Falcons look to extend 2016 Year of the ‘Dog

Leicester City beat astronomical odds to win the English Premier League title and the Cubs and Cavaliers each ended long championship droughts in 2016, making it the unofficial Year of the ’Dog.

The 2016 Falcons will try to extend that trend Sunday against the Patriots, who are 3-point favorites in Super Bowl LI in Houston.

Atlanta is one of the country’s most miserable sports cities, with its five major professional sports teams (the NHL’s Flames and Thrashers each relocated) combining to win one title in 168 seasons of competition. The Braves won the 1995 World Series — their only championship in a run of 14 consecutive division crowns.

The Falcons, who joined the NFL as an expansion team in 1966, have advanced to only one other Super Bowl in their 51 years of existence. In 1999, Atlanta lost 34-19 to the Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII, failing to cover the 7½-point spread in John Elway’s final game.

While it would be considered only a minor upset if the surging Falcons beat New England, some bettors made wagers on them at 100-1 odds after they lost their season opener to Tampa Bay.

Westgate sports book manager Jeff Sherman said one bettor has a $1,000 ticket on Atlanta to win the Super Bowl at 100-1 odds and Sunset Station sports book director Chuck Esposito and William Hill sports book director Nick Bogdanovich each took smaller bets at 100-1.

CG Technology sports book director Jason Simbal said he took a $5,000 wager on the Falcons at 40-1 odds but added his book still will make almost $1 million in futures if Atlanta wins.

“We’d actually do better on the Falcons (winning) than the Patriots,” Simbal said. “In fact, before the season started, they were the second-least bet team. Only the Titans had less.”

The other sports book directors agreed.

“They’re not a real public team,” Esposito said. “Even after their hot start, there were still a lot of nonbelievers.”

It’s still hard to comprehend that Leicester City cost bookmakers in Las Vegas and the United Kingdom a combined $15 million in May after it rewarded backers who bet it at opening odds of 5,000-1 across the pond and 2,500-1 here.

“Books everywhere in the world ended up losing on them,” Sherman said. “That’s, by far, the largest underdog that’s cashed in many years.

“A few years ago, when we had Auburn in the college football national championship against Florida State, at one point Auburn was at 1,000-1. But Florida State won and it didn’t cash. For some longshot to actually cash, that’s the longest that I’ve seen.”

While most of the damage was done in the U.K., Las Vegas books lost an estimated $1 million on Leicester City. Sherman said the Westgate took one $5 bet at 2,000-1 and two totaling $15 at 1,000-1.

Michael Grodsky, director of marketing for William Hill books in the U.S., told the Review-Journal in April that they took three wagers totaling $17 on Leicester City at the opening odds of 2,500-1. MGM Resorts sports book director Jay Rood said they wrote nine tickets, with an average wager of $20, at 1,000-1.

When Cleveland won its first NBA title in June to snap the city’s 52-year title drought, some believers bet the Cavaliers at 14-1 odds when they trailed the Warriors 3-1 in the series. But the books did fine as there was plenty of action on Golden State’s record-setting 73-9 squad.

The books also did well on Chicago, which was one of the favorites all season to end its 108-year World Series title drought.

“A lot of the money we took on them was single digits,” Sherman said.

When the Indians took a 3-1 World Series lead, the Cubs still had short odds of plus-330.

“Every year, there’s some things that come close,” Sherman said. “The Cubs at plus-330 and the Cavs at 14-1, plenty of things like that come through all the time. But I don’t remember anything like Leicester City.”

The biggest underdog veteran bookmaker Bogdanovich recalls cashing was the 1991 Minnesota Twins, which opened the season as a 200-1 longshot and won the World Series in seven games over — wait for it — Atlanta.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.