Weekend Sports Gambler: For Raiders Bettors, It’s On To Kansas City and Monday Night Football
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
By Dan Behringer, LVSportsBiz.com Betting Writer
For Raiders bettors, it’s onto Kansas City and their division foe, the Chiefs, on Monday Night Football.
The line opened at Raiders +6.5 in a few spots, but has since been bet up to +7.5. The total has ticked down from 52.5 to 51.5.
If you fancy the Raiders upsetting the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, which they did in 2020, 40-32, as 12-point underdogs, the Raiders are in the +275 range on the money line.
After their first win of the season last weekend vs. the Denver Broncos, the Silver and Black are now 1-3 on the season and 1-3 ATS. The Chiefs, widely seen as a Super Bowl contender, are 3-1 and 2-2 ATS. They also might be looking ahead to a game vs. the Buffalo Bills on Oct. 16 — if you buy into the theory that NFL coaches and players actually do look ahead.
“This will be a, uh, big challenge,” said Raider coach Josh McDaniels, again echoing Captain Obvious at a mid-week press conference. “A really good staff and a lot of really good players.”
At Covers.com, 53 percent of the betting interest is on the Chiefs and 47 percent on the Raiders. The typical buffet line of props will likely appear as game time nears.
Kickoff is at 5:15 p.m.
Elsewhere:
— Rebels as road dogs: The UNLV football Rebels, a surprising 4-1 on the season, will visit the San Jose Spartans on Friday night.
The Spartans, 3-1, opened as -5 favorites, a number that went all the way to -7 before coming back to -6.5 at most locales. The total has been bet up from 50.5 to 51.5.
Sole possession of first place in the Western Division of the Mountain West Conference is at stake along with UNLV’s fledgling rise from perennial doormat to potential conference contender.
Rebels coach Marcus Arroyo is very familiar with his Friday night foe. He played quarterback there from 1998 to 2002 and lettered three times. He began his coaching career with the Spartans in 2003 and eventually became quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator.
“I played there, I’m from there, but it has nothing to do with winning and losing,” Arroyo told a reporter for LocalToday. “Absolutely nothing. I have to say this emphatically because if I think about it, or any of us think about who we’re playing or where we’re playing, as an environmental factor or nostalgia, you lose sight of the point.”
At Covers.com, 53 percent of the betting interest is on UNLV and 47 percent on State Jose State.
Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.
— MLB baseball playoffs underway: If you’re within viewing range of a TV, you’ll find as many as four Major League Baseball games on any given day as Major League Baseball’s Wild Card round gets underway Friday.
Yet the futures market doesn’t consider any of the Wild Card teams as a serious threat to win the World Series. At BetMGM, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees are the favorites at +300, +400, +500 and +500, respectively.
At the other end, the St. Louis Cardinals, Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Guardians, and San Diego Padres are +1,800, +2,500, +2800, and +2800, respectively, to win the World Series crown.
Said Padres pitcher Yu Darvish, Game 1 starter on Friday through a translator to a CBS station in San Diego: “We have some great characters on this team. It’s a fun clubhouse.”
What could be more fun than cashing a ticket at +2800?
— Hungry for hockey? We’re seeing the Los Angeles Kings as -115 favorites vs. the Vegas Golden Knights their NHL season opener on Tuesday. The total is 6.
— Close cover: If you stayed up late last weekend to watch Oregon beat Stanford, 45-27, you witnessed a close cover. Oregon was a 17-point favorite and covered by one point.
— Play of the Week (4-1): We were able to improve to 4-1 on our Play of the Week last week when Alabama, -17.5, put away Arkansas, 49-26. This week, we’re venturing into the NFL for the first time this season and are on the Los Angeles Rams at -5.5.
ADVERTISEMENT
