Books win another Sunday
December 14, 2015
Last week the Patriots were looking at being the AFC’s No. 3 seed in the playoffs as they stumbled through their first two losses of the season. However, following losses by both Cincinnati and Denver in Sunday‘s Week 14 action, coupled with the Patriots 24-9 win at Houston in the late game, it’s the Patriots once again in control their own destiny with the No. 1 seed with three more games to play before the playoffs start.
Prior to the Patriots dropping its second straight game to temporarily put them in the No. 3 position, the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook had them as the massive 5/2 favorites (Bet $100 to win $250) to win the Super Bowl. After the loss, they fell into a tie with the undefeated Panthers at 4/1 odds. On Monday, with New England back in the drivers seat for home field advantage and with tight end Rob Gronkowski back in action, the Westgate dropped them back down to 7/2 as the lone favorite.
Bettors all had a feeling that the Patriots wouldn’t lose three straight games and they came strong on them laying -3 all the way up to -4.5. William Hill sports books had 85 percent of the tickets written on the game on them as well as 89 percent of the overall cash wagered, which was by far the most one sided action of the day and took a big chunk of the profit the sports books had tucked away after grinding out the first 13 games.
“We ended up being a small winner, but it wasn’t a great day,” said Boyd gaming sports book director Bob Scucci prior to the Patriots win. “We had a lot of great two-way handle on each of the games and the games we had big public action on (parlays) we seemed to have sharp action on the other side so they both kind of balanced each other out.“
Scucci wasn’t lucky enough to have sharps balance out the risk on the Houston side like they did with so many other popular public games. He said the Patriots covering would mean giving back about half of what they had won on the day, but the game staying UNDER 46 would help.
The first 11 games of the day was just a case of the books winning a few and the bettors winning getting their fair share of victories as well.
“The Panthers was our worst game of the morning, and Cleveland wasn’t good either, but we did fare well with Detroit failing to cover -- that game ran all the way to -3 -- and the Chargers and Saints covering also went our way.”
Carolina ran its record to 13-0 with a 38-0 pounding of Atlanta, which easily covered the nine-point spread. The public and sharps were both on that side. The Falcons failed to cover the spread for its ninth straight game. Johnny Manziel made good on his return to the Browns starting lineup with a 24-10 home victory over the 49ers. Sharp action pushed the Browns from -1 to -2.5, while the public was backing San Francisco with its parlays.
The Rams finally bucked its five game losing streak with a 21-14 home victory over the Lions, who were bet by sharp money from pick ‘em to being the 3-point road favorite.
The Chiefs had won and covered six straight games prior to its home match against the Chargers and bettors laid -10 all the way up to -12.5 with Kansas City, but there was rain throughout and the Chiefs could only muster a 10-3 win.
With New Orleans losing four straight, the public was down on them at Tampa Bay and the Bucs, who had covered six of its last eight prior, were bet up from -3.5 to -6.”
“There were lots of significant lines moves this week, probably more than any other week,” said Station Casinos sports book director Jason McCormick.
So after showing just the smallest of profits through the first 11 games, there were only two games to bet on in the afternoon and the majority were dialed in on the favorites putting them together in parlays and teasers.
"We kind of spilt the afternoon games with both favorites receiving lots of action,” said Scucci. “I would have much rather had the Cowboys cover in the afternoon than the Raiders just because we had more large wagers on the Raiders than Dallas."
While straight bets hurt most of the books with Oakland, the silver lining for them was the bettors’ parlays and teasers destroyed because of Denver losing. Some of those teasers were left over from Thursday night with the Cardinals and Carolina was another popular teaser choice. Denver and Green Bay were the last of the touchdown favored teams on the board that are popular with teaser players.
There were mixed reports around town concerning the handle. Some said it was the worst of the NFL season and others said it was right on par with what they have been doing. Rooms across town were the emptiest they’ve been all season and at some junctures Saturday the strip looked like a ghost town -- at least while the 15,000 Irishmen were inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena for the UFC 194 event culminating with Conor McGregor’s win.
“I think the biggest reason for things being slower this week was no college football on Saturday because bettors usually churn their winning tickets from Saturday into NFL action,” said Scucci. “It’s holiday season of course too, and the rodeo was just closing out.“
For the remaining few weeks of the NFL regular season the books will have an infusion of excitement and additional cash wagered due to the college football bowl season starting. These NFL teams seem to be getting harder and harder to read, which favors the books to keep its win streak against the public alive.
At one juncture the books and public were tied at 3-3, but the books have reeled off eight consecutive Sunday's without losing.
