Cross-football wins drums up business
Wthe Bills fell to 2-7 last season after three consecutive blowout losses, there was wild speculation that Alabama could beat Buffalo.
The Westgate sportsbook quickly shot down that notion by making the Bills a 28½-point favorite over the Crimson Tide in a hypothetical game.
Taking the NFL vs. college football concept a step further, CG Technology sportsbook posted
actual odds Thursday on 12 entertaining cross-football 2019 season wins total matchups.
Bettors can wager on whether the Patriots (-120) or Alabama (Even) will finish with more regular-season wins, and other matchups include Notre Dame-packers, Ohio StateBrowns, Southern California-49ers, Texas-cowboys, Louisiana Statesaints, Michigan-bears and Unlv-raiders.
“There’s so much serious stuff going on in the industry, we just kind of wanted to do some fun stuff,” CG Technology sportsbook director Tony Ditommaso said.
College football win totals, matchups
CG Technology also has posted five college football win total matchups and 26 college football win totals since early June, while the Circa sportsbook recently posted 34 college football win totals.
“We’re actually doing a lot of business,” Ditommaso said. “We were taking nickels ($500) to college season wins and handled $50,000 to it versus $300,000 to the NFL.”
CG Technology increased its college limits to $1,000 this week and the NFL to $2,000.
In the college win matchups, the public is backing Clemson over Alabama. The Tigers are minus 175 favorites over the Tide after the line opened at minus 140.
“Makes sense since the sharps and fans have bet Clemson over four times from our opening season wins price of 11 minus 130,” Ditommaso said. “We finally went to 11½ and took a quick bet under that price and went back to 11 Over (-180).
“The sharps bet Bama over 11 several times as well.”
Circa has Clemson’s total at
11½ (Under -130). That’s one of 18 differences of ½-win between CG and Circa. There’s also a one-win difference on Iowa, which is at 8 at CG and at 7 at Circa.
Sharp plays
Ditommaso said CG took sharp under action on Central Florida, which is at 9½ (Over -125) after opening at 10. The Knights went 13-0 in 2017 and 12-1 last season but probably will be without injured star quarterback Mckenzie Milton this year.
Ditommaso said CG also took several sharp under bets each on Georgia (11), Oklahoma (10½), Michigan (10), Notre Dame (9½), Texas (9½), Penn State (9), Louisiana State (9) and Miami, Fla., which dipped from 9 to 8½.
“They bet LSU under a couple of times, which is interesting, considering the big move on them to win it all,” Ditommaso said. “They’ve been betting them since we put (the futures) up.”
The Tigers are at 18-1 to win the 2020 CFP title game after opening at 50-1.
Wiseguys also made multiple bets on Oregon to go over 8½. Ducks quarterback Justin Herbert is the 4-1 second choice, behind Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa (-200), to be the first overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft in Las Vegas.
Ditommaso said sharp bettors and the betting public are on the same sides at this point.
“Sharps come in and move the number, and they don’t have anything but followers chasing the same number because they know we moved it after taking a sharp bet,” he said.
UNLV action
CG also took multiple limit bets on UNLV to go under 5½ wins and under 5 wins.
The Rebels are at 5 (Under -165) at CG and at 4½ (Over -165) at Circa. UNLV went 4-8 last season and has topped five wins once in the past 15 seasons.
UNR, which went 8-5 last season, opened at 6½ and dipped to 6 before moving back to 6½ (Under -125). Clemson Georgia Oklahoma Ohio St. Wash. Boise St. Florida
LSU
Penn St. Utah
Miss. St. Wisconsin Texas A&M Iowa
Iowa St. Mich. St. Wash. St. TCU
UNLV
CG Technology
11 (Over -180) 11½ (Under -130) 11 (Under -160) 10½ (-110) 10½ (Under -125) 10 (-110) 10 (Under -125) 9½ (Over -145) 10 (Under -135) 9½ (Over -130) 10 (Over -115) 9½ (Over -160) 9 (Under -115) 8½ (Over -160) 9 (Under -120) 8½ (Over -160) 9 (Under -155) 8½ (Under -145) 9 (Under -125) 8½ (-110) 8½ (-110) 8 (Over -130) 8½ (Under -125) 8 (Over -130) 8 (-110) 7½ (Over -160) 8 (-110) 7 (-110) 8 (Under -135) 7½ (-110) 8 (Under -130) 7½ (Over -140) 8 (Under -125) 7½ (Over -130) 7 (Over -120) 7½ (Under -120) 5 (Under -165) 4½ (Over -165)
Line moves
While Circa has moved only its prices on win totals, not numbers, there have been several ½-win moves in totals at CG. Besides movers UCF, UNLV and Miami, Michigan State moved to 8 after opening at 7½ and Wisconsin is at 8½ after opening at 9.
In other win total matchups, bettors have backed Notre Dame (-½) over Penn State, Texas (+1) over Oklahoma and Florida (-½) over Miami.
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.