Big Game teasers go 7-1 between sides & totals.
Championship Sunday showed a wide variety of results for Las Vegas sports books with the overall consensus being a wash.
Some books showed a small profit to break even, others a big loss. Another called it a banner day.
“It was a small win for us – borderline break even,” said South Point sports book director Bert Osborne. “With teasers going 7-1 on the day between all sides and totals, we’re probably fortunate to have not lost altogether on the day.”
All four teaser sides in the Seahawks (-8.5, 45) thrilling 28-22 overtime win against the Packers covered heading into the Patriots 45-7 massacre of the Colts.
“The UNDER in the Patriots game (-7, 52.5) helped us a little bit and the blowout kept the Colts from covering on the teaser,” said Osborne. “I was surprised by how much teaser action we had with the Colts, so the one side that actually lost on the teaser Sunday helped us out a little.“
William Hill’s Nick Bogdanovich was in the same boat as Osborne between all the action taken across the state at his 100 different locations.
“It was a break even day for us,” said Bogdanovich. “Teasers were the major loser for us. We did okay on just the straight bets themselves.”
Hill offers a Las Vegas-best -115 on a two-team NFL teaser while the South Point is the next most attractive at -120. Most other books offer -130. It’s the second consecutive week where teasers hit both those books pretty hard. Last week, the all-way teaser hit in 3 of the first 4 games.
“It was a small winner for the day,” said Station Casinos sports book director Jason McCormick. “We were at -7 (EV) on the Patriots when most were at 6.5.”
Station properties originally opened the Patriots -8, but got flooded with early Colts money like everyone else in town. They managed to hold their ground and stay at the high unattractive number on New England throughout the week until eventually closing at -7 (-120).
Downtown at the Golden Nugget, sports book director Tony Miller was thrilled with their results.
“We had a real good day today, a banner day,” said Miller. “We had a house player all over the Colts and Packers on large money-line bets and teasers. That gave us a real big boost.”
Because of that money-line risk Miller was staring at, he was offering one of the cheapest prices in town with the favorites where the Seahawks were -360/+300 and the Patriots -280/+240. Most books ended up closing the favorites about 30 cents higher in each.
Down on the Strip, results were a little different.
“We got killed today, and it all got started with Green Bay allowing Seattle to comeback,” said MGM Resorts VP of race and sports Jay Rood. “Then the Patriots blowout sealed our fate. It’s about a seven-figure turnaround from last year’s Championship Sunday.”
I then said to Rood, “Yeah, but you still got all those conference futures posted that should erase a lot of that deficit” because the MGM books handle more futures action than anyone in town between their 10 sports books across the strip.
Rood responded half-jokingly, “Nah, we lost all that money on just our first-half losses today.”
Super Bowl 50 odds
At Westgate, Seattle is the 5/1 favorite followed by New England at 7/1. They’ve also posted a line on the game with the NFC -2.5 with the total 51.5.
NASCAR Odds
The low theoretic hold offered by William Hill and Westgate makes them the best overall value for Championship and Daytona 500 odds. I was surprised by how improved the Caesars Palace chain of books was with not only NASCAR odds, but all their futures.
Station had the best value on eight drivers to win the Daytona 500, MGM books had the best number on nine drivers while CG Technology had the best on 11 drivers.
William Hill had 10 drivers posted asking how far they’ll go in the Chase such as Dale Earnhardt Jr where they’ll give you 25/1 that he’ll miss the Chase, 10/1 eliminated in Challenger round, +225 eliminated in Contender, 9/5 out in Eliminator, +220 to exit in Championship round and 6/1 to win the title.
Next week
Thoughts on the Championship and what to expect in NASCAR where there are five dozen changes to the rules package.
Micah Roberts is a former Las Vegas race and sports book director, one of The Linemakers on SportingNews.com , and longtime motorsports columnist and sports analyst at GamingToday. Follow Micah on Twitter @MicahRoberts7 Contact Micah at [email protected].