The STN Sports Books got battered this week as favorites swept the board in the early slate of the NFL Weekend.
“It was a better weekend for our guests,” said Chuck Esposito, Station Casinos Sports Book Director. Two things the betting public typically loves betting are overs and NFL favorites, the latter of whom went 7-0 in the morning slate. The afternoon saw underdogs like the Giants, Cardinals and Colts cover the spreads, which was better for the books, but most of those moneyline parlays still stayed alive.
“Outright wins by the Giants and Cardinals would’ve changed our fortunes dramatically,” Esposito said. “All four of the afternoon games went sailing over, so there was a lot of liability going into Sunday night and the Monday night doubleheader.” An early win for the Book was more unavailable than Mark Stone in a VGK lineup. In general, Sunday and Monday didn’t go the Books’ way, with the Lions and Seahawks covering in the NFL, the Blue Jays winning and Monday’s win by Golden Knights in the NHL.
“This was way more of a public positive weekend than anything else, but hey, it happens, and we’ve been having a good football season, but it was definitely a good weekend for the guests,” Esposito said.
NFL
The Sports Books needed one particular game to go lower than the confidence in the Raiders quarterback room, and they got their wish.
Oddsmakers were paying extra close attention to the early Monday night game between the Buccaneers and Lions, as two large parlays were on the line with a combined six figures at stake. Both needed the Bucs/Lions game to go over 54 points. It didn’t get there, ending with the 24-9 Detroit win. “Keeping that total under was paramount to us,” Esposito said.
The Giants orchestrated a historic collapse last Sunday, losing a game in which they led by 18 points with under six minutes to go. Prior to Sunday, NFL teams had won 1,602 consecutive games when they were leading by 18 points in the final six minutes, but the Giants proceeded to thumb their nose at history, falling 33-32 to the Broncos.
A failure like that has to make the Giants feel more emo than the When We Were Young Festival, and Esposito expects the misfortune to roll over into next week when New York heads to Philly to take on the Eagles. In fact, Philadelphia is his favorite bet of the week.
“I just don’t see how the Giants can cover against the Eagles this week. I don’t know how you come back from that loss. For a young team, I think it’s very demoralizing,” he said. “The Eagles were able to open the game up and got the receivers involved against the Vikings. The Giants just beat the Eagles, and beat them pretty good on a Thursday night, so there’s a big revenge factor there.”
Guests tend to agree, as early money has been coming in on the Eagles. Other teams seeing early Week 8 action are Denver and Carolina.
World Series
In the best-case scenario for oddsmakers and the future book, the World Series would be Dodgers vs Blue Jays…. and wouldn’t you know it, that’s exactly what we have.
“Having the Dodgers in it is always good just because of the marketability and our close proximity to Southern California,” Esposito said. “We were also in a decent position as far as future book liability went, but the team that we were in the best shape with was the Blue Jays.”
Despite not having home-field advantage, Los Angeles enters the World Series as a significant favorite, and they’re a prohibitive favorite on the road in Friday’s Game 1.
“The Dodgers have an opportunity with not playing until Friday to really set up that pitching staff,” Esposito said. “It’s a veteran Dodgers team that was there last year, and they just kind of remind me of some of the [Chicago] Bulls. What I mean by that is during the season they might not have been great and everybody thought they had some holes, and this is going to be the year they get beat and they were injured, but they got healthy and they got right and they knew what the end game was going into the playoffs, which was to get that kind of swagger back, get healthy and play your best ball. I’m not saying that Jays can’t win, but it ain’t going to be easy.”
For what it’s worth, the Books will be cheering for Toronto in regard to the future book and most likely on a game-to-game basis.
Bets To Know
A new NBA season is upon us, and Oklahoma City is the Day 1 favorite to hoist the trophy and repeat, but that’s not how guests are seeing it. Money has been coming in on the Rockets, Nuggets and, naturally, the Lakers to win it all.
In the Eastern Conference, the Knicks are garnering interest. “We have some liability on the Lakers and Mavericks,” Esposito said. Check the STN Sports App for future bet opportunities as the league tips off.
Weekly Winners
$20 hits for $8,102 after a Monday night Seattle cover! Check out this impressive parlay:
-Seahawks -3.5 +100
-J Taylor Total TDs over 1.5 +339
-C Skattebo Total TDs over .5 +124
-A St Brown Total TDs over .5 -104
-C Lamb Total TDs over .5 +126
-T Craft Total TDs over .5 +175
-B Robinson Total TDs over .5 -145