Notable Bets: Allen injury causes dramatic line movement
Sportsbooks have to reach certain risk thresholds before the big bosses are brought into the loop. Caesars Sportsbook reached it on Sunday at the Minnesota Vikings-Buffalo Bills game. The book had to be aware of some potentially expensive outcomes on the game because of uncertainty about Bills quarterback Josh Allen. The line went from Buffalo -8.5 on Monday to -3 by Saturday morning. It went back to Buffalo by Sunday morning, but the line dropped to Bills -5 an hour before kickoff. Eventually, the lines went to the current -6. 5. John Murray, executive director of the SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas, says it's a battle between bettors and the book to have the information first.
Caesars Sportsbook had a successful week. The house needed the Chargers to cover the spread against the San Francisco 49ers. Arizona Cardinals, Detroit Lions and New York Giants won. Tampa Bay covered the Spread for the first time in eight weeks. Tennessee Titans covered spread for a seventh straight week, longest active covering streak in the league. A $20,000 bet on Tom Brady to win the NFL MVP was among the most eyebrow-raising wagers of the week at Caesar's. Dallas Cowboys are 2-point road favorites over the Vikings in Week 11.
Illinois at Michigan, TCU at Baylor, Ohio State at Maryland, Tennessee at South Carolina, USC at UCLA and Heisman Trophy winner at Ohio St. are opening lines via Circa Sportsbook. DraftKings offered betting on 1,416 events across all sports Saturday. Sportsbooks are experiencing their busiest stretches of the year. Half of adult sports fans are planning to bet on the World Cup. 18% of those planning on betting would be making their first soccer bets. Johnny Avello, a veteran Las Vegas bookmaker, used to do a lot more of odds-making and bookmaking manually.
