Saints-Vikes Line Continues to Climb
The point spread in Sunday’s Divisional Round matchup between the Saints and Vikings continues to climb ahead of the 4:40 p.m. ET kickoff.
Following New Orleans’ victory over Carolina in the Wild Card round, the Saints opened as a 3.5-point underdog versus the two-seeded Vikings. That said, according to oddsmakers from online sports book Bovada.lv, Minnesota is now a 5.5-point home favorite. It’s unlikely that the spread will climb another half point but it’s interesting that the line for this game moved at all.
Why do we say that? Because public bettors have been on the Saints all week long. All week betting tickets have been over 60% on New Orleans to cover the spread. In fact, 69% of betting tickets are on the Saints money line as well. So for the line to climb from 3.5 to 5.5 is fishy.
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Why is that fishy? Because that’s an indication that sharp bettors are on the Vikings. When the public is on one side but the line continues to climb in their favor, oddsmakers aren’t doing public bettors a solid. They’re not handing public bettors a better line: It’s because wiseguys are on the other side. And the line movement for this game indicates that sharp bettors are on the Vikes.
Meanwhile, the total continues to climb for this game as well. As of this writing, the over/under is sitting at 47 points. The number hit the board at 44.5 but has climbed all week long. Also, 54% of betting tickets and 74% of the money is on the over.
The over is 5-0-1 in the last six meetings between these two teams in Minnesota and is 7-2 in the last nine meetings overall. The favorite, meanwhile, is a perfect 4-0 against the number in the last four meetings in this series.