The books had a great weekend in football overall, as the dogs covered most of the games and a number of public-backed faves lost outright.
The public wound up on the losing side of most games on Sunday, but it started the week out on Thursday with a win when the Colts covered as a modest road fave against Jacksonville. The Colts have once again been a popular public team this year, and they have rewarded their backers with a 10-3-1 ATS record overall. Sharp money has backed Indy at times this year, but last week it preferred to fade, and lost.
The sharp money got it back and then some, however, on Saturday, strongly backing Dallas as a sizable road dog at New Orleans. The public was split on this game, not a huge surprise as Dallas is often a public-backed team. But the sharps loved the Cowboys and won, in what was reportedly the biggest sharp side of the weekend.
The books then won nicely with most games on Sunday, as the dogs went 10-3 ATS. Green Bay/Pitt and Minnesota/Carolina were singled out by BookMaker as particularly good games for them, while the outright wins by Tampa Bay and Oakland killed a lot of teasers and big money line bets and parlays.
One game where the books, and particularly BookMaker, did get burned was New England/Buffalo. Most books likely got middled at least a little, with the line opening at 7, closing at 6.5, and the final score landing on 7. But the books that take sharper action got burned more, as the sharp money bought Buffalo up to +7.5 early in the week, and then backed New England along with the public at -6.5 later on.
In the early bowl games, Rutgers got big sharp action as a small fave, and covered.
The Monday night showdown between the Giants and Washington is proving to be nothing the sharp money wants to touch. Bettors have had a tough time getting a handle on the Giants and the NFC East in general this year, and it’s starting to show with a game like this attracting almost no interest from sharp accounts. The “tiny” amount of sharp action BookMaker does have on this game is on the Redskins.
The public, however, is strongly favoring the Giants, by a ratio of about 2 to 1, and the books will need a Washington cover to come out ahead. A win by the Giants will result in a losing game for most books.
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Monday Football Recap: December 21 (SBR.tv video)
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