Betcris NFL Gamble

College football bettors finally came back to earth this week after a great start to the year. We have hardly paid the bills with College football but last Saturday in particular was great for bookmakers. Nearly all options for College football returned a profit for bookmakers, with parlays and teaser's being particularly good for us. I wish I could say the same for NFL Sunday but Teaser and parlay bettors had another field day at our expense. I don't know the figures, but the ratio of winners by people playing ‘Teasers' on the favorites so far this year must be staggering. Our customers did not love Davis Love III at all this week when he won the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro, even at a decent price of 25/1. Padraig Harrington did provide a decent payday for our customers however at the odds of 16/1. One customer came away smiling after placing $2,000 on him to win $32,000. Below is a quick summary of our best and worst games for the week.

Best games for the house?

Arkansas defied the large spread, which was placed against them and destroyed Auburn 27-10 in a major upset. Even with lots of people betting Arkansas from the opening line of +17 ½ all the way down to a closing line of 13 ½, it didn't stop all parlay and teaser bettor's especially thinking that there was no way Auburn could lose this game at home.

Hawaii was very much a popular bet with our customers, so much so that they opened at a 9 ½ point favorite and closed 4 points higher at 13 ½ points. Nevada outscored Hawaii in the last quarter to keep the margin to a solitary converted touchdown to disappoint many bettors. Tennessee nearly did the impossible on Sunday and lost by a single point against the heavily favored Indianapolis Colts 14-13. Indianapolis opened a large 18 ½ point favorite, which always seems to provide some attraction on the ‘dog' being at such a high spread. Tennessee was no different Sunday with many people prepared to bet Tennessee at such a large ‘plus' spread. Indianapolis closed down at 17 points at kick-off, but Tennessee nearly won the game outright, which would have been terrific for us considering the ?2000 the Colts were to win the game straight up on the money line. The Colts did come through for the win, but thankfully for us, the result killed nearly all the 10-point teasers that were bet for the day.

Best games for the public?

Tennessee U destroyed Georgia in the second half to win 51-33 Saturday in a game were most people loved Tennessee U minus the 2 ½ points and the game total to go over the 37 ½ points. We thought we were in good position at halftime with the score being Georgia 24-14, but after halftime, it was a different story.

Idaho proved our handicappers wrong and our customer's right when they won 28-20 over New Mexico State. Initially we had New Mexico State a 1-point favorite, but it eventually closed with a flood of money on Idaho, making them a 3-point favorite at kick-off. Nearly all games of NFL Sunday provided parlay and teaser bettor's with good results, but Jacksonville against the NY Jets was the worst result for us with many bets coming late on Jacksonville forcing the line to change from ?6 ½ to ?7 ½ at kick-off. I don't even think that the Jets turned up however as the final score was 41-0.

San Francisco was also a popular pick of the ‘Cellar-dwellers'. Oakland just doesn't look good at all, and while they did at least provide a fight, they came away with another loss 34-20.

Until next week,

Shane, Betcris Sports Desk

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