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Written by Paul Raymore
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Tuesday, 07 November 2006 |
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To get a little more insight into the local football betting action, we turned to Wendy Sullivan, a Sports & Race Book ticket writer at the Tahoe Biltmore Lodge & Casino in Crystal Bay for the past two years.
Tahoe World: Do you see more bets being placed on college or pro football?
Sullivan: I think it’s pretty equal. Saturday has so many college games that there are a lot to choose from. And then Sunday, everybody comes and bets on NFL games. So I would guess it’s pretty equal action.
TW: Are there certain teams that are more popular amongst local bettors?
Sullivan: Oh yes. Anything team that comes from California is a favorite.
TW: How about types of bets placed? Do more people like to bet the money line or go with the point spread?
Sullivan: A lot of big bets are just on the point spread. But a lot of people love parlays because they like to bet a small amount of money to try to win a lot.
TW: Any advice for local bettors?
Sullivan: Most of the big money goes with straight bets with the point spread, and that’s how they make money. But you’re supposed to enjoy the game too, so it doesn’t hurt to do a parlay.
TW: Is the sports book at the Biltmore independent, or is it a satellite location for one of the big books?
Sullivan: It’s a satellite location in the Biltmore [for Leroy’s Horse and Sports Place]. And they Biltmore has a great Monday Night Football party every week.
TW: Are there times that are better for placing bets?
Sullivan: Everybody likes to bet right before game time. And a lot of people wait to see how the point spread moves — they’re hoping it moves a certain way. So if you find a point spread you like earlier in the week, you might be better off than if you waited.
A bettor's perspective
 To get a football bettor’s perspective, we also spoke with Lorea Beshears, an office assistant for the Sierra Sun and Tahoe World, and our resident sports betting aficionado.
Tahoe World: Do you prefer to bet on college or professional football?
Beshears: I prefer pro, because there are less teams to choose from. Whereas in college there are over 50 teams to choose from and I just can’t keep up.
TW: What are your favorite teams to bet on in the NFL?
Beshears: In the NFL it’s hard. I just go with teams that are my favorites, and it’s just a guess.
TW: So what are your favorite teams?
Beshears: I’m a Raider fan, and it’s impossible to bet on the Raiders... It’s hard to watch the games as a Raider fan the way they’ve been playing lately. It’s easier to bet things like the over-under on a game, because then you don’t have to root for your team, you’re just rooting that you team maybe scores points.
TW: Where do you place your football bets?
Beshears: At Boomtown. The [Club] Cal-Neva [in Reno] has a satellite sports book there.
TW: You said earlier that you haven’t won any bets yet this year?
Beshears: Not this year. But my record is an eight pick winner. So I picked eight teams for five dollars, and I won $1,000. That was three years ago and it gave me the faith, and now I pick too many teams, wanting to win that much money again.
TW: So you’re a fan of the parlay cards eh?
Beshears: Yeah, and pretty much it seems they have it dialed so that you lose by 1/2 point every week. When you fill out a parlay, you have to get them all right. So if I pick eight teams, I have to win eight out of eight. It’s smarter to pick two or three and just win $60 or $80.
For college though, it should be easier, since there are more stinky teams out there compared to the top 10. So they’ll give a poor team 30 points. But there are like 10 college teams that I pick every week because of the mascots — like the Badgers, because Carla [her dog] looks like a badger; and then there’s the gofers...
TW: Any advice for other would-be football bettors out there?
Beshears: It’s addicting. It makes it more interesting to watch the games and you watch teams you wouldn’t normally watch so you learn more about the game.
TW: Do you only bet on football? Or do you bet on other sports as well?
Beshears: Just football. My boyfriend would bet one bet per week, so I started doing one bet per week. But then, if you only have one bet and you lose it, it’s over. So I started doing four bets per week. But I only spend like $20.
[Editor’s note: Lorea just won her first football bet of the year on Monday, Nov. 6, after the Seahawks beat the Raiders game on Monday Night Football.]
Terminology
Point Spread:
A point spread is used by a sports book to encourage an equal amount of money to be wagered on both teams involved in a game, even though one team may be heavily favored. To accomplish this, the sports book will make the favored team “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team, meaning that the favored team must win the game by that many points for gamblers betting on them to win their bets.
So for example, in Monday night’s Seahawks/Raiders game, Seattle was favored by 7 points, meaning if Seattle had won by 8 points or more, they would have covered the spread and gamblers who picked the Seahawks would have won their bets. On the other hand, if Seattle had lost the game, or won by 6 points or less, the Seahawks would not have covered the spread and gamblers who picked the Raiders would have won their bets.
In the event the final score winds up on the exact number of the point spread, the game is considered a “push” and bettors for each team get their money back.
Point spreads are listed with the favored team’s name, followed by a minus sign and the number of points they must win by — e.g. Seattle -7. Alternately, they can be listed with the underdog team’s name, followed by a plus sign and the same number of points — e.g. Oakland +7.
Money Line:
Like the point spread, the money line is another method for a sports book to even out the betting action on two unevenly-matched teams. But unlike the point spread, money line results are determined by the game’s winner, no matter how many points the victor wins by.
Oddsmakers set the money line so that more money must be wagered on the favorite team and less on the underdog to win the same amount of money.
Using the Monday Night Football example again, the money line for the game was listed at: Seahawks -360 / Raiders +280. Meaning that gamblers betting the Seahawks would win had to risk $360 to win $100, but those betting the Raiders would win could bet $100 to win $280.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 07 November 2006 )
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