Public buries sports books

Public buries sports books
By Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com

Las Vegas sports books experienced one of their worst Sundays in January ever after results were posted from the final two NFL divisional playoff games. The results didn't sneak up on them, either.

They knew the liability after losing both of Saturday's playoff games. Bookmakers had to stew for the night following the Patriots' 34-16 win against the Texans (-16.5) and then watch reality unfold Sunday in two-way bet games where they knew there was really no best scenario to erase parlay risk.

"Need medics on stand-by," joked Station Casinos sports book director Jason McCormick during the Steelers-Chiefs game attempting to make best of rough situation as the risk calculations were piling up. "Steelers are a disaster. There is no way out. Public sides are 8-0 ATS and totals 6-2 in the playoffs and national championship game."

After the Steelers 18-16 win Sunday night at Kansas City (-1), the public sides have now gone 9-0 ATS and totals have gone 7-2. I don't think I've ever seen a public run like that in the playoffs and championship game. The book had definitive sides they needed Saturday, but all sides went against them with the Falcons (-6) and Over (52.5) hitting in a 36-20 win against the Seahawks and the favorite and Over (44.5) happening in New England.

That's a four-team parlay at 10-to-1 payouts on Saturday alone, and several other parlay and teasers alive and waiting to cash on all Sunday sides.

MGM Resorts' 10 sports books along the strip were feeling beat up as well.

"We can't really get out out, only mega-buried," said MGM VP Jay Rood Sunday during the Steelers eventual win.

When Rood says "mega-buried", I immediately think upwards of a half-million in losses. At the same time, the Westgate SuperBook was also readying the cashier cage for big payouts.

"It's very ugly," said SuperBook VP Jay Kornegay. "A no win situation. They're (majority of bettors) three-for-three on the Overs, favorites and the Packers have put us in a very precarious situation."

The Packers thrilling 34-31 win at Dallas (-5.5) in Sunday's early game was the worst decision of a balanced game. Half the days risk was eliminated, but the other half kept rolling into the Steelers-Chiefs game with parlays waiting to cash on either side.

"We would have actually done well if KC won by 9-points or more because of teasers," said CG Technology VP of risk management Jason Simbal.

When asked if there were big parlays waiting to pop when the Steelers-Chiefs game was posted, Simbal said, "Yeah, the number is large."

I prefer not to ask exact figures on how big a loss will be. It's privileged information that most companies choose not to offer, but I can get the picture based on descriptions such as small, medium, large, massive or epic. Large is usually an indication of mid-six figures.

William Hill sports books went one step further by sending a press release out stating that Sunday was their worst single day ever with losses above seven-figures. I've never seen any book offer a release like that, but it's a good marketing strategy to at least make a positive out of a negative. Bettors love hearing that sports books lose, so might as well get as much publicity as possible out of it.

The thing that surprises me most about results from the past two weeks is that NFL playoff games are supposed to be where the books have an edge. The NFL numbers are tight and we have the best 12 teams in the league participating while not having to sweat the Browns, 49ers, Rams or Jaguars. But when the public saw the Patriots -17 against the Texans, the highest playoff number in almost 20 years, they laid it without even thinking twice about it.

The sports books awful 2016 NFL regular season has spilled over into the playoffs like never seen before and there are only two NFL Sunday's remaining to recoup the losses. No sympathy at all for the Las Vegas casinos, but I do marvel and what has happened during the entire season and playoffs in the same way like I do with an eclipse.