Books win small in Week 7
By Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com
You know the Las Vegas sports books have bettors right where they want them when favorites go 9-2-2 against-the-spread in Sunday's NFL Week 7 action and they're still able to come away with a win. After beating the public up a little bit the past weeks where the favorites didn't do as well, bettors were scratching theirs heads with confusion of who to bet, at least those that still had money left in their pockets to bet.
"It was an okay day, but not a day of big decisions while we also got a push on the Bills and Dolphins," said Station Casinos sports book director Jason McCormick. "Bears was a sharp side that cashed but the other moves on Packers, Giants, Ravens and Broncos went down. Public parlays and parlays cards did well with fan favorites like the Steelers, Seahawks, Jaguars and Cowboys."
MGM Resorts 10 books along the strip had a similar story citing handle was down as well.
"Fair day, we didn't have any real big decisions," Mirage sports book hub manager Jeff Stoneback. "We won two of out four biggest decisions, we won with the Chargers late, but lost with the Cowboys. It was a nice day, but nothing great."
Had it been Week 1 and the same type of favorite ratio with all the excited cash churning through the bet windows the books would have got buried. Anyway, the Chargers won their third straight game after starting 0-3. They beat the Broncos 21-0 to give them their first win at their new stadium in Carson, CA. The stadium was was filled with fans wearing the color orange.
The books even got a break with the lowly Browns (+6) covering a spread. They still lost, this time in overtime at home -- 12-9, but it turned out to be the most bet game of the week at William Hill's 107 sports books across the state. They reported 16 percent of their overall cash bet on the games during the week to be on the Titans-Browns and 84 percent of the cash taken on the game was on the Titans.
One team the bettors were really correct about was the Cowboys laying 6.5 at San Francisco and cover easily in a 40-10 win, which also got the Over (47.5) to cash -- both popular two-team parlays hooked up together. The 49ers had been gritty with covers most of the season, but the Cowboys looked Super Bowlish with Ezekeil Elliott back in the lineup.
The late game featured a Super Bowl rematch with the Falcons at a foggy New England with the Patriots number dropping from -3.5 down to -2.5.
"Lots of straight bet Falcons money, but parlay liability rolls on Pats and Over," said McCormick prior to kickoff.
I had a time wondering why bettors were jumping on the sluggish Falcons. They look kind of broken.
"It's an unusual position needing the Patriots in an isolated night game, but we got a lot of sharp on the Falcons. We're 2/1 tickets on the Patriots but 2/1 on Atlanta cash."
The Falcons looked like they didn't want to be there and lost 23-7, getting their lone score in the fourth quarter. But hey, at least Julio Jones finally caught a TD pass.
Most books came a really good Saturday.
"Saturday was really good for us, the Notre Dame game was great for us, but Michigan was a bad loss," Stoneback said. "But overall between baseball and the entire day of college football it was great."
It's back to the drawing board for bettors. The books got them right where they want them -- guessing.