Bookmakers Dream

This weekend was the stuff dreams are made offor the bookmakers as three of four underdogs won outright inthe wild card matchups, but surprisingly it all came down to thelast game of the weekend for bm’s (Bookmakers) and players alike.

Saturday’s early game saw the Rams knock offthe Seahawks in a minor upset. We took nearly as much action onthe Rams money line as we did on the Rams pointspread in thisgame giving us with a shot at the ‘sportsbook middle’. We calla ‘sportsbook middle’ when, as with the Rams/Seahawks we the househave a shot at winning both sides of the game. In this instancewe had half of our players laying 3 ½ on the Seahawks and a slewtaking +150 on the Rams money line. If the Rams had won by 1,2, or 3 we the book would have won both sides of the bets. Thisopportunity does not present itself often but when it does itis a solid practice for the house. The game did not ‘land’ thoughand we won a ‘ham sandwich’ (Industry slang for a small win orloss) with the Rams advancing 27-20.

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  Saturday’s afternoon game saw the first realsurprise as the Jets knocked off the Chargers in overtime 20-17.The line stayed pretty steady at -6 ½ all week and I personallywas surprised at the number of bets we took on the Chargers. Ireally thought a young team laying -6 ½ points, combined withthe usual New York bias would steer the players towards the Jetsbut our players saw things differently laying the wood at nearlya 3-1 clip. In what was the game of the weekend we came away witha nice win.

  Sunday’s early game was a runaway train wreckfor every book I have spoken too this morning. We were simplyswamped with Colts money and why not? Peyton Manning has beenon autopilot and the Broncos never stood a chance in this oneas trailing 35-3 at halftime. We tallied a whopping 7-1 bet ratioon the Colts with a slew of colts and over parlays and teasersmixed in for good measure. This loss nearly wiped out Saturday’sprofits and had us a biting our fingernails going into the lategame.

  This game was another no-brainer for the players,as they did not hesitate to get down on the Pack. Everyone andtheir brother took their winnings from the early game and doubleor tripled up on the Packers. This game too saw an amazing ticketcount of nearly 9-1 to the Green Bay side! Why wouldn’t our playersbet Green Bay? The Packers had lost only one playoff game at Lambeauwith Brett Favre at the helm in his career, the booby soft Vikingshave a rich tradition of folding outdoors, they had just backedinto the playoffs and Randy Moss had imploded again the week before.As we say in the business though ‘That’s why they play the game!’.The Vikings shocked Green Bay winning easily 31-17 ensuring agreat weekend for the bookies.

Until next week,

Jimmy Mason