Columnist Jeff Haney: Futures book helped sweeten Super Bowl pot

Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2001 | 11:09 a.m.

Jeff Haney's sports betting column appears Wednesday. Haney also appears each Thursday on the Lee Pete radio show (3 p.m., KRLV 1340-AM). Reach him at 259-4041 or haney@lasvegassun.com

A portion of the $11 million profit Nevada sports books turned on Super Bowl Sunday can be attributed to a successful year in the NFL futures book, local sports book directors say.

A year ago, several major books were highly exposed on the St. Louis Rams leading up to the Super Bowl. The Rams opened last season as big underdogs and were bet heavily throughout the season, leaving some sports books in the red when they won the Super Bowl.

This season no such jeopardy existed.

The Giants and Ravens both opened in the 50-1 neighborhood to win the title, but never emerged as the darlings of futures bettors, the way St. Louis did last year.

As one leading sports book director pointed out, that gave oddsmakers the luxury of fine-tuning the money line on the Super Bowl to attract action on whichever side they desired, or "needed."

"We were able to set the money line according to who we needed in the futures," said D. Wayne Mauldin, sports book director at the Castaways. "Anyone who was heavy on the Ravens in the futures book could shade the line toward the Giants, and the other way around."

The Castaways set the money line -- which asks bettors to predict the winner of the game straight up, with no points involved -- at Ravens minus 145, Giants plus 125.

The Giants were as high as plus 135 and as low as plus 120 at Las Vegas casinos.

Mauldin said he received decent play on the money line from everyone from professional gamblers to people in town for bowling tournaments who had to have the concept of "money line" spelled out.

At the Rio hotel-casino, sports book director Roger Sims said he was in good shape heading into the Super Bowl.

"Our futures book turned out excellent," Sims said. "Historically, (gamblers) bet the charismatic teams early in the season, and that's exactly what happened this year."

Sims noted that futures bettors were all over teams such as the Raiders, Redskins, and even the Rams again.

"None of them were there at the end," Sims said. "When they got down to 16 teams, my only big loser would have been the Saints."

When New Orleans lost to the Vikings in the NFC divisional playoffs, it clinched a profit for Sims' property, he said.

Nick Bogdanovich, sports book director at Mandalay Bay, said there were at least a few bettors in the preseason who liked Baltimore's chances.

"I know that when they put up the over/under for number of wins, they were betting Baltimore over," Bogdanovich said. "I think there was some futures money around town on the Ravens."

Bogdanovich said the action on the Giants and Ravens to win the NFC and AFC was not spectacular either way -- neither a big winner nor a big loser at his property.

The Imperial Palace sports book wrote some tickets on the Ravens way back around spring training time, but adjusted the numbers in plenty of time to avoid getting hurt in the futures book.

"I would say it was an average year (in futures betting), not a great year," said Jay Kornegay, sports book director at the IP. "We still finished in the black."

At the Stardust, sports book director Joe Lupo was relieved there was no replay of the Rams situation this football season.

"We did very well in futures this time around," Lupo said Sunday night. "We also did very well on props and on parlays. Overall, it was a good day for us."

The early line on next year's Super Bowl (Jan. 27, 2002, at New Orleans) has the Rams favored at 9-2, followed by the Titans (6-1), Raiders (8-1) and Colts (8-1). The Ravens are 10-1 and the Giants 20-1.