Columnist Jeff Haney: Lines posted on 1st week of NFL play

Wednesday, May 16, 2001 | 10:12 a.m.

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

To those who follow the football betting scene, there is a certain esteem that comes with being the first to post betting lines on the upcoming NFL season.

For sports book director Jay Kornegay of the Imperial Palace, though, it's mostly a business decision.

"We'll claim the bragging rights," Kornegay said, "but the main reason we put them up so early is that our customers really enjoy playing them."

When the Imperial Palace recently hung betting lines on the NFL's opening-week games (Sept. 9-10), it became the first establishment to do so -- quite a distinction considering the lively competition in the bookmaking industry here and abroad.

Kornegay reports brisk action in the early going.

"People always like to look at the games, talk about them, and bet them," he said. "Some days it trickles in, other times there are waves of people coming in and checking them out. It's always good when it comes to football.

"It's just a great opportunity for people to get down on the games, especially if they're not going to be (in Las Vegas) again before the season starts."

Among notable Week 1 betting lines:

The Chiefs and new coach Dick Vermeil are 1-point underdogs at the IP against the visiting Raiders. The game opened at pick 'em.

In the first Monday night game, the host Broncos are 7-point favorites against the Giants, up from an opening number of 6 1/2.

For bettors who like to go against the Super Bowl winner early in the season (a powerful trend over the past six years), the Bears are getting 10 1/2 points against the Ravens, down from an opener of 11 1/2.

The Buccaneers, who plucked heralded quarterback Brad Johnson from the free agent ranks, are 7 1/2-point favorites against the Cowboys, up from 7.

When it comes to the lowly 'Boys, however, the big question is what over/under number will be hung on Dallas' total wins for the season when sports books post that proposition in the summer.

Three, anyone?

Of the seven games started this season by Crawford (4.76 ERA, 1.47 walks plus hits per innings pitched), the Red Sox won five. In two of those victories, Boston was an underdog.

A flat bet of $100 on Boston in each of Crawford's starts would have yielded a profit of about $285 -- a nifty 40 percent return on investment.

Ohka had even better pitching stats (3.57 ERA, 1.42 WHIP), and the betting lines on his games reflected his talent: He went off as a favorite in six of his seven starts, the lone exception coming when he was a small underdog against the perennially favored Yankees.

Phil Niekro wannabe Tim Wakefield and '80s throwback David Cone will replace Ohka and Crawford in the Red Sox rotation. ...

In their first 20 games of the season, the high-flying Minnesota Twins compiled a 15-5 record -- and to the delight of their backers at the betting windows, they were underdogs in 14 of those 20.

It appears the linemaker is starting to catch up.

For the first time of the year, Minnesota was a 2-1 favorite Saturday night, going off at about minus 205 in Las Vegas sports books with Brad Radke on the mound against the Royals.

Unfortunately for those who opted to lay the heavy wood, the usually brilliant Radke had an off-night, and Kansas City pounded out 20 hits on the way to a 12-4 win.

Although it's not available in Nevada, a couple of United Kingdom-based sports books are using the technology to accept wireless wagers.

Last week, Antigua-based Intertops, a major online sports book, became the latest establishment to make its wireless betting system available to its worldwide base of English-speaking customers. Intertops had released a German-language wireless betting service last year.

Intertops has a registered user base of 480,000 customers from 183 countries, according to executive director and co-founder Simon Noble.

"Whether they're waiting for a plane, riding a bus or watching a game in a stadium, our (English-speaking) customers can now place a wager by using their mobile device," Noble said. "The wireless revolution (is) upon us."

The debut novel from Chicago resident Steve Monroe, "'57, Chicago" tells the story of a championship fight in Chicago in 1957, and the cast of characters -- promoters, boxers, bookmakers and cops -- who surround the big bout.

Of particular interest to bettors is the subplot involving the character Al Kelly the burnt-out bookie. Although he usually does all he can to balance the action in his book, Kelly is forced to sweat out the 1957 NCAA triple-overtime semifinal between Michigan State and North Carolina.

Monroe says his fictional bookie's travails were inspired by a real-life "bad beat" he suffered a few years ago, when he bet the over in a Packers-Cowboys game.

"All the Packers had to do was score on their final drive," says Monroe, a real estate broker and former newsaper reporter. "Mark Brunell was their second-string QB and he was playing. He threw a touchdown pass, I bought shots for the bar and ... it was called back. He threw another TD pass, I bought another round of shots ... and it was called back again. Another penalty. Finally, he tried to run it in on fourth down and ended up about two inches short.

"The shots helped."

Published by Talk Miramax Books, "'57, Chicago" is already being developed into a feature film by Miramax.