Notable bets is a regular Monday roundup of wagers — some sharper than others — made recently at sportsbooks across the nation.
The Kansas City Chiefs-Los Angeles Rams game on Monday Night Football was on pace to be the most heavily bet game of the season at multiple Las Vegas sportsbooks.
The bulk of the early action was on the underdog Chiefs, who were getting 3 or 3.5 points, depending on the book.
Ed Salmons, head football oddsmaker at the SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas, called Kansas City a “square dog,” a term referring to when the betting public flocks toward an underdog.
The public flocked the wrong way on Saturday and Sunday, as sportsbooks chalked up another winning weekend, their second in a row after a rough start to November.
Here are the notable bets from the week:
NFL
• As of Sunday night at the SuperBook, there were six times as many bets on the Chiefs as there were on the Rams, and three times as much money had been wagered on Kansas City as had been bet on L.A.
• The largest bet MGM sportsbooks had taken on the game as of Sunday night was $90,000 on the Chiefs +3.5 (-120). “We’ll probably draw some more [big bets] tomorrow,” Jay Rood, vice president of MGM race and sports, said.
• “Really, really good handle,” Chris Andrews, sportsbook director at the South Point, said of the Chiefs-Rams action. “I’m not sure who I’ll need at this point, but business is very good.”
• The over/under on the Monday night game had ticked down to 63 at several books (opened 64), but was still the highest for an NFL game since at least 1986, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
• “We had some pretty decent-sized under bets,” Andrews of the South Point said. “But, of course, the public is always going to bet over.”
• The SuperBook was holding its total at 63.5 as of Sunday night. “The wiseguys are trying to push [the total] down, as they always do,” Salmons said. “So far, the public play’s been all on the over, and we know we’re going to get more of that tomorrow. So, we’re willing to gamble against the wiseguys at the higher number, just because we know what the public is going to come in with tomorrow.”
• The SuperBook took a bet to win $100,000 on over 52 in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers-New York Giants game. The Giants won 38-35.
“That was a terrible result for us,” Salmons said. “But that’s how it goes. He bet over 52, and we move to 52.5, when the market was 51.5 and no one wanted it. And then the next time we looked it was 54.”
• Shortly before kickoff, the sportsbook at the South Point took a $50,000 bet on the Philadelphia Eagles +7 against the New Orleans Saints. The Saints won 48-7.
• “Solid day with most of the early games working in our favor,” Bill Sattler, director of specialty games for Caesars Entertainment, said. “Lions covering and winning was best decision, and Eagles not showing up was worst decision.”
• The SuperBook took a “decent-size” bet on the Saints to win the Super Bowl at 5-2 odds. The book moved the New Orleans’ odds to +180, making the Saints the favorites to win the Super Bowl.
• Station Casinos in Nevada reported a solid winning Sunday, with big wins on the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions, a pair of underdogs who pulled out victories against the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers, respectively.
• The SuperBook took a $40,000 bet on the Falcons -3, and another player bet $20,000 on the Falcons -3.5. Dallas won 22-19 on a last-second field goal.
• MGM took a six-figure bet on the Los Angeles Chargers -7 (even) against the Denver Broncos, according to sportsbook manager Scot Shelton. Denver won 23-21.
• A bettor at an MGM sportsbook placed a $140,000 money-line bet on the Chicago Bears (-140) to beat the Minnesota Vikings straight-up in the primetime game.
• After the Green Bay Packers’ 27-24 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday, teams from the Central and Eastern Time Zones are 0-9 straight-up and 0-7-2 against the spread when traveling to the Pacific Time Zone for a Thursday game, according to ESPN Stats & Information. The Seahawks were 2.5- or 3-point favorites at most sportsbooks.
• “No complaints here,” Andrews said of the South Point’s results on Sunday.
College football
• “[It] was our best Saturday of the season,” John Murray, sportsbook director for the SuperBook, said.
• Alabama failed to cover the first-half spread for the first time this season Saturday against The Citadel. On Friday, the South Point sportsbook opened the Crimson Tide as 33-point favorites in the first half. The line closed at 40. Alabama and The Citadel were tied 10-10 at halftime.
“All the money was on Bama,” the South Point’s Andrews said. “That was one of our best games of the day. I don’t know that we got 100 bucks on Citadel in the first half.”
• At William Hill’s sportsbooks in Nevada and New Jersey, 92 percent of the money bet on the first-half line was on the Crimson Tide.
• With the game tied 10-10 at halftime, the SuperBook made Alabama a 28.5-point favorite in the second half. The Crimson Tide quickly pulled away, covering the 28.5-point second half line and finishing off Citadel 50-17. “Everyone was betting The Citadel +28.5 in the second half,” Murray said. “We did well on that.”
• A bettor at the SuperBook placed a $20,000 bet on the over (48.5) in the Michigan State-Nebraska game and then bet another $20,000 on the over in the second half. Nebraska won 9-6.
• A bettor at the SuperBook also placed a $30,000 bet on the Syracuse-Notre Dame over (65). The Fighting Irish won 36-3.
• Notable Week 13 opening lines at Caesars Palace:
Michigan -3.5 at Ohio State
Auburn at Alabama -24
Notre Dame -10 at USC
Oklahoma -2.5 at West Virginia
Florida -4.5 at Florida State
South Carolina at Clemson -25.5
Georgia Tech at Georgia -17
Washington at Washington State -3
Odds and ends
• Golf: Tiger Woods is a -200 favorite over Phil Mickelson in their match-play event Friday in Las Vegas.
• New Jersey sports betting: $260.7 million was wagered at New Jersey sportsbooks in October, with $174.3 of it being bet online. New Jersey books won $34.2 million in October.
• Pennsylvania sports betting: The first legal sportsbook in Pennsylvania opened last week at the Hollywood Casino outside of Harrisburg. Pennsylvania is the sixth state to open a sportsbook since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal statute that had restricted sports betting to primarily Nevada. Rhode Island is expecting to open sports betting in the coming weeks.
• Tennis: A bettor at the SuperBook placed a $30,000 wager on Sabine Lisicki in the final of the Taipei Open. Lisicki lost to No. 2 seed Luksika Kumkhum on Sunday.
Source: Read Full Article