Books Get Fat at Thanksgiving
By Micah Roberts
What a four-day weekend it was for the books. It wasn’t necessarily a huge profit weekend, but the books did write a huge amount of business on four consecutive days of big action beginning with Thanksgiving Day and ending with Sunday’s pro football games.
“It was a long week with lots of action,’ said Coast resorts Director of Race and Sports Bob Scucci. “We did very well with all the college games that had a lot of upsets. On Thanksgiving Day we broke about even and were a small winner on Sunday’s games.”
Thanksgiving had the makings of a tough day for Las Vegas bookmakers with the first two favorites covering, but the Thursday NFL under trend continued keeping most of the side to parlay action with the house. The under is 6-0 on all Thursday NFL games this season including 3-0 last week.
Sunday’s games started out pretty good for the Books as the favorites went 3-4 in the early games, but then the late games came when all the favorites covered with one push, depending on when the Titans game was bet.
“Our biggest games of the day were the Vikings and Colts games," said Scucci, "and they didn‘t go our way. We had some Sharp money on the Texans that pushed our line, but not enough to offset the public. Fortunately, the Vikings’ game went ‘under.’ The Vikings and ‘over’ were a bad decision for us.”
Coast resorts had the Vikings-Bears total sitting at 47 all week, but many books across the state shuffled on and off of 46 and 46.5 to 47. The final score in the game was 36-10, but it had to be agonizing for Over bettors to watch the Vikings botch a meaningless -- to some -- extra point with five minutes to go ruining many parlays who were looking for at least the push.
The Colts’ game brought back Scucci memories from last seasons encounter when the Texans had a similar collapse while leading, even though last seasons was a little more painful for the books.
“I remember last year being in almost the same boat with the public all over the Colts and Sage Rosenfels fumbling every opportunity he could late in the game,” said Scucci.
Most betting shops got a lot of sharp action on the Texans pushing the initial line of Colts minue-3 (-120) to 2.5 by kickoff, but the straight bets weren’t enough to offset the Colt fever everyone is feeling.
Going into the late game, the Books needed the Steelers getting 7.5-points at Baltimore without Ben Roethlisberger who joined the ongoing trend of concussion-stricken players out in the NFL.
“We didn’t have too much liability on the game because it was off most of the week because of Roethlisberger’s status, but when we opened it, it was pretty one-sided wagering with the Ravens,” said Scucci.
Back-up Dennis Dixon played a serviceable game for the Steelers until eventually throwing an overtime interception that gave the Ravens the 20-17 win, but not the Vegas Cover.
Titanic Win
On Sunday, Matt Leinart was going against Vince Young and just like in college four years ago, Young pulled out the miracle last second win giving the Titans a 20-17 win.
Depending on when the game was bet determined if you won or lost. Before last Monday night’s game at Houston, the Titans early line was minus-1. Following the win, the Titans were 2.5 and then up to 3 even for most of the week.
“All week long Warner was listed as probable, said Scucci, We knew about what had happened last week, but all reports were saying that he practiced and was ready to go.”
Early Sunday morning, a sharp move came on the Cardinals dropping the line to 1.5 and then the news about Kurt Warner not playing came, which was a surprise because usually the sharps are all over that type of information.
When news of Warner possibly not playing hit the wire about 9am Sunday morning, the line moved up to 3 flat and minus money at some places, but not higher than 3. It was like there was some skepticism about the reports because Warner surely merit’s a few points, especially with Leinart as the back-up.
By kickoff the line closed at minus-3.5 even, and of course, wouldn’t you know it, the game lands 3.
At the end of the day I became even more impressed by Vince Young than I had ever thought possible. I have always been a doubter of his ability to be successful in the NFL, even after all his great wins early on. I even relished somewhat when he flat-lined and hit rock bottom as if to say like I was right all along about him.
What a dummy I was! After going 5-0 taking over for the 0-6 Titans, Young has taken this team with all their previous drama and is en route to the promise land. They currently sit at 5-6 with five games to go and playing with the type of “what will he do next” can’t-miss play similar to what Bo Jackson gave us a brief glimpse of greatness as a pro.
College Football
The one solid rock of consistency all season for the Sports Books has been college football. Some sportsbooks have reported doing very poorly with straight bets dealing with the sharps, but overall through 13 weeks, it’s been one of the better seasons thanks to several high profile teams having trouble covering on a regular basis.
Pete Carroll sticking it to Rick Neuheisel with a last minute bomb of a 21-7 game wouldn’t have been seen so unsportsmanlike if Carroll hadn’t have cried so loud last week about Stanford going for a two-point conversion of a blowout game. The battle of Los Angeles has opened some wounds with Carroll because of how Neuheisel has used USC as a rallying cry for his team and recruit’s the last two years. It’s too bad we have to wait whole year to watch the next game.
The crowd at Lagasse's Stadium inside the Palazzo was all for Carroll's final burn. It was a very pro-USC crowd and the lines were long at the cashier window despite the line closing at minus-12.5 from the opener of 14.
USC will be playing in unfamiliar territory during the bowl season, which is prior to New Years day, just like the Larry Smith years. They’ll likely play Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl. UCLA should get a chance to go bowling this year despite the loss, possibly in the Humanitarian Bowl against Idaho.