Sunday, September 18, 2011

Sports Books Do Well In Early Games With Titans

After beating the Steelers soundly last week, the entire betting population seemed to have action on the Ravens this week laying 5 ½-points at Tennessee. Most bettors had them tied up in parlays and teasers as the key game, so when the Titans won 23-13, the sports books had just hit the power ball on the day and scooped the majority of the chips.

Sharp money was on the Titans and kept the game below 6-points, although many sports books tried the number out briefly just because of all the mounting Ravens risk. Whenever the number popped up, it wasn’t long before the number was sniffed out by the smart money and bet.

Despite sharp money taking away some of the straight bet win on the game, the game immediately eliminated risk from the popular parlays with the Jets, Lions and Steelers.

The Steelers once again showed their mite as teams continue to have hangovers the week after playing them. In this instance, rather than being beat up, the Titans game was a total let down for them. There was no way to recreate the same intensity against a team like the Titans who everyone thought was done for.

Matt Hasselbeck kept the Ravens defense off balance all day throwing for 358 yards and a touchdown pass. Tennessee’s offense piled up 432 yards of offense to Baltimore’s 234. Joe Flacco was sacked three times and forced into throwing two interceptions by the Titans revamped defense.

Next up for the Titans is a visit from the Broncos while the Ravens travel to St. Louis.

Mayweather Saves Las Vegas Sports Books

The first two weeks of college football action had seen the public favorites negate what could have been winning days for Las Vegas sports books. Past history has shown that when there is an evenly mixed ratio of underdogs to favorites winning, the house does well. Even though the favorites went only 25-23, Saturday’s games followed the same trend of the previous two weeks with public teams like Wisconsin, Stanford, Oklahoma, USC and Miami piling up large parlay payouts that the books couldn’t counter with.

However, for at least one chain of books, they fared well on the day thanks to a little boxing match held at their property. The MGM Resorts properties were cringing with every college football final score they posted on Saturday night, but got good news with Floyd Mayweather’s controversial fourth-round knocked of Victor Ortiz at the MGM Grand.

Other sports books around town all fared well on the bout too, but a major chunk of the state’s action on the fight was taken within the MGM and their other properties like the Mirage, Mandalay Bay and Bellagio.

Mayweather had opened a large -900 favorite over Ortiz and the sports books couldn’t find anyone to lay it. From the time the line came out until the start of the first round, it was all Ortiz money, both small and large. Mayweather closed as a -500 favorite at the MGM and dipped to -475 at the South Point.

Usually in fights where there is a big favorite like this, the sharp money likes to wait until the last possible moment because they know the public will always be all over the underdog due to the high returns should they win; they like the bet a little to win a lot. When the Sharps feel the price is as low as it will go, then they come with the large bets.

Between the small money and large money both being on Ortiz, the day’s college football losses took a back seat to the big win.

The rest of the city didn’t have the fortune of having the match at their property like the MGM did, but still managed to ease the pain of the large college football losses at the end of the day.

The biggest blow was the three-team 6-to-1 parlay from the night games with USC (-16) beating Syracuse, Oklahoma (-3) winning at Florida State and Miami (-2 ½) dominating Ohio State. Those results were magnified even worse when Stanford came in with their impressive 37-10 win at Arizona.

Games that helped the sports books not lose as much began with Nebraska (-17) getting back doored by Washington to win 51-38. TCU (-29) had a rough start in their game against Louisiana-Monroe, eventually winning 38-17, but didn’t cover.

The big 40-20 UNLV win over Hawaii could have been a massive win for the sports books -- and it did kill all kinds of dangerous parlays, but Sharp money was all over the Rebels despite their horrendous efforts in their first two games. Hawaii dropped from a 20 ½-point favorite all the way to -17 by kickoff. The books avoided the public parlay wrath, but still eventually lost the game because of the overwhelming large money on straight bets with UNLV.

UNLV paid out as the biggest money-line underdog winner of the day at 7-to-1 odds. Of the 23 underdogs that covered on the day, 12 of them won outright. Tulane’s 49-10 surprising 49-10 win at UAB paid out at 7-to-2 odds and Wyoming’s 28-27 win at Bowling Green gave 3-to-1 odds. However, there weren’t too many bettors that could say they had the foresight that actually had tickets on those games.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

College Football News: Las Vegas Betting Notes - at VegasInsider.com, the leader in Sportsbook and Gaming information - College Football Stories, College Football Headlines, College Football Top News, College Football Latest News, NCAA Football Stories, NCAA Football News, NCAA Football Top News, NCAA Football Headlines, NCAA Football Latest News

College Football News: Las Vegas Betting Notes - at VegasInsider.com, the leader in Sportsbook and Gaming information - College Football Stories, College Football Headlines, College Football Top News, College Football Latest News, NCAA Football Stories, NCAA Football News, NCAA Football Top News, NCAA Football Headlines, NCAA Football Latest News

NFL News: Las Vegas NFL Notes - at VegasInsider.com, the leader in Sportsbook and Gaming information - NFL News, Football News, NFL Headlines, Football Headlines, NFL Top News, Football Top News, Pro Football News, Pro Football Top News, Pro Football Headlines, NFL Latest News, Football Latest News, Pro Football Latest News, NFL Recent News, Football Recent News, Pro Football Recent News, NFL Stories, Football Stories, Pro Football Stories,NFL News and Rumors

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Thursday, September 1, 2011

Kenny White's College Football Oddsmaker Poll - August 30, 2011

DON BEST ODDSMAKER POLL
NCAA COLLEGE FOOTBALL RANKINGS - AUGUST 30, 2011

Rank Team Rating     AP Rank
1 Oklahoma 119.5         1
1 Alabama 119.5           2
3 Oregon 117.3             3
4 Florida State 116.2     6
5 Stanford 115.7            7
6 Boise State 114.8       5
6 Wisconsin 114.8        11
8 Oklahoma State 114.7 9
9 South Carolina 114.6 12
10 Texas A&M 112.8    8
11 LSU 112.7                4
11 Arkansas 112.7       15
13 Notre Dame 112.3  16
14 Southern Cal 112.2  25
15 Virginia Tech 111.9 13
16 Georgia 111.5         19
17 Missouri 111.4         21
18 Texas Christian 111.1 14
18 Michigan State 111.1 17
20 Florida 110.9            22
21 Nebraska 110.8       10
22 Ohio State 110.4      18
23 Texas 110.3             26
24 Mississippi State 110.2 20
25 Arizona State 108.6   28
25 Brigham Young 108.6 33
27 Penn State 108.5      27
28 Michigan 108.2        38
29 North Carolina 108.1 NR
30 Miami 108.0            29
30 Auburn 108.0           23
30 West Virginia 108.0 24