Jeff Haney on NFL games already sparking interest in sports books months before the season starts

Monday, June 4, 2007 | 7:08 a.m.

The Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts and NFC boss Chicago Bears figure prominently in the NFL "games of the year" now available for betting at the Las Vegas Hilton sports book.

Oddsmakers at the Hilton have posted betting lines on 80 regular-season NFL games, five a week, including each Monday night matchup.

Along with the "games of the year," a long-running tradition at the Hilton, point spreads and "totals," or over/unders, have been released on every game in the first week of the NFL regular season.

The Colts opened a 6-point favorite against the New Orleans Saints, defending NFC South champs, with a total of 50 points in the regular-season opener scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 6. Week 1 also features two games on Monday, Sept. 10, with Cincinnati a 3-point favorite against Baltimore and San Francisco favored by 3 against Arizona.

The popularity of the Bears and Colts among football bettors is reflected in their frequent appearances in the "games of the year." The Bears have eight of their regular-season games listed and the Colts have six.

The Colts are favored in only two of their highlighted games, having opened as an underdog against the Jacksonville Jaguars (Week 7), San Diego Chargers (Week 10) and Ravens (Week 14) and at pick 'em in an AFC title game rematch against the New England Patriots (Week 9).

The Bears are favored in six of their highlighted games and an underdog against the Philadelphia Eagles (Week 7) and Seattle Seahawks (Week 11).

The first two weeks of the season feature a pair of "revenge" games involving the Patriots. After knocking the Jets out of the playoffs last season, New England is a 6-point favorite against New York in Week 1. And after beating the Chargers in the divisional playoffs, New England is a 3 1/2-point favorite against San Diego in Week 2.

In a game scheduled to be played in London on Oct. 28, the Giants opened as 2 1/2-point favorites against the Dolphins.

Bonds prop

Barry Bonds won't speculate on when he might break Hank Aaron's all-time record of 755 career home runs - "I'm not talking about the record. I only talk about us as a team," he told reporters in Philadelphia during the Giants' series against the Phillies.

But gamblers in Las Vegas can do better than merely speculate about when Bonds, who had 746 homers heading into Sunday's game at Citizens Bank Park, will surpass Hammerin' Hank. They can back up their opinion with a wager at the betting window.

A proposition at the Wynn Las Vegas sports book asks when Bonds will hit No. 756, breaking down the remainder of the regular season into one-week intervals with odds attached to each selection.

The current favorite, for example, is the week of July 2-8 at odds of 4-1. Bettors who chose that week evidently don't put stock in the theory that No. 756 will come at a Giants home game in order to minimize the amount of booing that could greet the record shot. The Giants play six games that week, all on the road, against Cincinnati and St. Louis.

The second choice, at odds of 9-2, also contains six road games - the week of July 30-Aug. 5, when the Giants play at Los Angeles and San Diego.

It's an 8-1 shot, down from an opening number of 40-1, that Bonds will not break the record in 2007.

There's still no betting on which luminaries, if any - Commissioner Selig? Aaron himself? - will be in attendance when Bonds break the record.

NBA playoffs

After Cleveland got past the Detroit Pistons as a series underdog of about 3-1 in the conference semifinals, the Cavaliers were installed as a slightly bigger underdog - better than 4-1 - against the Spurs in the NBA Finals, which begin Thursday in San Antonio.

After ousting the Utah Jazz as a series favorite of 4-1 or higher in the Western semis, the Spurs opened as a favorite of 7 to 7 1/2 points in Game 1 against the Cavs in Las Vegas sports books.

The Spurs, shooting for their fourth NBA championship in nine years, not only beat the Jazz in five games, but they covered the point spread in four of the five. Despite being the betting favorites in most of their games, the Spurs bring a record of 11-4-1 against the point spread in the playoffs into the championship series.