Some teams are prone to a letdown the day after a big game. Don’t count oddsmakers among them.
“We never take a day off,” said Pete Korner of the Sports Club in Las Vegas.
The Super Bowl remains the preeminent business day of the year for sports books. It’s not as if those who run them spend the next day reveling in the profit from prop bets and ignoring the task at hand.
It’s their job to not let that happen. While many book managers take the Monday off after the Super Bowl, they are quick to point out that this is a common off-day in the profession and not an exception for Super Bowl week.
Given that oddsmakers also aren’t in the habit of taking off the post-Super Bowl Monday, it might be a good idea for bettors to do just that.
In fact, Korner says his job is made easier by the fact that there are only a handful of games, mostly NBA contests, to post lines for on this day, further reducing the chance of finding a soft spot.
“It’s usually a small schedule,” he says. “It takes us about half an hour and we’re done. Just another day at the office.”
Although the lines on basketball games for Super Bowl Sunday and the following day might not generate as much action as they normally might (and tend to move less frequently) this doesn’t mean the lines necessarily present value, according to professional handicappers.
Moreover, they are wary of accurate NBA lines that have been polished through a half-season’s worth of games to this point.
“I think the public and recreational bettors might overlook the basketball lines on Super Bowl Sunday, but they are not the ones that matter,” said handicapper Steve Merril. “Pro bettors do not overlook these games and the lines are pretty sharp this time of year.”
What’s more, Merril noted that the time to look for NBA value isn’t in February, it’s much earlier.
“I find the softest numbers are in November, when the oddsmakers do not have a feel for the basketball teams,” he says. “And they still have 30-40 college football games and 15 NFL games to contend with each weekend.”
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