Bookies love it when the dogs win, that’s a fact. Most bettors will go with the favorite of the day and the over. When the favorites all win and the scores all go over it’s a bad day for bookmakers across the board. But, when the dogs have their day, bookies do very well indeed.
Last weekend in the NFL saw some big upsets and some outright disappointments. Coming off of a week when bettors got the better of the books, this week saw a reversal of that action as several favorites not only failed to cover but lost outright.
Top of the list had to be the Saints, who were 6.5 point favorites, managing to blow another road game to the Jets as Rex Ryan out foxed Rob Ryan while Buddy Ryan looked on from the sidelines. It was a frustrating day for Drew Brees and company by bettors in general rejoiced at the 26-20 outcome. Jay Rood of MGM in Las Vegas said, “That was our big win of the day where it wiped out a lot our parlay liability and also lots of teasers.”
The loss marked the third time in four road games that the Saints have failed to cover. Good as they are in New Orleans, bettors should give it some thought before backing the Saints away from home again.
The books also did well with the Cleveland Browns, the Minnesota Vikings and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but their gains were somewhat limited as the wise-guys came in and did very well on those games.
The biggest hit of the day taken by the books came in the Panthers game when the sharp money and the public money all ended up on the same side. Both sides will be taking a much closer look at Can Newton and his Panthers before placing anymore wagers against them. Panthers beat the Falcons 34-10.
Sharp money moved the Cleveland Browns down from +3 (-120) to +2 before kickoff of their home game against the Baltimore Ravens and ended up being one of the three outright underdog winners on the day. Somebody saw something.
The Philadelphia Eagles were also bet down from an openher of +2.5 to a Pick’Em by kickoff time. Somebody saw that one coming as well because the Eagles roared to a huge 49-20 upset victory over the Oakland Raiders. What no one at all had counted on was backup quarterback Nick Foles throwing seven touchdown passes which ties an NFL record set by none other than Peyton Manning.
