Bucs, Vikings help Vegas sports books to another winning day
By: Micah Roberts
Sportingnews.com
LAS VEGAS -- The betting public missed out on some opportunities on the fourth Sunday of the NFL season. Even though their beloved favorites covered in seven of 11 games, they didn't have the right combinations, and Las Vegas sports books had another winning day. So far the scoreboard on the season reads: books 3, public 1.
“The day turned out well for us. We should be able to hold about eight percent on the day,“ said MGM Resorts VP of race and sports Jay Rood, just after kickoff of the Sunday night game.
“We had four really big decisions on the day and were able to win on three of them. We lost to the Packers pretty good, but when the Steelers, Panthers and Falcons all lost, it helped us out with any extended parlay and teaser risk there was on the Packers.”
The Packers, playing at Chicago, had moved from a 1-point underdog early in the week to a 2.5-point favorite by kickoff. The move was made by large money, the betting public followed with their parlays, and the Packers rolled to a 38-17 win. The game also went OVER 51 – another popular public play. But the game would be the one standout loser on the day for the house, as everything else seemed to fall its way.
“The Colts game was probably one our most one-sided of the day with parlays, but we had a lot more on straight bets to the Tennessee side, and then when those other favorites fell that bettors had parlayed the most, like the Vikings and Steelers, the game turned out to be good for us.”
The Colts’ 41-17 home win over Tennessee easily covered the 7-point spread, but the Steelers losing outright at home, 27-24, in the last second to Tampa Bay was the big one that halted any of the public’s momentum gained from Green Bay and Indianapolis. The Bucs were the one of two underdogs to cover in the seven early games (the Lions went off as dogs vs. the Jets) , and left only three afternoon games (4 p.m. ET, 1 p.m. PT) and one late game for the public to strike back.
It never happened.
The most popular bet in the afternoon was the Falcons, who were bet up from 3-point favorites by large money to -6 by kickoff at Minnesota. Smaller parlay bettors also loved the Falcons but were disappointed by them on the road, as Minnesota won 41-28.
“I’m kind of amazed we did as well as we did with seven of the favorites covering in the first 10 games,” said South point sports book director Bert Osborne. “It’s pretty telling how just how big of an impact the Buccaneers and Vikings were for us today. We kind of stole one from the public today. I mean, I had the 49ers/Eagles game at 5 on the ties-win card (it ended right on the number), and we didn’t get hurt with everything else.”
The 49ers opened at -4.5 and were bet up to -5.5 early in the week, before Eagles money pushed it down to -4 by kickoff. Public opinion was split on the game, giving the advantage to the house with parlays tied to the other games. San Francisco would win 26-21. Who said 5 was a dead number?
The OVER occurred in eight of the 11 games as well, another side the public loves to play, but bettors just couldn’t gain any momentum on parlays. The Colts cover, but then the Steelers lose. The Chargers cover, but the Falcons lose. It was like that all day for the public, and they couldn’t even get the Cowboys defense to play poorly – it shut down the Saints (-3) in 38-17 win. The Saints had been bet at a 3-to-1 ratio in parlays , with most leaning to the OVER (54.5) as well. The OVER got there, but there wasn’t much tied to it to hurt the books too much.
Books ‘busier than ever’
Despite six teams having byes this week, Osborne was impressed with the crowd and volume of action.
“Man, this NFL has some kind of business. Bye week, with less teams, no Broncos or no Seahawks. It doesn’t matter, we’re busier than ever. The NFL is amazing.”
The Sunday win helped most books get over what was a good day for the public on Saturday.
“Saturday wasn’t good for us,” said Rood. “We lost just about every college football game after 5 p.m. (PT), and then we also didn’t do well on the (UFC) fights (at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Vegas) and lost on the (NASCAR) truck race as well (held at Las Vegas Motor Speedway).”
Books earn small win in Week 4
By Matty Simo
VegasInsider.com
LAS VEGAS – Sportsbooks in Las Vegas won again in Week 4, although you won’t hear Johnny Avello brag about it. The Wynn's Executive Director of Race & Sports Operations said he does not like to look at the weekly results, which show books beating bettors in three of the first four weeks of the NFL season.
“For me, I just can’t look at this stuff from a week-to-week basis,” Avello said. “And I refuse to look at it from a week-to-week basis because things just don’t go right sometimes. Sometimes they go very right. Week-to- week has probably got nothing to do with the favorites winning, it’s got nothing to do with who should win. It’s just in certain weeks, players are just on the right side. That’s all there is to it.”
Avello noted the San Francisco 49ers rallying back to beat the Philadelphia Eagles 26-21 as 3.5-point home favorites as one example. The 49ers had opened -4.5 at The Wynn, but the public pushed the line down in favor of the previously undefeated Eagles. San Francisco trailed 21-10 in the second quarter.
“I don’t think the 49ers had any business covering the game yesterday, but they did,” Avello said. “Football is a crazy game, you can handicap until you’re blue in the face. But when it’s all said and done, you cannot handicap things that happen on the football field. You just can’t.”
The biggest win for the books came in Minnesota, where the Vikings blew away the Atlanta Falcons 41-28 behind rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Atlanta opened as a 2.5-point road favorite and was bet up to -5.5 at The Wynn just prior to kickoff.
“I don’t think the Falcons are any good on the road,” Avello said. “Good home team, but they’re just no good on the road.”
The public’s biggest wins came with the Green Bay Packers and the Indianapolis Colts, both of whom ended up closing a half-point higher than the opening numbers but saw the lines higher in their favor earlier in the week.
The Packers closed as 1.5-point road favorites against the Chicago Bears and had been as high as -2.5 after opening at -1. The Colts opened as 7-point home favorites but were as high as -8.5 after reports surfaced that Tennessee Titans quarterback Jake Locker would likely miss the game. Indy ended up winning 41-17 as Titans backup QB Charlie Whitehurst struggled immensely.
“I knew we were going to need the dog there, there’s just nothing we could do about it,” Avello said of the Bears, who lost to Green Bay 38-17. “The bettors look at games, and they say, the Packers are not going to lose again. They’re going to be in the hunt, and of course that’s exactly what happened. The Colts are a good team, and they’re going to continue to be a good team.”
The Detroit Lions also took care of business on the road against the New York Jets, winning 24-17 after closing as 1.5-point underdogs. The Lions had opened -1.5, but Avello said that game was split equally. “There was Lion money, and there was Jet money both at those numbers,” he said. “It actually was balanced out pretty good. We did ok. You’ve got money going one way, you move the line, you’ve got money going back the other way. That game was balanced out.”
Avello also said big money came in on the Dallas Cowboys for their Sunday Night Football game against the New Orleans Saints, who still opened and closed at -3. The Cowboys ended up blowing out the Saints 38-17 in one of Week 4’s more surprising results.
Regarding the Monday Night Football matchup with the New England Patriots visiting the Kansas City Chiefs, Avello said the public could post another win if the home team covers the 3-point spread as an underdog. That will likely make him a fan of the Patriots.
“This game’s all the way down to 3,” said Avello, who opened New England -4.5. “Yeah, I think (we need the Patriots). But again it’s a Monday night game, so you don’t know where your money’s going to come. Some comes during the day, some comes late. So you just never know what you’re going to need until kickoff.”