Overall I am hearing it was a very good weekend for the offshore
sportsbooks. Many of the bookies were wondering when a prime time game
would go their way and the Indianapolis Colts did just that to close out
the week for them. The folks at BetOnline best summarized the week this way, "Was good to finally win a big primetime game
(Colts);
especially considering how LSU almost wiped out our Saturday
profits all by themselves. Was on pace for a monster day on Saturday,
but no thanks to LSU covering we gave about 70% of that profit back." So here is the rundown of last week and a look ahead to what we know so far about the upcoming football action:
NFL results that made the books the most money Sunday:
*Colts and Raiders.
College Football teams that cashed for the sportsbooks on Saturday:
*Notre Dame and Oklahoma.
What NFL teams cost them money Sunday:
*Ravens by far. Straight bet, teasers and tied to tons of parlays.
Worst CFB result:
*LSU by far. A big named favorite covering on prime time is NEVER good for the books. Also Alabama and USC were not good for the sportbooks bank accounts.
NFL early betting action for this week:
*Bills -3, Ravens -3.5, Pats -4.5. Buffalo Bills are the Detroit Lions of the AFC. Public is jumping on them early and in terms of action are lumped together with both the Patriots and Ravens as of now. I personally have the Bills as a -1.0 favorite on the road and think there is tons of value on the Bengals getting +3.0 at home.
Early NFL movement:
*Saints from -8.0 to -7.0 with about 60% of the public action.
*Cardinals opened up at +3.0 at home and down to +1.0/+1.5. Sharps jumped on Cardinals and not over reacting to the Giants win over the Vick-less Eagles. Plus, can Eli Manning really have two good games in a row?
*Chargers opened up at -9.0 at home and are down to -7.5/8.0 as it looks like San Diego is once again off to a slow start despite all the talent.
*Patriots opened up at -6.0 on the road against the Raiders and down to -4.5 despite 90% of early public action on Patriots. Sharps think New England is over valued and have faith in McFadden and the Raiders.
NFL injuries to watch:
*Vick of course. Word is his hand is not officially "broken" and could play next week. Most books do not have a number on their game yet, but the offshores who do have Eagles -6.5.
*Frank Gore. Obviously essential to 49ers running game. After the game he said following his ankle injury he had issues cutting on the ankle afterwards.
CFB early action for this week:
*South Florida over Pitt, Bama over Florida.
*Biggest move UCLA +21.5 to +19.5 (sharp) vs Stanford.
Interesting notes:
*Raiders opened the season 40-1 to win the Super Bowl and despite the strong start are now 65-1.
*Detroit Lions opened the season 75-1 to win the Super Bowl and are down to 15-1.
*When it was announced Peyton Hillis was sent home with strep the Browns went from -1.0 to +1.5 (opened -3.0). Browns won 17-16. So if you played Browns WITH Hillis in line-up you pushed or lost. If you bet Browns with him OUT, you won.
Sports Betting - Is It Fixed?
Pregame's own Johnny Detroit discusses with Vegas Runner the past
situations where sports betting was fixed and also discuss the
inevitable question of "Is Sports Betting Fixed?"