Favourites Winning Hands Las Vegas Big Loss

Published on November 11th, 2018 12:44 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


According to multiple reports, last weekend was one of the worst of the past decade for Las Vegas area sports books, as they reportedly suffered massive losses due to the NFL.

The reason? Almost all of the favourites and most followed teams won last weekend, which conspired to put an absolute beating on the sports books.

Amateur gamblers have a tendency to put their money down on the favourites, while professionals tend to look to the underdogs that they perceive as having value. This usually works out well for the sports books, as they will price lines appropriately so that in almost all cases, they are walking away with a win, as inexperienced bettors put their money onto favourites that are not properly priced. These imbalances will allow experienced bettors the opportunity to find value, though sports books aren't really worried about these people, as they are making too much money from the rookie gamblers to care.

This strategy, however, can go seriously awry when favourites and/or popular teams do well. Last weekend, the biggest favourites almost all covered, which ended up resulting in big losses for Las Vegas area sports books. Some have put the estimate of total losses north of $10 million.

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If you ever see a weekend in the NFL where the favourites all win handily, you can be fairly certain that the sports books will have taken a big loss.

Don't be too sad for them, however - sports books make piles of money, mainly based off of the backs of amateur gamblers who are overpaying for their favourite teams.

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There are a number of blowouts shaping up in the NFL this weekend as well, which means that sports books might be in for some more hurt.