A look back at this past weekend from a bettor?s point-of-view
By Jimmy Mason, Director of Sportsbook Operations,
www.betcom.com
We, as most books had a great weekend due thanks in large part to an interesting trend. Every single one of the 5 Big-10 teams that were underdogs covered!!! If you read this piece each week you know that our client base is 99% recreational so when a bunch of ?dogs? come in for us in big games it?s going to be a great week.
The trend started midweek when the Ohio State whooped Oklahoma St. 33-7. Truth be told this was the one underdog game where we were actually rooting for the favorite. Most of our players were attracted to a major name program getting 4 points and were not scared off by the insertion of Justin Zwick at QB for the suspended Troy Smith. This was a medium sized loss for the house on this one.
This line moved dramatically in the Alabama versus Minnesota game from Alabama -3 ? across the key number -3 down to -1 ? before game time. We took back quite a bit of money on ?Bama? at the new price and effectively juiced the game out. We were just hoping the game didn?t ?land? on the numbers -3, -2, or -1?.Which it nearly did! The Golden Gophers gave us a scare in the last minute when it looked like they would give up the game winning touchdown and lose by exactly three 23-20. In the end we juiced it out and took our vig as bookmakers do.
The scrappy Badger team almost pulled off the upset outright win against a powerful Georgia team losing 24-21. The line on Georgia moved from -8 down to -7 indicating that someone sharp liked the Wisconsin side of the game but no one told that to our players as we never moved off of -8 and in fact were swamped with Georgia money. We had a ticket count of nearly 4-1 and were happy campers when the Badgers scrapped out the cover. This was the first big win from the Big-10 for the house.
I saw great value in Iowa both on the point spread and the money line and played this one personally. LSU opened at -7 but was played down to -6 at most places. We closed at -6 ? as once again our customers slammed us with the favorite. Many people thought Nick Saban leaving LSU would be a great motivator for his players to win, but in the end it was coach Kirk LeFrentz who decided to stay that got the win. The house cashed twice on this game as we actually made more on the money line than we did the spread with Iowa winning outright 30-25.
The last of the Big-10 underdogs to bark was Michigan hanging in there in an electrifying last second loss to Texas 38-37. The line opened with Texas -7. The line went up to -7 1/2 , then -8. Most places closed at -7 ? but I said we had a small fortune on the longhorns and were booking to our action. One shop out there was using -9 when everyone else had -7 ? or -8 not because of their action but because of they liked Texas!!!!. Please be careful when you see a shop gambling like those guys were. Remember they are gambling with your money!!!! This game was a classic example of why bookmakers should book and not gamble.
www.betcom.com
By Jimmy Mason, Director of Sportsbook Operations,
www.betcom.com
We, as most books had a great weekend due thanks in large part to an interesting trend. Every single one of the 5 Big-10 teams that were underdogs covered!!! If you read this piece each week you know that our client base is 99% recreational so when a bunch of ?dogs? come in for us in big games it?s going to be a great week.
The trend started midweek when the Ohio State whooped Oklahoma St. 33-7. Truth be told this was the one underdog game where we were actually rooting for the favorite. Most of our players were attracted to a major name program getting 4 points and were not scared off by the insertion of Justin Zwick at QB for the suspended Troy Smith. This was a medium sized loss for the house on this one.
This line moved dramatically in the Alabama versus Minnesota game from Alabama -3 ? across the key number -3 down to -1 ? before game time. We took back quite a bit of money on ?Bama? at the new price and effectively juiced the game out. We were just hoping the game didn?t ?land? on the numbers -3, -2, or -1?.Which it nearly did! The Golden Gophers gave us a scare in the last minute when it looked like they would give up the game winning touchdown and lose by exactly three 23-20. In the end we juiced it out and took our vig as bookmakers do.
The scrappy Badger team almost pulled off the upset outright win against a powerful Georgia team losing 24-21. The line on Georgia moved from -8 down to -7 indicating that someone sharp liked the Wisconsin side of the game but no one told that to our players as we never moved off of -8 and in fact were swamped with Georgia money. We had a ticket count of nearly 4-1 and were happy campers when the Badgers scrapped out the cover. This was the first big win from the Big-10 for the house.
I saw great value in Iowa both on the point spread and the money line and played this one personally. LSU opened at -7 but was played down to -6 at most places. We closed at -6 ? as once again our customers slammed us with the favorite. Many people thought Nick Saban leaving LSU would be a great motivator for his players to win, but in the end it was coach Kirk LeFrentz who decided to stay that got the win. The house cashed twice on this game as we actually made more on the money line than we did the spread with Iowa winning outright 30-25.
The last of the Big-10 underdogs to bark was Michigan hanging in there in an electrifying last second loss to Texas 38-37. The line opened with Texas -7. The line went up to -7 1/2 , then -8. Most places closed at -7 ? but I said we had a small fortune on the longhorns and were booking to our action. One shop out there was using -9 when everyone else had -7 ? or -8 not because of their action but because of they liked Texas!!!!. Please be careful when you see a shop gambling like those guys were. Remember they are gambling with your money!!!! This game was a classic example of why bookmakers should book and not gamble.
www.betcom.com
