Oddsmakers apparently couldn't set a point spread high enough for Sunday's Denver Broncos/Oakland Raiders mismatch. (Photo credit: Jeffrey Beall / Foter / CC BY-SA)
Week 10 of the National Football League betting season was a rough one for sportsbooks, with favourites and overs paying out faster than a broken slot machine.
A Sports Interaction rep gave us the rundown on how bad it really was for the books, including a huge parlay winner.
What was last week like for Sports Interaction?
We got hammered like a nail. None of the NFL games went our way and we had a lot of happy customers at the start of the week when they signed in to check their statements. They saw a lot of W’s.
Was it one of your worst Sundays ever?
Funnily enough, it wasn’t even close. Eight of thirteen favorites came up last week, which tips the scales more than you’d think when you take parlays into account. But I remember maybe ten years ago twelve of sixteen favorites won and covered. It hurt like hell at the time and I’m not ashamed to say I can still feel the sting today.
What were the biggest games?
That’s like that scene in the movie where the guy asks the other guy if he’d prefer to be punched in the face or his big fat belly. Either’s going to hurt.
Denver was a -11 favorite at the Raiders. We could have set the line at -22, the players would still have taken it and the Broncos would still have covered it. Nothing we can do there but take our medicine. Green Bay cost us. Seattle cost us. The only bullet we dodged was Pittsburgh getting turned over at the Jets, which would have been 95% of people’s solid-gold picks in survival pools. It’s been a strange season so far.
The NBA is back in full flow now. What were the betting highlights there?
Biggest handle of last week was Cleveland at Denver. Cleveland was 1-3 straight up coming into that game but the Cavs showed up at Denver to win and cover. Worst result for us was Dallas at Portland on Thursday night, when Portland wiped the floor with the Mavs.
Were there any big winners this week?
Was there ever. We had a guy pull off a 683/1 parlay on Sunday.
What!
That’s right. 683/1. He or she filled out a ten-team NFL parlay, all bets on the spread, about forty minutes before the afternoon games kicked off on Sunday. They all came up – he or she took the points on the Jets and laid double digits on Denver, Seattle and Baltimore. All we can do is salute that achievement. Well done, that bettor.