got a cover at Detroit in a 20-17 loss -- helping the books, but they got no help elsewhere.
The San Francisco 49ers once again looked awful in a 23-17 overtime loss to the New York Jets, after jumping out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead. With Bryce Petty starting at QB for the Jets, 49ers money came strong from the sharps pushing them from -1 to -3.
The team that is beginning to fall to low rating depths similar the the Browns is Los Angeles with Jared Goff starting at QB. Sharp money bet the Rams +7 all the way down to +4.5, but the Atlanta Falcons struck quick and often in 42-14 win sending the Rams to their fourth consecutive loss and non-cover. The Falcons were the most one-sided bet game at William Hill's 108 sports books across Nevada with 89 percent of the tickets written.
Overall, favorites went 8-6 against the spread on the day with five underdogs winning outright and the 'under' went 9-5, and surprisingly, two of the cold weather games at Pittsburgh and Green Bay managed to barely be two of the 'over' winners.
It's back to the drawing board for the books in an attempt to end one of the worst NFL stretches in Las Vegas history and right out of the gate they get to hold their breath with the Rams at Seattle on Thursday night where the high number in town is -14 at the Stratosphere, which offers about 3-point of value.
The Rams beat the Seahawks, 9-3, in Week 2, but the public will still lay whatever number is posted with Seattle.