Books take Holiday Cash
By Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com
All the Las Vegas sports books wanted for Christmas was a winning day and sure enough, Santa Claus obliged!
And why not?
After determining whether the books had been naughty or nice to the public this season, there was an overwhelming feeling throughout the North Pole that they deserved a winning day in the final pro football week of 2011. Last Saturday, the books had eight underdogs gift wrapped to help give them one of the few winning NFL weeks of the season.
However, the timing of the games falling on Christmas Eve hurt the handle.
"Handle was down a little from last season," said South Point sports book director Bert Osborne. "This was one of the first pro football weeks where numbers were down from the same weekend of the previous year."
Usually there's a mad rush to the bet windows on holidays in the same manner that occurs at the malls, but the rush never came. Action was down at most books by 10 to 15 percent from the previous year estimated, but you won't find any of the books complaining. This was exactly what they needed in attempt to close 2011 out strong.
Helping the cause was four outright underdog winners on Saturday, in addition to having the Colts win outright on Thursday night as six-point home underdogs to the Texans. The sports books also had a couple gift back door covers from the Dolphins and Browns too.
The Patriots opened as 10-point favorites last week and were quickly bet down to -9.5, which is where the number stayed most of the week. On Saturday morning, sharp money was buying all they could on the Dolphins and within a half hour, the line had moved 2.5-points down to Patriots -7.
The sports books were in a position where they wanted to beat the sharp money, but the risk from all the public money on the Patriots far exceeded that money. The Dolphins jumped out to a 17-0 half-time lead, but before we could anticipate an upset, New England had tied the game and then eventually took a 27-17 lead. With less than 2 minutes remaining, the Dolphins scored a back-door touchdown off an 80-yard drive to cover the spread.
The Ravens had opened as 13.5-point home favorites against the Browns and by kickoff, the spread was -11. Just like the Patriots game sharp money was on the ‘dog while most of the public was on the Ravens. Baltimore jumped out to a 20-0 lead before Cleveland marched back with 14 unanswered points to get the double back-door cover.
Things got even better for the books when quarterback Tim Tebow and the Broncos imploded in the fourth-quarter at Buffalo. Denver was a 3-point road favorite against the Bills, who were in the midst of a seven-game losing streak. Public money found them siding with the Broncos at a 9-to-5 ratio in ticket counts, but the Bills steamrolled the Broncos, 40-14. Other than sharp money, the sport books were rolling with positive decisions throughout the early games. The streak continued in the afternoon games and it was helped further by not having an isolated game to close out the day.
Usually, the late Sunday night game is always the most highly volatile game of the day just because every live parlay remaining on the day has a side to be decided compounding the book's risk. But on Christmas Eve it was three afternoon games and then the store was closed, good night, happy holidays.
The late games also saw the books fare well despite the Eagles game moving from them being a 2.5-point underdog to the -2.5-favorite by kickoff. Dallas QB Tony Romo got hurt early and the Eagles cruised to a 20-7 win.
The Chargers were bet up in their game at Detroit and moved the game three full points by kickoff. The Chargers had been almost unbeatable in Philip Rivers’ career during December going 23-2. They also had the dangling carrot of Denver collapsing, which kept them alive for a playoff berth. But Detroit smacked them early and often to win 38-10.
Sports books got middled in the 49ers’ 19-17 win at Seattle, but it turned out to be a much better decision than the 49ers winning by three or more points. Despite most sports books having the 49ers -2 on the ties-win parlay cards, the action over the counter was far greater on San Francisco and the books welcomed the minimal losses on paying both sides as the bulk of the action was on the 49ers -2.5.
The final tally had the favorites going 6-9 against the spread in Week 16 making the season mark 113-118-6.