Now that bowl season is over, with most dogs covering or winning outright, are books still crying poverty. Or did books make eough money so that even the small to midsize books can live to see anohter football season.
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marc, i'm sure the dogs covering didn't hurt the books at all.
i'm thinking the superbowl will tell the tail here, on how the books really did this season.Comment -
Here's an article i found on covers.com detailing the final game between Texas and USC
By Julian Dickinson
Fri, Jan 6, 2006
There’s a sign hanging from Los Angeles City Hall that reads, “Don’t mess with Texas.”
It’s the result of a Rose Bowl bet between the mayors of L.A. and Austin, Tex. and a sight which must make USC fans want to gouge their eyes out every time they see it.
They might as well because nobody in Southern California saw this one coming.
When the Trojans lost to the Longhorns and allowed Vince Young to waltz into the end zone as if he was auditioning for Dancing With the Stars, the college football world, the sports media, and the nation were blindsided.
Bettors were not.
Many bookmakers claimed this Rose Bowl was their biggest college football game ever. There were more bets placed on this game than on last year’s Super Bowl, which is almost unheard of in gaming circles.
On top of that, the favorite lost.
With that combination of events, you should have seen bookies dancing down the Las Vegas Strip, but bettors rained on the parade when Texas won outright and moneyline bettors made a mint.
Despite a national media that prematurely dubbed the Trojans the “best college football team ever” and treated the Horns as an afterthought in the national championship game, the betting public knew that like the belt buckles and quarterbacks, the bet payouts are also bigger in Texas.
Of course, sportsbooks took in more bets on the favorites, but Todd Allen, oddsmaker at Bodog.com, says there was enough smart action on the Texas moneyline to make a significant impact.
“The best results [for sportsbooks] would have been USC to win but not cover,” Allen said. “The players were playing USC at -7 but also Texas on the moneyline.”
Normally it’s a good day for the books when the favorite loses in a game as big as last night’s Rose Bowl, but because so many savvy bettors took Texas to win outright, it cost the bookies a good chunk of their potential profits.
Allen says the moneyline opened at Texas +225 and was bet all the way down to +175 by kickoff. That means a lot of bettors were paid out at 2-1 odds or better, a much more profitable return than you could expect on the pointspread (-110).
According to Allen, this is a sign that today’s betting market is more astute and able to recognize a good bet when they see it.
“There was good value in the moneyline and Texas is a very good team,” he said. “Either team could have won this game so if you’re looking at value, you`re either laying juice on the spread or taking money on the moneyline.”
All in all, it wasn’t a bad day for the books, but a nightmare scenario developed as the pointspread fluctuated between 7 and 8 points throughout the week leading up to the game. The worst possible scenario would have been a USC win by seven points, which would have meant all bets on USC would have pushed and bookies would still have to pay Texas backers who bought at +7 ½ or higher.
But they could breathe again after Texas had the extra point blocked on their first touchdown of the game at 4:57 of the second quarter. That score made it 9-7 and it would take an odd series of events to allow USC to finish with a seven-point victory.
“I guess we just try not to worry about it otherwise we would be nervous wrecks,” says Shane Catford, an oddsmaker for Costa Rican-base sportsbook Betcris.com. “In this game though, the blocked kick helped us straight away from not thinking about the 7, even though they could have gone for a 2-point conversion next touchdown.”
Even though the books were rooting for Texas to cover, they probably weren`t thrilled to see Young dominate the game like he did. Some sportsbooks had prop bets on how many touchdowns Young would score in the game. The over/under was set at two scores. He scored three touchdowns.
“We got killed,” Catford said. “Both rushing and passing, our props department put up a bad number of 2 under -125. It closed at 2 over -280.”Comment -
thanks for posting this one double B, it was an interesting read.Comment -
I definitely think the books did well during the bowl season...I read that the Georgia Tech game was very profitable for them...Comment -
and very profitable for me.Originally posted by pags11
Yeah, I think the books did quite well.Comment -
atta baby illusion...cashed with Utah and the points as well...they will be tough next year...Comment
