There was lopsided action, featuring several big bets, on the surging Los Angeles Rams, and the New England Patriots put together another dominant performance for the betting public, but some Las Vegas sportsbooks still came out on top.
The Rams won their fourth straight game, easily covering a double-digit spread in a 33-7 win over the Houston Texans. Los Angeles was listed as only a 3-point favorite over the Texans, before Houston rookie quarterback Deshaun Watson tore his ACL in practice on Nov. 2. The line reopened with the Rams as 11-point favorites at most books and grew to as high as -13 on Sunday.
Las Vegas sportsbook operator CG Technology took two $200,000 bets on the Rams from the same customer, according to vice president of risk Jason Simbal. The unidentified bettor, who also placed a $1 million bet on the Atlanta Falcons on the Super Bowl with CG Technology, had better luck with the Rams. MGM and the Westgate SuperBook also reported taking large bets on the Rams, and, at William Hill's Nevada sportsbook, 30 of the 31 biggest point-spread bets on the game were on Los Angeles. At kickoff, 92 percent of the money bet at William Hill was on the Rams.
"It's been a pretty good day so far," MGM assistant manager Jeff Stoneback said as Los Angeles was pulling away from the Texans. "But this Rams game is going to take a chunk out of our profits. We're going to have a ton of parlays rolling into the night game tonight.
"We're going to have a ton of parlays rolling into tonight's game," Stoneback added. "We're going to need the Broncos pretty bad tonight."
CG Technology was in a no-lose situation heading into the night game between the Patriots and Denver Broncos.
"We can't lose, but if the Broncos were able to win, it would be one of the better games of the year for us," Simbal said.
The Patriots easily covered as 7-point favorites in a 41-16 rout of the Denver Broncos.
The books pointed to the Indianapolis Colts' covering the spread against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the San Francisco 49ers upsetting the favored New York Giants as two of their biggest wins on the day.
"There was sharp money on the Giants," Stoneback said. "Sharps went down on that game."
For the week, NFL favorites are 7-5-1 against the spread, heading into Monday night's game between the Carolina Panthers and Miami Dolphins. The Panthers are 9-point favorites at the Westgate.