SUPERBOWL HANDLE A DISAPPOINTMENT

8 February 2008

Quite apart from an unexpected result, overall betting was down


Sunday's big Superbowl game between favourites New England Patriots and the eventual winners the New York Giants provided a major upset for bookies and failed to make anticipated new records in overall bets, reports the authoritative Las Vegas Review-Journal

The New York Giants upset New England Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII at Glendale, Arizona. The Giants closed as 12-point underdogs.

A total of $92.1 million was wagered on the game, and the state's 174 sportsbooks lost $2.6 million, according to figures released Tuesday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

It's only the second time in 18 years that Nevada sportsbooks lost on the Super Bowl.

There were hopes that the big game would draw a new record handle approaching $100 million, surpassing the current Super Bowl-record $94.5 million that was wagered in 2006, but these were not realised.

Las Vegas Hilton sportsbook director Jay Kornegay said the amount bet at his book "easily surpassed last year's handle."

"That number is shocking to me," Kornegay said of the handle of $92,055,833. "With all the hype, I thought we would at least break the record and get $95 million to $97 million."

A total of $93.1 million was wagered on the 2007 Super Bowl. Walker and Wynn Las Vegas sports book director John Avello said the handle was up slightly this year at their books.

Walker said there were fewer six-figure wagers at MGM Mirage books. The largest bet he took, he said, was $250 000 on the Giants plus-12.

New England was about a minus-420 favorite to win straight up on the money line, and the books took a beating mostly because the betting public piled on New York to win at about plus-350.

"When you're giving out 3-1 (odds) or more on the money line, you just can't overcome that," Walker said. "I would take that scenario every time where we just need the Patriots to win outright to win money."

"I expected the Patriots money-line bets to come in, and they never did. I was really surprised. We just didn't take any large wagers."

Kornegay said proposition bets turned a profit at the Hilton, but the result as a whole was a lost cause. "We got crushed on the game," Kornegay said. "By the time we got to the Super Bowl, a lot of people were tired of the Patriots, and they didn't want to root for Goliath."

The public did the most damage to the books by betting the Giants plus the points and the Giants on the money line. Many bettors played those bets on parlays with the score to go under the total of 55.

Eli Manning's touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds remaining helped New York finish off one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history. New England had taken a 14-10 lead with 2:42 left.

"The perfect scenario for us was New England scoring that last touchdown and the game just running out," Avello said. "That last drive for the Giants was the worst thing that could have happened."

Since the Gaming Control Board began keeping records in 1991, the only previous Super Bowl loss for Nevada's sportsbooks was in 1995, when San Francisco was a heavy favourite in a 49-26 victory over San Diego. The books lost $396 674 on that game, and the handle was $69.6 million.

The books celebrated a Super Bowl win of $12.9 million last year, so it was payback time for the bettors.

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