Yep - and to do that, they factor in far more than the play on the field and final score. They factor in psychology (everyone loving Colorado), popular teams with loyal fan bases (skewing betting, and all sorts of things that I probably can't even understand.Vegas' goal: get betting action relatively evenly distributed on both sides of the line. If they accomplish that, they win. Infallibility is never their goal.
If 90% of the money is on SCjr. then the line would go down. This line says less of the money is on SCjr.On usce +12.5
“By the way, this is one of these Vegas lines that is so terrifying I understand if you don’t bet it at all. I’d bet 90% of the bets here are going to be on South Carolina. Which means every site is going to need the Vols big. When that happens, Vegas doesn’t lose big very often. I’m just saying.”
Vols by 13 plus. Vegas and Vols win big this weekend
Travis is probably trying to skew bets so Vegas wins bigger. I personally think we are in trouble. Our stats look better here, but that’s misleading. USC has already played North Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi St. I mean they have to have the toughest schedule this year. In fact they do:On usce +12.5
“By the way, this is one of these Vegas lines that is so terrifying I understand if you don’t bet it at all. I’d bet 90% of the bets here are going to be on South Carolina. Which means every site is going to need the Vols big. When that happens, Vegas doesn’t lose big very often. I’m just saying.”
Vols by 13 plus. Vegas and Vols win big this weekend
Lord please let this be true. There’s nothing I’d like more than to witness a yardbird curb-stomping in Neyland at night!So this is a bit confusing but I wanted to learn about this as well a while back, even though I don't bet/gamble. So this is how it works:
90% of the time, yes, this is the case, Vegas wants the money to be even. But a few times a year Vegas will make a "sucker bet" where they are very sure of a certain outcome, and equally sure that the money will come in on the other outcome. Vegas can make a killing if the overwhelming majority bets the wrong way and everyone loses a ton of money.
So in this situation for example, Vegas is very sure of 2 things:
1. Tennessee wins big
2. The big majority takes South Carolina to cover
The result will be that the big majority is wrong, so the big majority loses to Vegas.
The Tennessee-Georgia game last year did this, and it's why I was trying to convince people that it was going to be a bad night for us. Georgia opened as huge favorites, all the money came in on Tennessee, and Vegas never moved the line, they were more than happy for everyone to lose their arses betting on Tennessee to cover. When you see that happening to your team, watch out. It's going to be a rough night.
If I'm a South Carolina fan, I don't like what I'm seeing at all with this line.
I always find it risky to go against the people who feed their family by gambling. It's their actual job so they don't need to be right every time but they need to be right a lot to feed the kids.
We've dragged Nathan Peterman on this board but he's a professional QB and making 7 figures or near it playing QB. I'd not want to challenge his throwing skills vs mine. He's a pro. He's good with a football.
It's the same with pro gambling houses. You may think they suck, the line is wrong, but this is what they do every day to feed the kids. They aren't perfect but they definitely aren't starving. They're good with odds.
Yeah, Vegas has been gambling a long, long time. Sports betting, legally, may be relatively new but they've got a lot of experience with odds, betting trends, etc.Exactly. This opening line was no accident like Travis is trying to imply. LV has their formulas, inside info., etc to determine these opening betting lines. If you don't think these guys know what their doing take a walk down the strip in LV and just look around, $ are flowing everywhere.
**** Clay Travis!On usce +12.5
“By the way, this is one of these Vegas lines that is so terrifying I understand if you don’t bet it at all. I’d bet 90% of the bets here are going to be on South Carolina. Which means every site is going to need the Vols big. When that happens, Vegas doesn’t lose big very often. I’m just saying.”
Vols by 13 plus. Vegas and Vols win big this weekend
Yes, something like that. People think they are betting against the house. But, the house hedges to win either way. One group in this transaction is getting rich while the other in the transaction is going broke. I'll let the readers take a stab at which one is which.Wouldn't they just keep moving the line down until the bet money evens out if that were the case? That's how I always understood booking to be profitable, i.e. even out the bets so that the house wins either way.