Rams get majority of betting action for Week 1 showdown with Raiders

The NFL betting lines have been released for several weeks now, but recently gambling house William Hill made available the percentage of action on each team for each game.

Raiders vs. Rams, being the opening Monday Night Football game, is last on the list, and the Rams are 3 point road favorites. The money line is Rams -110, implying that if you bet the Rams to win the game outright, you will need to bet $110 to win $100.

The majority of the betting public sees this as a surefire Rams win, and 70% of the wagers and 80% of the money wagered is on the Rams’ side of the bet. A Raiders victory would make the casinos very, very happy.

Some other interesting lines of note are the fact that the public doesn’t see the Chargers having any trouble covering a 3 point spread over the Chiefs. The Broncos are actually favored over the Seahawks for some reason, both in the spread and with the bettors. Also, the public strongly believes the Houston Texans will cover a 6.5 point spread on the road against the Patriots. Could this spell the end of the Pats’ tenure as the most sure bet in gambling?

Perhaps the most interesting, and least informed, tidbit here is the Giants vs. Jaguars line. The Jags are favored by a paltry 3.5 points, but 90% of the wagers are for the Giants to cover or win, and 95% of the money. Clearly this is due to optimistic Giants fans, and New York is a huge market with millions of sad and delusional gamblers. Expect Vegas to clean up as Jacksonville wins by double digits.

While these numbers are fun, these are almost certainly wagers from normal fans and not the “sharp” professional gamblers. Big money from sharps can swing a spread or betting line to one side or another in the days leading up to the actual games. But this does give us some insight into where the public perception lies right now.