Safety gets 51k for 1k Play; Books Get Small Win on Finale
$1,000 safety bet wins $51,000 for Benjamin Lyons
by Mark Mayer
Read Mark at the great gaming site www.gamingtoday.com
It’s been nothing but New York owns New England, Eli is better than Brady when the pressure is on and Coughlin is a hero.
OK, that’s enough ink talk radio deserves. Here’s what does deserve mention.
GamingToday football analyst Denny the Dog made it 11 straight years of being on the right side with his Giants +3 pick.
Bob Christ’s recommendation to take Chad Ochocinco at +240 to catch a pass came through. Hey, good things happen when you spend $25,000 on your teammates.
Best of all was Benjamin Lyons betting $1,000 on the first score of the Super Bowl being safety. His deduction paid off handsomely at $51,000.
And even I lucked out by picking the Giants. Like I said, this Giants team was better than the one that beat New England four years ago and the Patriots were better in 2008.
That said the game could have gone either way. If Wes Welker makes that catch with New England up 2, they probably score and go up 9 with four minutes left. Dagger.
Instead, it’s Manning to Manningham in the 2012 version of David Tyree only this time the pass and catch was sheer perfection and not luck. Eli has been the best in the NFL this year in the fourth quarter and it came to pass again.
That simple.
As for next year, odds are that neither the Giants nor Patriots return to the Super Bowl. There are just too many good teams and it’s hard to keep up the motivation the following year. Tough to repeat, tough to shake off a bitter loss.
Who are some good candidates for 2013? Houston for one. Detroit for another. Green Bay will be highly motivated. Perhaps even Miami or Raider Nation rises up.
All I know is the books can’t wait for the first preseason NFL bet in August. Neither can we.
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‘Turn out the lights, the party is ‘finally’ over.’
by Jimmy Vaccaro
Read Jimmy at www.gamingtoday.com
As Dandy Don Meredith once so eloquently said, “Turn out the lights, the party is “finally” over.”
For us in Nevada the meaning really resonates for all of us. One can only imagine if we did not have this spectacle called the Super Bowl which has so much more meaning for us who truly understand what every twist and turn and “safety” means in the desert.
Literally millions of dollars switch hands in the last few minutes of the game. Two feet in bounds fueled the winning drive and Gronkowski came two feet short of what would have been an unbelievable ending sending those Giants money line tickets into the bad beat hall of fame.
The state handle I presume will come out a good number, but do not believe we will challenge the all time in volume for the game. Ticket count from all precincts coming in will definitely show the Giants won easily.
The guys and girls I spoke to indicated that most sport books came out a small winner after the smoke clears. All who live here benefit greatly so all things considered it was a win no matter what the final score was.
I’m on hiatus until March Madness.
Take care, Jimmy V
Jimmy Vaccaro is the director of sports operations for Lucky’s sports books.
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Wynn Las Vegas dropped SB line to lowest point at Patriots -2
by Micah Roberts
Micah can be found at www.gamingtoday.com
While several Las Vegas sports books have remained content with their Patriots -3 (EV) number for the long haul, Johnny Avello felt the need to maneuver some more after already making the move to Patriots -2½ two days ago.
On Saturday morning, Wynn Las Vegas dropped the line to its lowest point yet at Patriots -2.
“It’s a business decision based on where we need to be with everything that has occurred the last two days and also anticipating action over the next two days,” said Avello who initially opened the Patriots -4. “This is where we need to be.”
The other sports books around town have been reporting more two way action now compared to what the first seven days did where it was all Giants money.
Lucky’s sports books made the move below -3 Friday when they dropped the Patriots to -2½ (-115) while major books like Station Casinos and The LVH Super Book have remained steady at -3 (EV). Coast Resorts recently went back to Patriots -3 (EV) after playing around for a few days at -2½ with money attached.
South Point sports director Bert Osborne has held steady with the Patriots -2½ (-110) which was the best line out there until the Wynn joined him a few days ago, but says he’s closer to going back to -3 than going down further.
“This last move to -2½ has been pretty steady for us with a little more volume on the Patriots,” said Osborne.
