Another weekend of football approaches and the New England Patriots are giving another ‘victim’ 20+ points. This week it is the Baltimore Ravens who are currently a 20 point underdog…..at home. This is the first time that any bookmaker we had spoken to has seen a 20 plus pointspread in pro football from a team two weeks in a row.

We got the question this week in email, on the phone, at the lunch cart, the water cooler, you name it…….we got the question; “So the bookmakers must have made a killing with the Eagles playing so well”, or “How ‘Bout Those Eagles! I bet the books made a ton of money on that game.” We did not necessarily agree, so early in the week, we took an informal poll amongst a handful of offshore operators.

This game actually evened out for most off the operators. Once it got to 24 there was good amount of action on the Eagles. The positive plays for the sportsbooks were ANY teaser or parlay that had the Patriots in the play.

Example – One play that had been killing books all season was teasing the Patriots. For the Eagles match up, the play was to bet early and put the Pats -12 in a 10 point teaser. Ouch! In addition, there were a large amount of players, a number which grew in the last few weeks, who put the Patriots were into parlays to cash the extra payout on a 2 or three teamer. Again, the public got smoked here.

So the books made a ton then? Not so fast . . . the total still went over 51+ points. This was the true equalizer. Every book we spoke to needed the Under in a big way. Though some books still made money on the Eagles, a final total score of under 51 points would have made the day a HUGE success for the sportsbooks.

Early indications are that the majority of the bets are again on the Patriots – giving away 20 – down from 20.5 at Bookmaker and The Greek and down from an opening 21 at several Las Vegas sportsbooks. We hope that gamblers out there look at last week and history in general with these big point spreads. The last six times the point spread has been over 20 points in the NFL the underdog has covered 5 times. In addition, the public has already bet the total down to 49 from 51.5.

Did the public sour on the Patriots after just one game to fade the Patriots and the over? Don’t forget, over the total was the downfall of the books last week……