December 14, 2015
Last week the Patriots were looking at being the AFC’s No. 3 seed in the playoffs as they stumbled through their first two losses of the season. However, following losses by both Cincinnati and Denver in Sunday‘s Week 14 action, coupled with the Patriots 24-9 win at Houston in the late game, it’s the Patriots once again in control their own destiny with the No. 1 seed with three more games to play before the playoffs start.
Prior to the Patriots dropping its second straight game to temporarily put them in the No. 3 position, the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook had them as the massive 5/2 favorites (Bet $100 to win $250) to win the Super Bowl. After the loss, they fell into a tie with the undefeated Panthers at 4/1 odds. On Monday, with New England back in the drivers seat for home field advantage and with tight end Rob Gronkowski back in action, the Westgate dropped them back down to 7/2 as the lone favorite.
Bettors all had a feeling that the Patriots wouldn’t lose three straight games and they came strong on them laying -3 all the way up to -4.5. William Hill sports books had 85 percent of the tickets written on the game on them as well as 89 percent of the overall cash wagered, which was by far the most one sided action of the day and took a big chunk of the profit the sports books had tucked away after grinding out the first 13 games.
“We ended up being a small winner, but it wasn’t a great day,” said Boyd gaming sports book director Bob Scucci prior to the Patriots win. “We had a lot of great two-way handle on each of the games and the games we had big public action on (parlays) we seemed to have sharp action on the other side so they both kind of balanced each other out.“
Scucci wasn’t lucky enough to have sharps balance out the risk on the Houston side like they did with so many other popular public games. He said the Patriots covering would mean giving back about half of what they had won on the day, but the game staying UNDER 46 would help.
The first 11 games of the day was just a case of the books winning a few and the bettors winning getting their fair share of victories as well.
“The Panthers was our worst game of the morning, and Cleveland wasn’t good either, but we did fare well with Detroit failing to cover -- that game ran all the way to -3 -- and the Chargers and Saints covering also went our way.”
Carolina ran its record to 13-0 with a 38-0 pounding of Atlanta, which easily covered the nine-point spread. The public and sharps were both on that side. The Falcons failed to cover the spread for its ninth straight game. Johnny Manziel made good on his return to the Browns starting lineup with a 24-10 home victory over the 49ers. Sharp action pushed the Browns from -1 to -2.5, while the public was backing San Francisco with its parlays.
The Rams finally bucked its five game losing streak with a 21-14 home victory over the Lions, who were bet by sharp money from pick ‘em to being the 3-point road favorite.
The Chiefs had won and covered six straight games prior to its home match against the Chargers and bettors laid -10 all the way up to -12.5 with Kansas City, but there was rain throughout and the Chiefs could only muster a 10-3 win.
With New Orleans losing four straight, the public was down on them at Tampa Bay and the Bucs, who had covered six of its last eight prior, were bet up from -3.5 to -6.”
“There were lots of significant lines moves this week, probably more than any other week,” said Station Casinos sports book director Jason McCormick.
So after showing just the smallest of profits through the first 11 games, there were only two games to bet on in the afternoon and the majority were dialed in on the favorites putting them together in parlays and teasers.
"We kind of spilt the afternoon games with both favorites receiving lots of action,” said Scucci. “I would have much rather had the Cowboys cover in the afternoon than the Raiders just because we had more large wagers on the Raiders than Dallas."
While straight bets hurt most of the books with Oakland, the silver lining for them was the bettors’ parlays and teasers destroyed because of Denver losing. Some of those teasers were left over from Thursday night with the Cardinals and Carolina was another popular teaser choice. Denver and Green Bay were the last of the touchdown favored teams on the board that are popular with teaser players.
There were mixed reports around town concerning the handle. Some said it was the worst of the NFL season and others said it was right on par with what they have been doing. Rooms across town were the emptiest they’ve been all season and at some junctures Saturday the strip looked like a ghost town -- at least while the 15,000 Irishmen were inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena for the UFC 194 event culminating with Conor McGregor’s win.
“I think the biggest reason for things being slower this week was no college football on Saturday because bettors usually churn their winning tickets from Saturday into NFL action,” said Scucci. “It’s holiday season of course too, and the rodeo was just closing out.“
For the remaining few weeks of the NFL regular season the books will have an infusion of excitement and additional cash wagered due to the college football bowl season starting. These NFL teams seem to be getting harder and harder to read, which favors the books to keep its win streak against the public alive.
At one juncture the books and public were tied at 3-3, but the books have reeled off eight consecutive Sunday's without losing.