Books buried in Week 9

For the third straight NFL Sunday, bettors hammered Nevada sports books, but Week 9 action was a bit more extreme of a loss. It was actually an all-timer type of loss.

"It's the worst Sunday we've had in quite some time," said Station Casinos sports book director Jason McCormick.

Favorites only went 6-5 against the spread with all five of the underdogs winning outright and sharp money did poorly, but the public went for sports book's jugular with all their key games in parlays and teasers.

"It was the worst day of the year by a country mile," said William Hill's top [...] Nick Bogdanovich.

Things went so bad for the sports book in Sunday's first 10 games that there was no out in the Sunday night game. Just about every book showed an all-way loss with the Patriots and Packers. No way out and New England's 31-17 win was the cherry on top of many big parlays cashing. Sharp Packers money dropped the Patriots from -6.5 down to -5, but their money pales in comparison to multiplying public parlay payouts.

"We're getting crushed," said MGM Resorts sports book hub manager Jeff Stoneback after the 1:00 p.m. ET game posted. "We had a big 4-team parlay hit in Mississippi with a $35,000 that paid over $400,000 with the Rams-Saints Over, Texans, Bears (-115) and Chiefs. New Jersey was a non-factor in overall decisions, but collectively for all properties, it was a bad day."

Stoneback said that if the late game came Patriots and Over that it would be one of the top-5 losses he's ever seen in the industry. He's got almost 30 years in the business.

The highest total of the week was the Saints-Rams game at 60.5 and it had been bet down to 57.5 by sharp money, the public still bet it 'over' and they were correct with the Saints winning a 45-35 shootout. The Saints went from one-point favorites to a two-point underdogs by kickoff due to sharp money coming in on the Rams.

"We had sharp money on the Rams, but the public kept playing the Saints no matter what the spread was," Stoneback said.

The Texans won at Denver, 19-17, as one-point underdogs and the Bears covered -10 at Buffalo in a 41-9 win.

"Wise guy money was on the Browns but the public was all over the Chiefs," said Stoneback. "The Chiefs, Bears and Vikings were the worse for us."

Wise guys took a beating as well. They're usually waiting to take some of the books profit when the house buries public parlays, but they were on the sinking ship as well this week.

"We took a bath," said Caesars Palace senior oddsmaker Alan Berg. "But thankfully plenty of Sundays to come. Worst games for us was the Chiefs, Vikings, Panthers. Our best game was the Chargers. That's it for sides, Pats game staying under made us a tiny winner on that game."

The Chargers (+1) were one of three small underdogs to win outright in the 4:00 p.m. ET games with a 25-17 win at Seattle. The Vikings (-5) beat the Lions 24-9, aided by a team record 10 sacks against Matt Stafford. The total moved from 50.5 down to staying 47, one of the few sharp moves to cash on the day.

"The public crushed it today," said Stoneback. "September was a month where everything went our way, but it is going the same rate against us the past few weeks."

Roberts is a former Las Vegas sports book director that has been covering the sports betting industry for the last 14 years.

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