Books in bad spot Monday with parlays on Packers, sharps on Chiefs
The Monday Night Football matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Green Bay Packers is rounding out to be a lose/lose scenario for sportsbooks, who suffered another rough week of NFL action.
With plenty of parlay money tied to the Packers and the wiseguys stacking their chips on the Chiefs, the Week 3 finale will be a finishing blow for bookmakers, no matter who wins, loses, or covers Monday.
So what’s the best scenario for books?
“Next week,” says South Point Las Vegas sportsbook director Bert Osborne with a nervous laugh. “Thursday can’t come soon enough.”
“Pick a side. We’re losing either way,” says Osborne, who has plenty of parlay money connected to Green Bay after big-name favorites like the Patriots and Steelers covered, and the late-afternoon games and Sunday nighter all went the way of the betting public. “The snowball just keeps getting bigger.”
South Point Las Vegas opened the Packers as touchdown favorites at home, but that didn’t stay on the board for long as sharp bettors knocked this line off the key number and down to Green Bay -6.5 with money on Kansas City.
“That seven is long gone now. They just ate it up,” Osborne says of the smart bettors.
Online, at Sportsbook.ag, action has trickled down in similar fashion. Peter Childs, their head supervisor of risk management, also opened the home side at -7 at maintained that number for most of the week with the public taking the Cheeseheads and the wiseguys on the Chiefs. However, the flood gates opened up on Kansas City in the early hours of Monday.
“This morning we saw more sharp action come in on the Chiefs, enough sharp action that it forced us off the key number of +7 down to +6.5, which is our current number,” Child tells Covers. “At 6.5 we’re seeing strong support on the Packers. Roughly 70 percent of the action at 6.5 is on the Packers and that might be enough to get us back to -7.”
Sportsbook.ag also has big liability on parlays connected to Green Bay, with heavily-bet teams Pittsburgh, New England, Atlanta, Seattle, Arizona and Denver all coming through as ATS winners Sunday.
“Far more of those open parlays are tied to Packers than the Chiefs,” says Childs. “But at this point, we’re sticking with 6.5 and hoping that sharp action that bet the Chiefs is correct. We’re going to need the Chiefs in a big way.”
As for Monday’s total, Osborne says there hasn’t been the one-sided Over money that you would normally receive for a primetime, standalone game, with most books dealing 48 points as the Packers’ powerful offense takes on the Chiefs sturdy defense.
Childs says about 65 percent of totals action at his book is on the Over, which is par for the course when Aaron Rodger and the Packers play in primetime. They opened the Over/Under at 49 and have been bet up to 49.5 as of Monday afternoon.
