Books survive Super Bowl
By Micah Roberts
After all was said and done Sunday, things turned out to be okay for the Las Vegas sports books. Many in the books were a little worried about the handle going into last Friday’s Super Bowl weekend. They weren’t seeing as many large bets as normal on either side and they were also missing visitors from back east due to cancelled flights.
“I don’t know exactly when those people who were delayed finally got into town, but when they landed here, it was apparent by the rise in our handle,” said MGM-Mirage Race and Sports Book Director Jay Rood.
“By 10 am Sunday, we were trending about 10% less than last years Super Bowl,” said Rood. “When we tallied everything up after kickoff, we were up 3% over last season.”
When the sports books posted the score with the Saints winning 31-17, just about every book in the city did well. The best scenario would have been the Colts winning, but not covering, and staying under the total of 57.
One of the few books that had their best scenario unfold was the M Race and Sportsbook.
“We couldn’t be happier with the outcome,” said M Sportsbook Director Mike Colbert, “It was the best result we could have had. We never moved off the 4.5.”
The M was ahead of the curve a little bit by having the gave at 4.5 for almost the entire two week duration while most books in town were at 5 or 5.5. By game time, just about everyone in town was sitting at 4.5.
“We saw sharp money come in late with the Saints while we had early sharp money on the Colts money line laying -200,” said Colbert.
Professional Poker player Phil Ivey reportedly made wagers totaling well over $3 Million at various Sports books around town. Despite the large bets, many books by game day had the Colts at minus-190, much lower than the amount bet by Ivey.
Is it possible that Ivey was part of an overall scheme to sway the market one way? It’s not uncommon to see, but it is uncommon to have a celebrity in the middle of it. That’s a lot of seed money to lay down, then again, if the Colts won with Saints covering, the bettor wins both sides.
The Sports Books all reported great handle on the props. The local sports books seemed to do poorer than the strip with the special point spread props laying -3.5, -7.5, and -10.5 with the Saints at big plus money.
Some of the other props the public did well with was under eight punts, yes on a defensive touchdown scoring, the yes on the two-point conversion, and player to score first.
“Pierre Garcon got a lot of respect from the public and they were playing him to be that guy to score first, and he did,” said Rood.
The strip properties also enjoyed the posting the odds to win the Super Bowl which had been up since last February which added about 30% extra to the winning bottom line.
“It was a really good day, “said Rood, “We did alright. We had great two-way action on the game and did well against some of the larger bets that we did take.”
Overall handle results won’t be known for another two days as the Nevada Gaming Control board compiles all the data from all over the state, but it’s safe to speculate at this point that the strip properties held a higher win percentage than the local places.