Even though Avello can’t say so himself, the reasoning likely behind their move to -2 is because of large house players, or maybe one or two particular whales.
In most cases, these type of bettors that wager $500,000 to $1 million don’t care what the line is and are given anything they want as far as limits go. Between the Wynn and Encore, you can believe that there are quite a few whales lodged there for the Super Bowl weekend, one of busiest of the year.
Again, this is all hypothetical, but Avello would then be in the position to best balance out his book. There’s no better way to do that than offer the best line in the world on the other side, which also includes his money line sitting at -130.
My best guess is that one of those whales arrived on Friday night and laid a ton of cash on the Giants at +2½ putting Avello in a spot where he needs any and all the Patriots money he can find.
The best way to get it is have the best line.
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Super Bowl big hit again in Las Vegas
by Micah Roberts
After two weeks of wild betting action in Las Vegas sports books the Super Bowl was finally played and the 21-17 Giants win turned out to be a very favorable decision for most of the bettors.
The Giants opened as 3½ and 4-point underdogs, but closed at 2½ to 3-point underdogs. Despite the majority of the public siding with the Giants, the sports books still came away on the plus side.
“We ended up a small winner on the day,” said MGM Resorts sports book director Jay Rood. “Our best decision would have had the Patriots winning the game, but in the end I think the majority of people on both sides of the counter were happy.”
The main story in Las Vegas for the last two weeks was the major differences in lines offered throughout the city in dealing with the most prominent margin of victory number in pro football.
A few major books like Cantor Gaming and Station Casinos held strong at Patriots -3 for the duration while others like Wynn Las Vegas, MGM Resorts and South Point played around with -2½.
In South Point’s case, they bounced back and forth from -3 to -2½ several times over the two week period, but still found themselves in the same boat as the others with a small win.
“We created some large action on each of our moves, but the majority of the betting public didn’t seem to care what the line was,” said South Point sports book director Bert Osborne. “Most of the public’s mind was made up on who they liked. The line really didn’t matter to them and it’s the masses like them who control our outcome of a big game like this every year.”
Osborne had to have his heart beating faster than most in the final minute following Ahmad Bradshaw’s clinching touchdown. The Giants’ failed two-point conversion after the TD set up the opportunity for the Patriots to win by 3 if they marched down the field and scored, which would have been a disaster for Osborne.
“Let’s just say I was happy with the way it turned out,” said Osborne.
Most sports books reported either flat or slightly better numbers than last year, but official state-wide numbers won’t be available until Tuesday.
“We were up close to 2% in handle from last year,” said Rood who dealt the game at -2½ (-125) for most of the two weeks.
Last year’s Packers-Steelers Super Bowl handled $87.4 million with a tiny win of $724,176 (0.8%), both numbers that could be eclipsed. If the handle does exceed last season, it would signify the fourth straight year handle has increased, a great sign the economy is turning in Las Vegas.
The game started out with a bang for a few prop bettors who played the first score of the game to be a safety. In the Patriots’ first play of their first possession, Tom Brady was flagged for intentional grounding while throwing out of his own end zone.
“We were in a 100-to-1 hole right off the bat with the first score being a safety, as well as several others having the ‘Yes’ at 8-to-1, but after all the props were graded we still came out a small winner overall,” said LVH Super Book executive director Jay Kornegay.
Kornegay says 55 to 60% of his overall handle on the game came from his propositions, which is a much higher figure than most books which generally write about 35% of their overall handle on props.
With everyone saying they had a small win on the day, it can be assumed the majority lost on the game itself minus the props and futures. Las Vegas sports books always do very well on the props and they rarely lose on the futures.
After posting everything and coming away with a small win means Giants bettors got the best of the books on the spread and money-line.
Despite the sports books only being a small overall winner, the bigger picture is that the Super Bowl once again proved to be one of Las Vegas’ biggest draws. Between sold out rooms for the entire weekend, jam packed table games and occupied slot machines, every casino in the city was a big winner.
For everyone who came to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl experience, the hope is they had a good time and take home lasting memories.
