Experienced Bookies know that there is always that one game during the NFL playoffs that they have to beat in order to come out OK for the weekend. Last weekend that game was the San Francisco 49ers laying less than a field goal against the Panthers in Carolina.
That spread was the shortest among the four divisional playoff games over the weekend and such support for the road team reflected how much bettors like short odds in these situations. Also remember, San Francisco was on a 7 game winning streak when they arrived to take on Cam Newton and his Panthers. They have also been better on the road this season than at home posting a 7-1-1 record against the spread.
When so the big board posted as official the 23-10 results of the game, we saw equal, but opposite, reactions on both sides of the floor. Bettors holding winning tickets flocked to the payout window and many Bookies retired to the bar looking for some liquid compensation for their losses.
Jay Kornegay from the LVH SuperBook in Las Vegas told the press, “The 49ers game absolutely destroyed us. We had sharp money on the Panthers early, but the public parlay and teaser combinations were too much to overcome. The ‘Niners’ were the common denominator to just about every parlay and teaser that we paid off on the weekend.”
South Point’s Jimmy Vaccaro backed up Kornegay, “The 49ers was the big game; we needed the Panthers. There was a lot of teaser carryover from Saturday going into the 49ers side.”
As before, teasers were the big factors for bookies and sports books alike, just as it happened last week when the sides went 7-1 during the ‘Wild-Card’ games. The very first game set the tone when the miserable wet weather drove the opening totals down from 48.5 to 43.5. The Saints and the Seahawks stayed under all the way and the game turned out to be an all-way teaser win.
Alert sirens went off in every bookmakers head when that 23-15 score came in. Not only did it land in the middle of the spread but also because of the teaser snowball that had started.
Bookies finally caught a break when the Patriots managed to soundly beat the Indianapolis Colts by a final score of 43-22 and finally giving them the favorite and the over that they were looking for all weekend.
