Books survive Boys, Saints action
By Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com
Realization set in real quick with Las Vegas bookmakers that the Browns weren't going to be of any help in limiting risk in NFL Week 9 action and the other half of the awful-two -- the 49ers -- were quickly making it evident they would be no help, either. The Cowboys (-7.5) rolled 35-10 at Cleveland as did the Saints (-5.5), 41-23, at San Francisco.
Same story, different week.
The books find themselves in this position weekly with bettors going against the two worst teams in football, and with the Patriots having a bye week, they needed to find one other team to complete their three-team parlay. That fill-in team would be the Packers laying 7-points at home against the Colts, and it would be one of the few games the public was wrong on collectively as the Colts won 31-26 paying +310 on the money-line.
Hey Jay Kornegay, did that game help out your Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook?
"Yeah, I'm finishing off a thank you letter to the Colts right now," he said with straight face, but slight chuckle. "It would have been very ugly if the Packers won and covered the game."
The ugly part would be paying 6-to-1 odds to almost every Joe Public 3-team parlay made on the day. The books can't make up those kind of payouts no matter how much sharp action they get on the other side.
"We knew coming into the week that we were going to have to knock out one of these big 6 or 7-point favorites, not just cover, but have one of them lose outright," said Kornegay. "The Packers were that team."
There were four of those of those teams on Sunday and the fifth, Seattle, plays Monday night. The Lions would win 22-16 at Minnesota (-6) in overtime, but after the Vikings failed to cover their last two games, the public wasn't all that enamored with them anymore. Another large favorite that didn't cover was Kansas City (-7) at home against the Jaguars.
"The Jaguars back-door cover was big for us because Kansas City had some early risk," said Kornegay.
The Chiefs won 19-14, and bettors with tickets on them had to go through a roller coaster of emotions in the fourth-quarter. After settling for KC field-goals on four of five scoring drives in the game, there was an uneasy feeling that the wasted opportunities would bite them in the end. But bettors still had the slim cover, up 19-7. They even got a gift Jags fumble in the end zone during the fourth quarter. But then the back door happened with a Jags TD with just over two minutes left in the game.
With the Jaguars helping the books early and the Colts winning in the afternoon, it was just enough of a boost to slow the momentum of the Cowboys cover and help the sports books.
"We ended up being a small winner on the day," said Kornegay. "We'll take it."
Other books weren't so lucky.
"We can't fade the Saints or Dallas," said William Hill's head bookmaker Nick Bogdanovich before kickoff of the Sunday night game. "It's just a matter of how much we'll lose. We need Denver."
William Hill books had over 90 percent of their cash taken on the Cowboys-Browns game on Dallas. And Denver would lose the battle for the AFC West lead, 30-20, at Oakland (pick 'em). The 20-point fourth quarter would help the game go 'over' 44.5, which most books didn't need.
On the day favorites would go 5-4-2 against the spread with the 'over' going 6-5, the type of mix that would usually help the books do well and keep the bettors off-balance, but the Cowboys got everything started and most books were chasing all day until there were no games left to recoup the losses.