San Francisco Giants deal big blow to Las Vegas sportsbooks

When the Giants were a season-high 4½ games back in the National League West on April 17, they were 60-1 long shots at BetMGM to win the division.

Las Vegas sportsbooks were rooting all season for the heavily-favored Dodgers to overtake their rivals. But San Francisco never faltered and dealt a big blow to the books Sunday when it finally clinched the division title on the final day of the season.

“The Giants winning the division was painful,” Caesars Sportsbook vice president of trading Craig Mucklow said. “That was six figures.”

BetMGM lost multiple six figures on San Francisco, which won a franchise-record 107 games to edge Los Angeles (106-56) by one game and soar over its season win total of 74½ by a whopping 32½ games.

“They weren’t expected to do well,” MGM Resorts director of trading Jeff Stoneback said. “A lot of times people will bet on teams when they have a good start and the teams will fade. But the Giants never faded.”

San Francisco will play the winner of Wednesday’s NL wild-card game between the Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals on Friday in the opener of the NL Division Series.

The Giants are the 6-1 second choice at the Westgate SuperBook behind 3-1 favorite LA to win the World Series after they opened at 300-1.

The SuperBook took a $1,000 wager to win $300,000 (300-1) and a $1,000 wager to win $200,000 (200-1) on San Francisco to win it all.

“This was so unexpected,” SuperBook manager Randy Blum said. “If the Giants win the pennant and the World Series, we’d be looking at losing seven figures.”

Going, going, gone

Caesars also lost a bundle on its MLB home run leader prop when Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. homered in his final two games to tie Royals catcher Salvador Perez for the major league lead with 48 each.

“Guerrero tying for the home run lead was also painful. He was a popular selection,” Mucklow said. “That was six figures easily. Not as bad as the Giants but it was up there.”

Per the standard rule at books in case of a tie, bettors that had Guerrero and/or Perez to lead the majors in homers will win half of their wager. Perez was at 200-1 in late August, when he was seven homers behind Angels star Shohei Ohtani.

Blum said the SuperBook didn’t take any bets on Perez until he posted updated home run title odds on Sept. 22, when Guerrero was an even-money favorite and Perez was +175.

Yankees-Red Sox

A Caesars bettor placed a $115,000 wager to win $100,000 on the Yankees over the Red Sox in Tuesday’s American League wild-card game at Fenway Park.

Gerritt Cole will start for New York against Boston’s Nathan Eovaldi.

The winner will face the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS, which starts Thursday.

The Houston Astros are -130 ALDS series favorites over the Chicago White Sox (+110), and the Milwaukee Brewers are -155 NLDS series favorites over the Atlanta Braves (+135).

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.