If you’re feeling lucky, this book has a bet for you

By Jeff Haney (contact)

Monday, Aug. 11, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Football bettors in Las Vegas can get a jump on their regular-season NFL wagering, as Lucky’s sports book in the Plaza downtown has posted betting lines on every game on the 2008 schedule.

The early lines, released last week, have drawn a mixture of serious gamblers, casual fans betting on their favorite teams and plain old curiosity seekers, Lucky’s spokesman Jimmy Vaccaro said.

“When you put up creative betting propositions like this, as an oddsmaker it’s really you versus them,” Vaccaro said. “And sometimes you’re in for a real tough fight. The people you’re going up against are not lightweights. A lot of them are cruiserweights and heavyweights.”

Lucky’s, the fledgling race and sports book chain that also has three Northern Nevada locations, breaks down its NFL regular-season betting lines week by week, from the Sept. 4 season opener featuring the Super Bowl champion New York Giants favored by 3 1/2 points against the Washington Redskins, to Week 17 on Dec. 28.

In a case of 2007 redux for bettors, the New England Patriots are listed as double-digit favorites in many of their games, including a 19-point spread against the Miami Dolphins in Week 3 (Sept. 21).

Posting lines on every game before the start of the season is rarely seen anywhere in sports betting, whether in Nevada or at offshore books, although the Plaza tried it a couple of years ago under its previous management team.

Offering unusual wagering options can be risky, Vaccaro acknowledged, because they tend to draw “sharp,” or professional-level gamblers, not just recreational bettors.

“But I think challenging (bettors) you might not really want to go up against can make you sharper,” Vaccaro said. “Basically we’re getting into a situation where we want to offer more of these creative props that can give the player a pretty fair shake — a fair shot and a fair bet.”

Lucky’s oddsmakers are expected to release “three-quarter lines” this week for Week 1 of the NFL regular season. A variation on the popular first-half and halftime point spreads, the three-quarter line is a point spread on the first three quarters of a game. For instance, with the Patriots favored by 17 against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 1, the three-quarter line would be about 13 points.

“If it makes you think, and if you can make a case for either side, then it’s probably the right number,” Vaccaro said.

Other offbeat (and we mean that in a good way) betting propositions currently available in Las Vegas sports books include:

• NFL total points: Lucky’s also offers an over/under proposition on the total number of points scored for each NFL team in the regular season.

Not surprisingly, due in part to the old regression-to-the-mean theory, last season’s most and least prolific scorers are projected to gravitate toward the middle of the pack.

The Patriots, for example, scored 589 points last year, by far the most in the league. Their total for 2008 is listed at 468 at Lucky’s, minus-130 (risk $1.30 to win $1) on the over and even money on the under.

The San Francisco 49ers, after scoring a league-worst 219 points a year ago, opened at 255 points for this season, minus-130 on the over and even money on the under.

• Jets/Packers props: Lucky’s oddsmakers responded to the conclusion (for now, anyway) of the Brett Favre saga last week by posting a series of propositions linked to the 2008 performance of Favre, the New York Jets and the Green Bay Packers.

The Jets, Favre’s new team, had been projected to win seven regular-season games before acquiring Favre, according to over/under figures in Las Vegas sports books. That total increased to a consensus 8 to

8 1/2 victories with the addition of Favre, about the same as the Packers’ total in most sports books. Lucky’s oddsmakers put up a head-to-head regular-season wins prop pitting the Jets against the Packers, requiring bettors to lay minus-115 on either side.

As sports betting analyst R.J. Bell of Pre-game.com put it last week: “It’s interesting to note that if the Jets play to projection, they would still likely not make the playoffs.”

Lucky’s placed a price on that proposition as well, making it minus-230 that the Jets won’t make the playoffs and plus-190 they will.

Other over/under props on Favre for the 2008 season at Lucky’s are 20 1/2 interceptions, 23 1/2 touchdowns and 3,828 1/2 passing yards.

• Baseball wild cards: The Hard Rock offers wagering on which team will win the American League and National League wild cards. For bettors to cash, the team must win the wild card specifically, not the division. The Boston Red Sox and Milwaukee Brewers entered Sunday’s action atop the ever-fluid wild-card standings.

• Hurling: Fans of the traditional Gaelic sport can bet on this coming weekend’s match between Tipperary (minus-250) and Waterford (plus-210) in Dublin at the Las Vegas Hilton sports book. Trend players will surely be all over Tipperary, expecting form to hold after favored Kilkenny got past Cork on Sunday.