We should have majored in math or economics. If we had, this column might have been about us winning half a million dollars in the Westgate SuperContest Gold or $168,000 as the back-to-back winner of the Golden Nugget’s Friday Football Showdown.
Todd Dewey
Todd Dewey covers sports betting for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
tdewey@reviewjournal.com … @tdewey33 on Twitter. 702-383-0354
A year after all four home favorites won their wild-card games by double-digits and covered the spread, the weekend went to the underdogs, who finished 4-0 ATS with two outright upsets.
Handicapper Hank Goldberg’s best bet for the NFL’s Wild Card weekend is the Kansas City Chiefs, who are 8½-point favorites over the Tennessee Titans on Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Buffalo Bills ended the longest playoff drought in American major pro sports Sunday in miraculous fashion.
Norman Freedman is 83 but vividly recalled details of a bad beat he suffered 40 years ago, when Earl “The Pearl” Monroe mysteriously turned his apparent $2,000 win into a $100 loss.
Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore came up with an interception of Matt Ryan late in the first half of New Orleans’ 23-13 win over Atlanta on Sunday when a deflected pass came to rest on his backside as he lay facedown on the field.
Most avid sports bettors and poker players can write a book on bad beats. It would be a tragicomedy about the most agonizing losses of their gambling lives that double as miracle wins for other bettors.
New England, which closed as a 3-point favorite at MGM Resorts sports books and a 2½-point favorite at most other books, escaped with the win and drove a stake through the hearts and wallets of most Pittsburgh backers, including one high roller in particular.
Oregon was favored by as many as 8 points over Boise State in Saturday’s Las Vegas Bowl before sharp money on the underdog moved the line to 7 on Thursday.
Philadelphia’s odds to win Super Bowl LII were moved from 4-1 to 10-1 in the wake of quarterback Carson Wentz’s knee injury.
If the Knights can keep their magical run going and reach the postseason, they would deliver a cross-check to bookmakers.
The Crimson Tide is a 1½-point favorite over Clemson, which upset Alabama 35-31 in last season’s national championship to avenge a 45-40 loss to the Tide in the 2016 title game.
Handicapper Lee Sterling (ParamountSports.com) recommends plays on Wisconsin plus the points against Ohio State and on the money line (plus-200) as he sees the Badgers pulling off the outright upset.
The Eagles, Patriots and Falcons all covered double-digit spreads and the Panthers delivered a last-minute cover as favorites went 9-3 against the spread Sunday and Las Vegas sports books were thrown for a loss.
Detroit was a 1½-point favorite over Minnesota on the look-ahead line at the Westgate sports book, but public money on the Vikings has made Minnesota a 3-point favorite.
