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Andrew Gordon, right, of Miami celebrates a New Giants touchdown as he watches the Super Bowl at the Las Vegas Hotel’s Superbook Sunday, February 5, 2012.
Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012 | 9:30 p.m.
Super Bowl betting impacts economy
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KSNV coverage of the economic impact of the Super Bowl, Feb. 7, 2012.
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The overload of betting options available on Super Bowl 46 worked in the favor of Las Vegas sports books Sunday evening.
While the 3-point underdog New York Giants beating the New England Patriots 21-17 in Indianapolis was far from ideal, books made up for slight losses on the point spread through other avenues like proposition wagering.
“We ended up winning a ham sandwich,” said Lucky’s sports book director Jimmy Vaccaro. “We won the first and second halves. We would have won real big if it would have come any other way than the Giants and under.”
The Super Bowl went under the total, which closed around 54 at most books in the valley, for the sixth time in the past eight years. Public bettors traditionally bet the over and cheer for points in games like the Super Bowl, but they eschewed that trend this year in several locations.
The under, however, wasn’t a poor result for everyone. Mike Colbert, sports book director at Cantor Gaming, said his shop would have lost money with the over.
Cantor made a minor profit overall.
“The real reason, to be honest, was the props,” Colbert said. “The props really helped us. Under was good for us, but we’re a small winner for the day because of props.”
The low-scoring nature of the game translated into many of the props on individual players going under. That was exactly what the sports books wanted.
For instance, the LVH (formerly the Las Vegas Hilton) Superbook listed New York quarterback Eli Manning’s over/under passing yards at 308 and New England quarterback Tom Brady’s at 319. Neither threw for more than 300, as Manning finished with 296 yards and Brady had 276.
“Both quarterbacks staying under was very big for us,” Colbert said. “(New York receiver) Victor Cruz only having for catches was very big for us. Those were three of the best.”
Books were forced to deal with one disastrous scenario at the beginning of the game. The first score came when the Giants recorded a safety because of an intentional grounding call on Brady in the end zone.
At MGM Resorts properties, a few bettors cashed 50-to-1 tickets on a safety registering as the first score. Betting ‘yes’ on a safety happening in the game at +800 and a safety or a field goal coming before a touchdown at a plus-price were also popular plays at MGM.
“Add that up and we started off a quarter-million in the hole,” said Jay Rood, sports book director of MGM Resorts International. “That wasn’t any good.”
But Rood was mostly enthused by the end of the game. Although MGM lost money with bettors taking New York to win the game straight-up on the money line, it did well on the point spread.
“We really had a lot of Patriot money show up yesterday,” Rood said. “Our volume was very good, a little bit up from last year. It was a good day all-in-all.”
Bettors swarmed sports books with money on New York before this weekend. But New England garnered far more support in the final 48 hours.
The trend toward the Patriots evened out the action and likely ensured that Nevada would post a profit on the Super Bowl for the 16th time in the last 17 years.
“If it would have come this way 24 hours ago, it would have been one of the worst Super Bowls,” Vaccaro said. “But we got what we thought we were going to get late, which was a bunch of Patriots money.”
Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or case.keefer@lasvegassun.com. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
I'm pleased that our local books will turn a profit, but I am even more pleased that I took the Giants money line. :) I only wish I had parlayed that with a score coming in the last 3:30 of the game. :(
with the total going under the books cleaned up on the tourist money . most of the bets were giants and over on the parlay the books would have cleaned up big time if score stayed 17-15 patriots . boring game till last 4 minutes .
duke losing to miami probably helped the books early .i am sure a lot of people parlayed this game with the super bowl or bet it straight hoping for super bowl money
I believe "modest" is due to the fact that the economy is not doing nearly as well as hyped by the government. Responsible folks with limited income just don't have the money to risk on chance, which includes the stock market. Fun Super Bowl!
The casino always wins. Just a few days ago sports books were
clamoring that a Giant win would cost them millions. In fact there were several claiming, because the Giants had been such huge underdogs (80-1) to win that their loses could be the worst of any Superbowl.
Then.......
Suddenly, last day betting allows them to crawl out from that hole and post modest gains? Seems implausible. Even a few thousand on the 500-1 odds of a safety being the first score should put a dent in their winnings. Not to be. The casino always wins, even when it looks bad.
Is it any wonder? How can anyone make a line the first score a safety at +160? The books may as well just lift peoples wallets. The line on that bet should have been +700. Vegas is no longer a place to gamble but a place to rid ones self of thier assets and call it fun.Just look at what casinos have done with table game odds in the last few years.
TonD, a bettor always glorifies his wins but never talks about his losses.
Dear Danial Jackson, this story is relevant because the profits from the local sports books EMPLOY people who live in this community and who Pay taxes on said income and who put their kids into our schools that their income helps pay for... .
With those profits, the people who are employed stand a better chance of having that job a few more weeks.
Its called econ 101... Care to think before commenting next time??
You guys should do a follow up on this guy (happens to be an old friend of mine) - he bet $1000 on the safety, won $50K and is donating it all to charity!
http://www.tmz.com/2012/02/06/giants-jon...
I swear these sportsbooks are full of it claiming that they posted a profit. I went to several different casinos on Sunday night, and the lines after the game in the sportsbooks were wrapped around the casino with people waiting to cash tickets. Everyone bet GIANTS Money-Line! Even one casino I was at the ticket writers ran out of money to pay people, and we had to wait for them to get a refill on cash from the cage to continue paying people! Let's face it, the oddsmakers got clowned again in this matchup. The first time around they got hammered when the Giants beat the undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl, and then they come out with a joke of a line and make the Pats -3.5 pts in the 2nd matchup. I'm surprised some of these oddsmakers around town are allowed to keep their jobs, continuing to run these sportsbooks. In what is supposed to be the most profitable day of the year for sportsbooks and the casinos, the oddsmakers Blew it and Choked Again! I don't want to hear that prop bets saved the day, yeah right! Money bet on the actual game itself is where the real money is at and that awful line that they set on the game probably cost the sportsbooks several hundred million dollars that they were hoping to net on the Super Bowl.
MARK ANTHONY
Think to care before commenting on someone's comment next time?