Monday, April 3, 2006 | 7:58 a.m.
Having survived a minor scare when long shot George Mason was finally ousted from the NCAA men's basketball tournament, oddsmaker Micah Roberts confidently reported a profitable March Madness for the sports books at Station Casinos properties Sunday.
The tournament has become a reliable money-maker for Las Vegas sports books, attracting money at the betting windows from casual fans as well as sharper sports bettors, Roberts said.
"In my eight years of managerial experience in the business, as far as win percentage (for the sports books), March has been the most consistent of any of the 12 months - and that's because of the tournament," said Roberts, sports book director at Sunset Station.
"It's due to the fact there are so many games and so many varied opinions on those games."
State officials do not track the amount of money wagered specifically on the tournament. State Gaming Control Board figures lump NBA and college basketball betting together.
It's easy to come up with an estimate, however. In March 2005, the state's sports books accepted about $170 million in basketball bets and won, or "held," about $16.2 million of that amount, or 9.5 percent, according to the Gaming Control Board.
In February 2005, by comparison, the books accepted about $90 million in basketball bets, holding $5.4 million, or 6 percent - meaning the tournament generated roughly $80 million in wagers.
Roberts said this year's tournament will probably yield similar figures - including that solid hold percentage for the casinos.
"There is so much more information out there on all the Web sites with statistics, against-the-spread info, totals ... people are becoming much more educated about what's a good bet," Roberts said. "You have people betting (on lower-seeded teams) against teams seeded four, five or six, which gives (the books) balanced action on so many of these games."
Against the standard "vigorish," or bookmaker's commission, of minus-110 (meaning bettors must risk $1.10 for each $1 they're trying to win), a sports book can expect to hold roughly 5 percent of the money wagered on a game with balanced action. That's on straight bets alone; parlays usually increase the house's hold percentage.
"So right there you're looking at 5 to 8 percent, which the book will gladly take in most cases," Roberts said.
With Florida, a No. 3 seed, and UCLA, a No. 2 seed, meeting in today's championship game, Roberts is facing no liability in future book wagering.
George Mason, which advanced to the Final Four as a big underdog before losing to Florida on Saturday, opened around 400-1 at the tournament's start in Las Vegas sports books that listed the Patriots as a separate entry.
At Stations, George Mason was part of the "field," or all others not listed, a 200-1 shot.
Roberts said Stations wrote only a small handful of tickets on the field and did not have much exposure on the bet.
"It was nothing like if the Bears would have won the Super Bowl last season," Roberts said.
Bettors who did make a play on George Mason could have done better anyway by betting GMU in each of its games on the money line (that is, to win outright) and rolling over their profits each time. That strategy would have yielded a payout of between 700-1 and 1,000-1. (Hey, that's almost as high as the 4 million to 1 odds that "sports analyst" Danny Sheridan attached to George Mason in USA Today.)
Florida is favored by 1 to 1 1/2 points in Las Vegas in today's title game, with Roberts seeing strong two-way action across the board, including straight bets, parlays and the total of 127 1/2 points.
That's in marked contrast to the semifinal card Saturday, when bookmakers were rooting hard for UCLA against LSU. The Bruins won outright as a small underdog after bettors pounded LSU at the windows. Florida handily covered the point spread against George Mason in Saturday's other game.
"I'd say 65 to 70 percent of the tickets were on both SEC teams," Roberts said. "If UCLA doesn't win, the books do very poorly."
The Las Vegas Hilton sports book is offering more than 30 proposition wagers on today's Florida-UCLA game.
Among them are over/unders on 3-pointers made by both teams (10 1/2); the largest lead by either team (11 1/2 points); the total number of players to score (14 1/2); and a big selection of individual player statistics.
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