Books score despite underdog winning Super Bowl

Monday, Feb. 4, 2002 | 10:48 a.m.

What do those guys in Vegas know about posting lines when a 14-point dog wins by three?

They know how to make money.

The final score of the 36th annual Super Bowl aside, the two-touchdown spread between the favored St. Louis Rams and the New England Patriots did its job for Las Vegas sports books. Action was heavy and even on both sides, and the books got richer off "the juice" players laid for the privilege of betting.

"It was about as even as any betting on any Super Bowl I have ever seen," Joe Lupo, director of the Stardust race and sports book, said. "Fourteen was the perfect number for us. There was a lot of two-way action and little liability on our part."

A football bettor wagers $11 to win $10. The $1 is called the juice. If a bookie took 10 $11 bets on New England and 10 on St. Louis, he collected $220 and paid back $210, pocketing the remaining $10 as profit.

"It was a good day for us, but it would have been a spectacular day if it weren't for a number of bettors taking the Patriots-and-under parlay and the Patriots on the money line," Lupo said.

A number of bettors who thought the Patriots would win a low-scoring affair made parlay bets of the Patriots plus-14 points and the total score being under 53 points. They won that bet when the Patriots won outright, 20-17.

On the money line, bettors who believed that the Patriots would win the game got what turned out to be a bargain, when the Pats at many books were plus-400. That means a $10 bet on the Pats to win returned the original bet plus $40.

Some books that took too much action on the Patriots for such parlays and money line bets came out a little in the red. Bally's was among them.

"Anytime a 5-to-1 underdog wins, it is a good day for the customers who take the money line," said John Avello, director of race and sports for Bally's and Paris Las Vegas. "We were down a bit because of that.

"But you have to expect if people come to town to bet, they are not going to want to wager $10 to collect $12 on the Rams, when they can wager $10 to collect $50 on the Patriots. The good thing is that many of the customers will be coming back next year."

The pattern of parlay betting, Lupo and Avello said, was either to pair the Rams and the over, figuring the game would be an offensive blowout, or the Patriots and the under, figuring a close defensive struggle.