Columnist Jeff Haney: Rams, Colts make noise in Super Bowl wagering

Wednesday, Dec. 1, 1999 | 9:54 a.m.

Jeff Haney's sports betting column appears Wednesday. Reach him at 259-4041 or haney@vegas.com

They'll be dancing in the streets of St. Louis -- or possibly Indianapolis -- on Super Bowl Sunday, if wagering in the Caesars Palace futures book is any indication.

Gamblers can place their Super Bowl futures bets right up until the conference championship games, but there have already been tremendous swings in favor of the Rams and Colts.

"The big story, obviously, is the Rams," said Vince Magliulo, Caesars' sports book director. "When we put our Super Bowl futures up back in January, the Rams were 250-1. They've been bet down to 2-1, so they're being played very heavily.

"We've also seen a lot of interest in the Colts; they opened at 60-1 and have been bet to 5-1. Some of that movement is a result of money coming in, some of it is a result of their success on the field."

The Lions have also drawn interest from bettors at Caesars, going from an opening line of 60-1 to a current number of 12-1.

At the other end of the spectrum, lines on preseason favorites such as the Broncos (7-1), Falcons (10-1) and Jets (10-1) have been adjusted to 300-1 or taken off the board entirely due to the dim outlook those teams face.

Thanks in part to the Colts' emergence, the line on the Super Bowl, which Caesars opened at NFC minus 2 last Super Bowl Sunday, has moved to AFC minus 3. The total on the game is 47 1/2 points.

The Colts, leading the AFC East with a 9-2 mark, are also a torrid 8-1-2 against the spread this season -- a stat that has not gone unnoticed by bettors, according to Magliulo.

"We've had a lot of action on the Colts, primarily on the money line," Magliulo said. "I'd say the Colts are not as big a surprise as many people would think. They drafted very well over the last couple of years, and it figures that they would become a better team."

Sunday's Colts-Jets matchup, one of the week's most heavily bet games at Caesars, landed right on the number as Indianapolis, which went off a 7-point favorite, won 13-6. The Colts did open at minus 6 1/2.

NFL favorites went 6-7-2 against the spread this past week and are now covering at a 44 percent clip for the season.

"I'm very pleased with the way the season is going in terms of volume of interest," said Magliulo. "Some weeks the books have had the best of it, other weeks the (bettors) have had the best of it, which is a situation that makes for good business."

* CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND: The Big 12 and SEC championships will be decided Saturday as college football's regular season winds down.

The Imperial Palace has Nebraska an 8-point favorite against Texas in the Big 12 title game, while Florida is a 7-point favorite against Alabama for the SEC crown.

IP sports book director Jay Kornegay expects two-way action in both games, with bettors leaning slightly toward Texas and the points.

"I could see the 8 dropping maybe just a little bit, to 7 1/2 or 7 at the lowest," said Kornegay, who called the Florida-Alabama number "a very solid 7."

In the 100th Army-Navy game Saturday at Philadelphia, the Midshipmen come in as a 6 1/2-point favorite. A couple of trends underscore how fierce this traditional rivalry is: The underdog has covered in eight of the last 11 Army-Navy games, and the previous year's outright loser has covered the spread in 12 of the last 17.

* GREY CUP: The Hamilton Tiger-Cats were bet up to a 1 1/2-point favorite against the Calgary Stampeders in Sunday's Grey Cup, the championship game of the Canadian Football League. The Ti-Cats covered the number in their 32-21 victory.

"We have a lot of visitors from Canada, and quite a few of them bet the game," said Caesars' Magliulo. "The Grey Cup got its share of action."

* HOOP NOTES: The Silver Bandits, Las Vegas' franchise in the new International Basketball League, covered a 4-point spread against San Diego in their opening game Friday night at the Thomas & Mack Center. Betting on the Bandits is available at the Imperial Palace.

The IP's Kornegay said the amount of wagering on the Bandits was comparable to the action on the now-defunct Las Vegas Thunder, formerly of the International Hockey League. The IP also took bets on Thunder games.

"We had some action on the first (Silver Bandits) game, but it was nothing like an NBA game," Kornegay said. "It was more like a pretty weak college game. There was hardly any action on the second game, when they were on the road." ...

UNLV's 85-69 win over Georgetown on Sunday was only the mildest of upsets. The Rebels were a 1-point underdog on the offshore line. Wagering on UNLV games is not permitted in Nevada.

* DERBY FUTURES: The Excalibur race book is offering "Early Bird Wagering" on 29 horses for next year's Kentucky Derby, to be run May 6, 2000.

Among the favorites -- listed at 20-1 to win, 8-1 to place -- are Breeders' Cup Juvenile runner-up Chief Seattle, Dixie Union, Forest Camp, Green Wood Lake and Kiss A Native.

Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Anees is 60-1 to win, 24-1 to place. Cash Run, who went gate-to-wire in the Juvenile Fillies, is 100-1 to win, 40-1 to place.

* WHERE'S HE HEADED? Antigua-based sports book Intertops has set a line on which team Ken Griffey Jr. will sign with for the 2000 baseball season. The Mets were installed as a 5-2 favorite, followed by the Braves (7-2), Yankees (4-1), Reds (6-1), Blue Jays (12-1), Red Sox (15-1) and Astros (30-1). It's a 6-1 shot Griffey will re-sign with the Mariners, and the field (all other teams) is listed as 10-1.

* CONTEST WINNERS: Two entrants -- Roger Lowry and Kumi Daniels -- went 16-1 to split the $15,000 weekly prize in the Stardust's free All-American Football Contest.

In the Stardust Invitational handicapping tournament, sports analyst Larry Ness went 4-3 to oust KTNV-TV sports director Ron Futrell (2-4-1). At 9 p.m. Friday at the Stardust, Dana Corbo, owner and president of Don Best Sports, squares off against fellow sports analyst Russ Culver.