Las Vegas sportsbooks lose millions on worst week of NFL season
The house doesn’t always win.
NFL bettors dealt Las Vegas sportsbooks their first losing week of the season on what was a big Sunday for popular public teams.
“We don’t win every week,” Caesars Sportsbook vice president of trading Craig Mucklow said. “It’s nice to give back once in a while.”
Favorites are 9-6 ATS in Week 5 — their first winning week of the season — after the Bills beat the Chiefs 38-20 on “Sunday Night Football.” Bettors won big as the Packers, Buccaneers, Titans, Cowboys and Cardinals all covered the spread.
“It was, by far, the worst day of the year,” MGM Resorts director of trading Jeff Stoneback said.
The victorious Bills (+3) and over (57) was the worst-case scenario at Caesars, which suffered a multiple seven-figure loss.
“Because it’s prime-time parlay liability,” Mucklow said. “The Bills were a sexy pick.”
Buffalo and over also increased BetMGM’s loss to almost seven figures, with Green Bay’s wild 25-22 overtime win accounting for a big chunk of that.
Stuck in the middle
Books got middled, or lost on both sides, after the Packers opened as 3½-point favorites and the line closed at -2½.
“The worst-case scenario was the Packers winning by 3,” Stoneback said. “Early sharp money came in on the Bengals +3½ and all the public money was on the Packers -2½ and everybody won.”
It was the heaviest bet game of the day at Caesars, where bettors had $275,000 on under 50 and seven figures of action on Cincinnati, including $300,000 on the money line, $500,000 +3 and $500,000 +3½.
“If the Bengals would’ve won, it would’ve been a bloodbath,” Mucklow said.
After Cincinnati rallied to tie the game late in regulation, the teams combined to miss five straight field goals in the last 2:14 of regulation and overtime.
Packers kicker Mason Crosby missed three in a row before he finally delivered a 49-yard game winner.
“Our hearts were in our mouths on that game,” Mucklow said. “The trading room got loud very quickly. On every missed field goal, it was crazy.”
Rising Arizona
Arizona (5-0) remained the NFL’s only unbeaten team after it defeated the 49ers 17-10 as 6-point favorites.
“That’s the sign of a good team that the Cardinals don’t have to win a shootout every week,” Red Rock Resort sportsbook director Chuck Esposito said. “They can win a low-scoring game as well.”
Caesars took three big bets on the under (48½) and major wagers that cashed on the Cardinals’ first half and 49ers’ second half.
“That cost us just short of a million with all those winning,” Mucklow said.
How ’bout them favorites
■ Dallas is the league’s only 5-0 team ATS after it whipped the Giants 44-20 as a 7½-point home favorite.
■ Tampa Bay easily covered the biggest spread of the day in a 45-17 rout of Miami as an 11-point favorite.
■ Tennessee (-4) rolled to a 37-19 win and cover over winless Jacksonville (0-5).
“It was a rough day for us. We didn’t get any upsets,” Westgate SuperBook vice president Jay Kornegay said. “It was not a disaster, but it was a pretty heavy punch.”
Great escapes
The Raiders helped books escape further damage in their 20-9 loss to the Bears, who produced the day’s biggest upset as 5½-point underdogs at Allegiant Stadium.
“That’s the one game that really saved us,” Kornegay said.
The Vikings saved 1,343 $1,000 entries in the Circa Survivor contest from elimination when Greg Joseph made a 54-yard field goal as time expired to give Minnesota an unlikely 19-17 win over the winless Lions.
Detroit (+10) erased a 10-point deficit in the final 2:30 and led 17-16 after new coach Dan Campbell successfully called for a go-ahead 2-point conversion with 37 seconds left.
New England bailed out 443 Circa Survivor entries when it rallied from a 22-9 hole at Houston in a 25-22 win. But the Patriots (-8) were one of five favorites that didn’t cover.
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.
