Sports Book Report
By: Micah Roberts
Sportingnews.com
LAS VEGAS -- Las Vegas sports books had six games they needed to beat down in Sunday's NFL Week 13 action. To have a successful day, they would need to knock down half of those games, but to their delight five of them went their way which helped every book have a winning day.
"San Diego winning was huge for us," said Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook executive director Jay Kornegay. "And then we also got the bonus of having Jacksonville, Tampa Bay, New Orleans, and Atlanta win or cover. The only game that really hurt us was the Texans."
Only five underdogs covered among the 12 games on Sunday, but they turned out to be the right ones for the books.
"The Texans, Colts, and Rams burned us a little, but the Chargers and Saints kind of killed any momentum on the parlays going into the late games," said South Point sports book director Bert Osborne. "And then with only two afternoon games, we could have been taken out if the Cardinals covered because action on the Packers-Patriots game was kind of split -- with a little more to the New England side -- but when the Falcons beat Arizona, it made our day."
Having only two afternoon games can be a tough scenario for the books because all the bettors' money is funneled into just those two instead of spread around several different options. In the case of the Cardinals game, the action was almost like an isolated primetime game and it was mostly on Arizona, who the bettors have been riding recently as they had covered eight of their 11 games.
The Cardinals were 2.5-point road favorites most of the week, but some larger money came on Atlanta prior to kickoff dropping the number to -1 at a few books. Atlanta jumped out 17-0 in the first quarter and coasted to a 29-18 win and pushed their record to 5-7, keeping them in a tie for first in the NFC South.
The Steelers closed as 3.5-point home favorites against the Saints and after bettors had watched New Orleans lose their last three games -- all at home -- they wanted nothing to do with New Orleans. Meanwhile Pittsburgh had won four of five at home with an average score of 35-26 with all five games going OVER. The Steelers to the OVER (54.5) combination was the popular play. The OVER got there easily, but it was the Saints who came away with the 35-32 win, a score that is much closer than the game actually was. The Saints, now 5-7, remain tied with Atlanta for the NFC South lead.
One of the more one-sided bets of the day was the Giants laying -3 at Jacksonville against a Jaguars squad that had covered only twice all season. Everything was going as planned as the Giants jumped out to a 21-0 lead, but things unraveled quickly in the second half and a Josh Scobee field goal in the final minute gave Jacksonville a 25-24 win, a Giants loss the New York papers have dubbed as "The final nail in the Coughlin".
The other big game for the books was Tampa Bay hanging in there at home against Cincinnati. The Bengals opened as 3.5-point favorites and were pushed to -6 on game day. Sharp money liked Cincy as did the parlay bettors, but the Bucs got the money in a 14-13 loss.
With so many of the popular parlay teams failing to cover, there wasn't much carryover risk going into the Broncos-Chiefs game, although there was plenty of Denver money.
"The Broncos game turned out to be a loser for us, our second worst decision of the day," said MGM Resorts sports book hub manager Jeff Stoneback on the Broncos' 29-16 road win. "The positive is that there wasn't too much leftover from the four-day weekend going into that game and it also benefited us that it stayed UNDER the total (50)."
Stoneback says their books won on all four days during the Thanksgiving weekend and they don't have any extended jeopardy heading into Monday night's game between the Jets and Dolphins, although all their action so far has been on the Dolphins.
"We've got a couple $30,000 bets on the Dolphins, and the ticket counts have the Dolphins at 8-to-1, but it's all small money. It's not a disaster if the Dolphins win and most of that is because nothing is left over from the weekend."
Broncos hurt books
By Matty Simo
VegasInsider.com
LAS VEGAS – It was shaping up like a good day for The Wynn sportsbook on Sunday after the Green Bay Packers beat the New England Patriots 26-21 to cover the spread as 3-point home favorites. The other Week 13 NFL games that took place earlier in the day were hit or miss from a betting perspective, but the Packers had provided The Wynn with a nice profit, according to Johnny Avello, the property’s Executive Director of Race & Sports Operations. That is, until the Sunday Night Football game.
“The Packer game was good for us, and the Bronco game was the worst game of the day,” Avello said. “Any profits we had, it took it all. The Bronco game we opened 1, and we closed 1. But the problem was, the wiseguys took us to 1 the other way, and the houseguests took us all the way back on Denver. The houseguests’ money overwhelmed the wiseguys.”
Avello called it “about a break-even” day overall following a 29-16 road victory for the Denver Broncos against the Kansas City Chiefs in a key AFC West matchup. The Broncos were obviously a big public play at The Wynn, but things could have been worse had New England kicker Stephen Gostkowski connected on a 47-yard field goal in the final minutes that would have covered the spread for his team.
“If the guy kicks the field goal, that would have probably hurt us,” said Avello.
The total was also worth watching because the game featured the two of the highest-scoring teams in the league. The total opened 58.5 at The Wynn and closed 57.5, with the teams combining to score just 10 points in the second half after seeing 37 points in the first two quarters to push it “under” the number.
“The total wasn’t that big of a deal,” said Avello.
The Atlanta Falcons (+1.5) and New Orleans Saints (+3.5) both took care of business with wins to stay tied atop the NFC West. The Falcons routed the Arizona Cardinals 29-18 at home while the Saints pulled out a nice 35-32 road victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Neither game impacted The Wynn much.
The Cardinals lost their second straight game after starting the season 9-1 and continue to struggle offensively with quarterback Drew Stanton replacing the injured Carson Palmer. They have totaled one touchdown during their two-game skid, and their upcoming schedule is not doing them any favors if they are still going to make a run at the NFC West title and dethrone the Seattle Seahawks.
“They opened 2.5, the game was bet down to 1.5, so there was dog money there,” Avello said. “The (Arizona) defense is on the field a lot right now because the offense can’t hold the ball. I told ya that out of their next six games, they could probably lose four or more. Now what it looks like is it’s going to be tough going to St. Louis too. St. Louis is playing pretty well right now. (The Cardinals) get Kansas City at home this week, and Kansas City needs this game badly as well as the Cardinals, so it’s an interesting game. Seattle controls their own fate. If they win out, they win the division.”
The most bizarre ending on Sunday involved the New York Giants (-3), who saw a 21-3 halftime lead unravel following the intermission. The Jacksonville Jaguars rallied with two defensive touchdowns after fumble recoveries, and kicker Josh Scobee nailed the game-winning field goal with 28 seconds left for an improbable 25-24 victory. Again, even that result with New York losing its seventh straight game and Jacksonville winning its second of the year did not do too much for The Wynn.
“The coach, even though he’s won a couple Super Bowls, he could be in a little of trouble,” Avello said. “And not because he’s a bad coach, just because the Giants have lost all intensity – everything. They just have no feel right now for playing football, and I don’t think that’s what Giant fans want to see.
“Not a lot of the games were really that bad or that good for us, to be honest with you. I think the Bills game was a bad game for us. The rest of the games were just kind of, won a little bit, lost a little bit.”
The Buffalo Bills defeated the Cleveland Browns 26-10 as 3-point home favorites juiced up to -120 after opening -2.5 at The Wynn. The Browns replaced struggling QB Brian Hoyer with rookie Johnny Manziel late in the game, setting up plenty of intrigue regarding who will start their Week 14 game against the Indianapolis Colts. Cleveland is an early 3.5-point home underdog against Indianapolis at The Wynn.