Football fans around the world are starting to believe in the Ravens — and they’re willing to back up that belief with their wallets.
“The Ravens action we have been seeing is unbelievable,” Reed Richards, a spokesperson for BetUs.com, said. “People are starting to believe in them and we are seeing action far outside of the Baltimore area. People are putting their money down from as far away as California and Texas. We have seen a major surge in the rest of the population betting on the Ravens.”
BetUs.com, which was recently named 2008 Sports Book of the Year by Online Gaming Insider, had Baltimore a 60-to-1 long shot to win the Super Bowl at the beginning of the season and was picked to win just six games. Entering this weekend, however, the Ravens have 4-to-1 odds to win the Super Bowl after going just 5-11 in 2007. BetUs.com, however, and others would not reveal specifically how much has been wagered on the Ravens and Steelers in the AFC or the Philadelphia Eagles and the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC championship game.
Nevada is the only state where gambling on college and professional sporting events is legal.
The Ravens (13-5) lost to Pittsburgh (13-4) by a combined seven points in two games this season, yet oddsmakers put them as a six-point underdog heading into Sunday night’s game at 6:30. This means that a person betting on the Steelers would need them to win by more than six points to win money, or a person betting on the Ravens would need them to win, or lose by less than six.
“In a case of such similar teams, everything you say about Baltimore that they do well and give credit for, Pittsburgh does better,” Dan O’Brien, a senior oddsmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants, said. “Six points does appear huge because you figure it will be a close, tight game. But there are certain intangibles, like playing at Pittsburgh — there’s just something about the night playoff games, and it’s a brutal place to play.”
Even in tough economic times, those in the sports gambling business are expecting millions of dollars to be bet on this weekend’s conference championship games as the industry continues to grow thanks in large part to easy access on the Internet. Almost $2.6 billion was wagered at the Nevada sports books in 2007, according to the state’s Gaming Control Board. Internet gambling has made that number even higher, with an estimated $20 billion spent in 2008.
Las Vegas Sports Consultants provides lines and other services for many casinos in Nevada, including the Las Vegas Hilton, Caesar’s and the Palms. O’Brien also added that with setting lines in an industry that handles so much money, stress is a big part of the job.
“There are certain Sundays where that morning, all the early games go bad and they fell through and the sports books get hammered and you have a pit in your stomach,” O’Brien said. “Then you hope a team like Oakland is going to bail us out and cover, but before you can even order lunch, it’s 14-nothing. Days like that are awful.”
And teams like the Ravens, with quarterback Joe Flacco, who became the first rookie in history to win two playoff games, don’t make the job any easier.
“It’s tough for us, because we love things to happen a bit more predictably,” Richards said. “When the strong team prevails, it makes life easy for us. But when you get a team like Baltimore, all bets are off. We take a very scientific, numbers-based approach, and then a team like the Ravens come along and they make me have to work later.”
