Station Casinos sees public favoring a side for Super Bowl
Red Rock Resort sportsbook director Chuck Esposito can feel it. The Super Bowl is approaching, and casual fans are getting their wallets out.
“You can already see it in the book this morning,” he said. “You can’t keep the prop sheets in the rack. You put them in there, then 20 minutes later, they’re gone.”
And based on early indications, the public will be backing the Cincinnati Bengals for Sunday’s Super Bowl LVI in Inglewood, California.
The Super Bowl line has resolidified, with the Los Angeles Rams now 4-point favorites over the Bengals at almost every Las Vegas sportsbook Friday afternoon.
The line had been Rams -4½ at most books for the previous week, but Wynn Las Vegas was the only holdout still at Rams -4½ on Friday. Treasure Island was at Rams -3½ but at -130 odds.
The Westgate SuperBook had the best line on the Rams at -4 at -102 odds after going to a 10-cent split on spread bets. The Bengals were at +4 at -108 odds. (A 20-cent split is the standard at sportsbooks, with each side usually offered at -110 odds.)
The South Point was also using a 10-cent split, with -105 odds on Rams -4 or Bengals +4.
Esposito said 60 percent of spread tickets at Station Casinos were on the Bengals, and so were 68 percent of money-line tickets.
“They’re definitely getting a lot of love right now,” he said. “The casual fan is enamored with (quarterback) Joe Burrow, Joe Kid. He won the Heisman, he was the first pick in the draft, and now they think he’s going to win the title.”
Based on the early action, Esposito said he thinks the Super Bowl line is more likely to come down to 3½ than go back to 4½.
“But it’s going to take a lot to move it off 4,” he said.
Esposito said 54 percent of tickets are on the over, and he could see the total going back up to 49 or 49½ because the public will think that a Bengals victory is correlated with a higher-scoring game.
The sharps have weighed in on the Super Bowl since the line opened nearly two weeks ago, but the public is just starting to be heard, Esposito said.
“The next two days are when the bulk of the action comes in,” he said.
Contact Jim Barnes at jbarnes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0277. Follow @JimBarnesLV on Twitter.
