Vegas Sportsbooks Take A Bath On Week One

Las Vegas sportsbooks took a bath on an opening Sunday of the NFL season that saw long lines at the cashier's window, after a slew of popular favorites covered the spread.

"I don't remember a worse opening Sunday," said Jay Kornegay, chief of the Westgate SuperBook and a 20-year veteran bookmaker.

John Avello, executive director of the Wynn, said he lost every game of the morning slate to kick off a losing day. Nick Bogdanovich, director of trading at William Hill, called it "horrible." The MGM, Caesars, CG Technology, Stratosphere and Station Casinos books all reported getting dinged on a day they've historically dominated.

Favorites went 9-4 against the spread Sunday and delivered a beating that had some shops just hoping to "avoid disaster of epic proportions" heading into the Sunday night game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants.

The underdog Giants covered against the Cowboys in a 28-27 loss, helping the books, but the damage had already been done earlier in the day, when the most popular public favorites on the board -- the Green Bay Packers and Miami Dolphins -- both covered.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13653044/las-vegas-sportsbooks-lose-big-opening-nfl-sunday

 

"It was a rough start for the books, but they've been known to battle back and are expected to be open for business for the Monday night doubleheader. Nevada sportsbooks won an all-time high $113.7 million on football in 2014."

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13...ing-nfl-sunday

That is one of the dumbest things I have ever seen written--"are expected to be open for business for the Monday night doubleheader"--as if the writer somehow thought them closing over a losing weekend was a possibility. Hey, the will have some losing weekends and be on the losing end of some sporting events but they have a built in advantage. Of course they will be open.

Does someone really think that a casino or book is going to close because someone beats them one week? Beating them once in a while is what draws people in...

 

That is a poorly written article in many ways. I am going to guess that is the persons first attempt at covering sports betting.

 

Indeed. It is probably better for business over the season if the punters win in Week1 and rush to bet on further weeks rather than everyone taking a beating and then shying off for a few weeks to lick their wounds.

 

Possibly...but is Week 1 typically a higher volume week vs. others? The books will win it back though, I'm sure.

 

That's one of the funniest things I've read.

 

they had a horrible opening weekend on college a couple of years back when every big favorite covered also.

by week 5 they were way up.