By Des Boodam
website: www.worldseriesofhandicapping.com
This is what I know — Vegas ain’t happy after week 9. They were taking to the cleaners. The main reason is… the betting public prefers favorites and many of them won big… Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Carolina, Chicago, New England, Atlanta and Minnesota all covered with relative ease crushing the wallets of odds makers and bookies. Notable Vegas personalities and handicapping experts are on record for stating this is one of the 10 worst NFL betting weeks in history and many handicappers knew it was going to be bad two hours into Sunday’s slate.
I’d like to say I feel bad, but I don’t as there have been countless times I’ve felt the same way. Games slip further and further out of hand, and before you know it, the games you marked with 7 confidence points is out of hand… and your week is sunk. The question, is who was able to take advantage and by how much.
A whopping 11 people including yours truly finished 6-1 while two people finished 7-0. A crap ton of people finished in the positive, more than any other week and there was a lot of floating in the standings. Before I give props to anyone specific – props to the field for taking advantage of some bad Vegas lines…
Props to No_d1237 and freshatc for putting out a perfect week. Don’t spend your $50 in one place. Both were on ATL, TEN, PIT, and MIN which in hindsight all seemed like no brainers. I was on MIN, TEN and PIT so I get it… and I thought Washington at home would be a little more stout on defense. Of the top 5 finishers this week, only three games that predicted the over/under were selected. That’s 3 out of 35 possible games.
It is clear there is some major tension in the World Series of Handicapping field with the over/under lines, meaning Vegas is killing it with total points lines. Competitors including both No_d1237 and freshatc did well sniffing out some games this week.
Well Fred14 and Bruin7 finally did it. They stayed close for over a month and waited for the top dogs to fall, and fall they did. Not by a lot, but just enough to be overtaken. Making NFL picks is one thing but successfully making NFL picks over an extended period of time is extremely difficult… a true grind. Fred14 only has a six point lead which we know can vaporize in a moments time.
I’d say given the volatility of the NFL even players in the low negatives have a shot at the ring. If you were concerned about Allredb1, Sdiddy and others they are 4th and 5th respectively and all others are in the mix. Get some rest folks, it doesn’t get any easier and Vegas is going to have a sharpened pencil.
