Books rack up Week 6 win
By Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com
The betting public got its main NFL Week 6 game correct with the Patriots covering -7.5 at home against the Bengals, but their dilemma was that just about every other team they had it parlayed to went down the tubes. Favorites would go just 3-7-3 against-the-spread on the day helping the Las Vegas sports books to one of its best Sunday's of the young season.
"It was a good day," said Westgate SuperBook VP Jay Kornegay. "The Dolphins winning over the Steelers was clearly our best game of the day."
The second most popular public play was the Steelers laying -7.5 at Miami and while the Bengals were doing a decent job in stifling Tom Brady and Patriots early on, the Steelers jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the first quarter. But things flipped quickly in Miami as the Dolphins took a 16-8 lead into the half and eventually held on for a 30-15 win. The Patriots 10-7 halftime lead turned into a 35-17 win.
Ben Roethlisberger (knee) was hurt in the process and will be out for the much anticipated home game against the Patriots this week. With back-up Landry Jones expected to start, CG Technology sports books opened the Patriots -7 (-120).
The effect of the books beating down one of those teams in the early games was huge just because those sides were keyed together as two-teamers and linked to the most risk on the day between all the potential three and four team parlays. Parlay bettors also got the worst of it with their Eagles losing 27-20 as 3-point favorites at Washington and the Browns (+7.5) getting a backdoor touchdown in the final seconds of a 26-28 loss at Tennessee.
"Underdogs had a good day," said Kornegay. "We didn't have any gigantic wins, but they piled up with the Jaguars, Redskins, Browns and Cowboys. Anytime the Browns cover, we're going to win that game. It's just the way it is because the majority of people are so down on Cleveland."
Of the seven underdogs that covered, five of them would win outright. Miami was the biggest dog payout at +300.
After the morning games, bettors had to go back to the drawing board for the three afternoon games to try and recoup some of their losses. The ATM's at every casino were getting a workout.
The books had banked a ton of cash through the first nine games with little carryover into the afternoon. They collectively fired on the Packers -4.5 at home against the Cowboys, the Raiders (+2) at home against the Chiefs and they were split on the Falcons getting +7 at at Seattle. And for the most part, bettors were wrong again, and the books won even more, although sharp money was on Dallas and Kansas City.
The Cowboys impressive 30-16 win over the Packers paid out +200 on the money-line and while the Raiders jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead in rainy Oakland, the Chiefs ended up winning 26-10.
"We've been kind of struggling for the whole month," said Kornegay, "so it was good to see our best Saturday of October and then come back with our best Sunday since Week 1. The win was close to Week 1, but volume-wise doesn't touch what Week 1 handled. But I'll say we won a lot more games this week than the opening weekend."
The Sunday night game with Indianapolis at Houston (-3) didn't have much tied to it because of all the carnage form the first 12 games. The only real risk to it was if the Texans won by 3, and that's exactly what happened in overtime with Houston's 26-23 win. The big deal here was that several books dealt -2.5 for a while, -3 and some also at -3.5. Anytime the books came off the key number of 3, sharp money pushed them back. It was a nice middle job, but because the game didn't have that normal carry over risk, it didn't hurt them as much.
They books back a small piece of the pie they won on the day with the late middle, but it was still highly successful for the house.