Betting news, trends, odds and predictions from various handicappers and websites for Tuesday 10/23/18
Bettors win Week 7
October 22, 2018
By Micah Roberts
Sunday's NFL Week 7 action watched eight road teams capture victories while the favorites went 6-6 against the spread and the 'under' posted a 9-3 mark. That unlikely combination wrapped together turned out to be the perfect recipe for bettors to come out on top. Yes, the books went down with the Chiefs Sunday night win being the knockout blow.
"If the Bengals come through we will survive," said William Hill's top bookmaker Nick Bogdanovich just prior to kickoff," But if KC rolls it's gonna get ugly."
Well, it got ugly with the Chiefs 45-10 win.
"It was as close to a break-even day as can be," said MGM Resorts sports book hub manager Jeff Stoneback prior to kickoff of the late game. "We're up less than $1,000 (between Nevada, New Jersey, Mississippi) going into the late game and we need Cincy big."
"Big" for that chain of books is always six figures.
The Chiefs blowout win was much to the delight of parlay players. The only reason we didn't see the line move much was that there was some sharp play early in the week anchoring the books at Chiefs -6. Most closed the game at -6.5. The Chiefs are the only 7-0 ATS team in the NFL.
"Very small loser," said Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook VP Jay Kornegay. "Which is not bad considering losing our biggest decisions like the Vikings, Patriots, and Indy. We didn't have any big winners, but the Browns was probably our best."
The Browns lost in overtime, 26-23, at Tampa Bay (-3.5). The Browns looked dead but tied it up with a 14-0 fourth-quarter. It was the fourth overtime game for the Browns this season who are now 5-2 at the betting counter (ATS).
"Our worst game was the Lions covering against the Dolphins," Stoneback said. "And our second worst was the Vikings beating the Jets. We had heavy sharp play on the Vikings and it was also heavily weighted on the Vikings with parlays."
Quarterback Brock Osweiler was again the Dolphins starter and while he was amazing last week in a home win against the Bears, winning two weeks in a row maybe stretched his limitations. The Lions (-3) would win 32-21. Several books said the Lions were also popular parlay plays as well, as should be expected with a team that is now 5-1 ATS. Who knew the Lions would be a cover machine out of the gate?
The Vikings (-3.5) looked like they would be in a dogfight up only 10-7 at the Jets, but then buried the Jets 27-10 in the second half to win 37-17 and bump their ATS mark to 4-2-1 ATS.
"It was a bad day," said CG Technology VP of risk Jason Simbal. "We're a loser no matter what happens tonight (at KC). "Our worst game was the Patriots and our best was the Titans."
The Patriots (-2) won their first road game of the season, 38-31, at Chicago after losing their first two road games by double-digits and they did it without tight end Rob Gronkowski (back). This was one of the more popular plays of the week as New England was hooked up in lots of three-team parlays with the Chiefs and the Rams (-9), who rolled at San Francisco, 39-10. Sharp money was taking the points with the 49ers early in the week, but small money loved the Rams.
Most books came out of the gate strong on Sunday with the early morning game at London where the Chargers were -6.5 against the Titans. The Chargers were the popular bet and were covering 20-13 when the Titans scored a TD on fourth down with less than a minute to make it 20-19 and then they went for a two-point conversion attempt, and well, the score ended up being 20-19.
"We lost a very small amount," said Caesars Palace's Alan Berg. "The Chiefs-Bengals staying under (56.5) helped soften the loss. Best games for us were Browns and Redskins and our worst games: Patriots, Vikings, Colts.
The Redskins went from 1.5-point home favorites against the Cowboys to two-point underdogs by kickoff and would hang on to win 20-17. NFC East-leading Washington is now 4-2 both straight up and against the spread this seaosn.
Going forwrd, this Patriots, Rams and Chiefs combo is going to be a dangerous weekly parlay for the books and the return of 6-to-1 odds makes it more liable.