Raiders’ popularity takes hit at Las Vegas sports books
Commitment to Raiders’ excellence had already waned at Las Vegas sports books before Oakland traded defensive end Khalil Mack to the Chicago Bears.
Last year, fresh off the announcement that the storied franchise was moving to Las Vegas in 2020, the Raiders were the most popular pick to win the Super Bowl. But the resurgent Los Angeles Rams have supplanted the Silver and Black as the betting darling entering the 2018 NFL season.
“The Raiders have been popular but definitely not as popular as they were last year,” Westgate SuperBook manager John Murray said. “It’s not that surprising considering the season they had.
“We don’t really like the Raiders here. We feel they’ve been mostly acquiring older players and castoffs from other teams.”
Oakland, which went 6-10 last season after going 12-4 in 2016, also brought back old coach Jon Gruden, who began his coaching career with the Raiders in 1998. Gruden, 55, won a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay in 2003 but hasn’t coached since 2008, spending the past nine years as an analyst on “Monday Night Football.”
“They spent $100 million on him but he won the Super Bowl so long ago, (the betting public) doesn’t think of him as a top-notch coach,” William Hill sports book director Nick Bogdanovich said. “They think of him as an analyst.”
Mack impact
While Gruden’s arrival barely affected the Raiders’ odds, Mack’s departure has made a substantial impact. After the Sept. 1 trade, Oakland’s odds moved from 20-1 to 40-1 to win the Super Bowl and from 10-1 to 20-1 to win the AFC.
“I don’t know if anybody really believes they have the personnel to win the Super Bowl or the AFC,” Wynn Las Vegas sports book director Johnny Avello said. “Maybe next year or the year after, when they come to Vegas. That’s when teams start to rock ‘n’ roll, when they become part of the Las Vegas culture.”
Westgate sports book manager Ed Salmons has the same forecast.
“It’s obvious the Raiders are essentially building for 2020 in Las Vegas. That’s the year they want to be a rising team with a realistic chance to do something,” he said. “This year’s team has no chance.”
The Raiders’ season win total has also dipped from 8 (Under minus 125) to 7½ (Under minus 140) and the odds moved from minus 200 to minus 275 against them making the playoffs.
Oakland’s odds to win the AFC West took a hit as well, falling from 7-2 to 4-1, where they’re tied with the Denver Broncos. The Los Angeles Chargers are the 5-4 favorites to win the division and the Kansas City Chiefs are the 11-4 second choice.
“Two teams in the division I really like are the Chargers and the Chiefs,” Murray said. “It could be a really long year for the Raiders.”
Rams, Packers popular picks
The Rams and San Francisco 49ers are the leaders in tickets and money to win the Super Bowl at William Hill, which has 109 sports books in Nevada. The Raiders are fifth in both categories.
“We always get a lot of Raiders business regardless,” Bogdanovich said. “All those books up north, even though they live in Reno, they’re Raiders fans.”
The Rams, the 9-1 second choice to win the Super Bowl behind the New England Patriots (6-1), also lead the way in tickets at the Westgate and South Point sports books. The Green Bay Packers (12-1) are the money leaders at both spots.
A new Carr
Bogdanovich expects quarterback Derek Carr to improve on his numbers from last season, when he threw 22 touchdown passes after averaging 30 the previous two years and matched a career high with 13 interceptions.
“I’m optimistic because I think Carr’s good and will bounce back. But if they went 4-12 or 12-4, neither one will surprise me,” Bogdanovich said. “Any time you bring in a coach, anything can happen. He’ll try to change the culture, but I like Carr and I think he has a better chance to have a good year than a bad year.”
Defenseless
The biggest question mark for the Raiders is their defense, which was one of the worst in the league last season with Mack, their top pass rusher and the 2016 NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
The Mack deal also moved the line in Monday’s night’s season opener between the Rams and Raiders at the Oakland Coliseum. The Rams were 3-point favorites before the trade but have since climbed to 4½-point favorites.
“When things like that happen, we try to get in front of the market and essentially dare people to bet the way we want them to,” Salmons said. “We’re trying to do everything we can to make the Raiders cover this game.”
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Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.
