Friday NBA, NHL Best Bets; Thursday Recaps
We’re finally entering the home stretch of the two-week gap between the NFL Conference Championship Games and the Super Bowl in the Tuley’s Takes home office and the “Big Game” can’t get here quick enough.
That’s what the sportsbooks here in Las Vegas used to have to call the Super Bowl for our viewing parties and odds sheets – and we’re reaching a major milestone with Sunday’s game being the first played in a state with legalized sports betting. On Thursday, we didn’t see any movement on the side or total as the Super Bowl point spread remained a consensus of Eagles -1.5 over the Chiefs with the South Point, Treasure Island and Station Casinos staying at Eagles -2. The Over/Under also remained at 51 at the majority of Vegas sportsbooks with BetMGM and Resorts World the only books at 50.5 while Treasure Island was on the high end at 51.5.
When I helped South Point sportsbook director Chris Andrews post his “Inside the betting action” column at VSiN.com earlier this week, he predicted that he would probably stay at Eagles -2 until the majority of tourists arrived in town, and that’s where he’s still sitting heading into Friday. We have tons of betting insight like that – as well as picks – in our Betting Guides and on the VSiN.com website. There’s also the VSiN Help Desk if you want to see some Q&A with our subscribers or submit your own question.
As for our bets in other sports while waiting for the big weekend, we lost our Thursday Best Bet on Iowa +7.5 at Purdue as the Boilermakers didn’t show any ill effects from having their 9-game winning streak snapped (I wasn’t too thrilled about the layoff from last Saturday, so wish I had talked myself into passing on that one). At least we won with the Golden Knights +105 at the Wild, but lost our NHL 1P Over parlay as the Flames only led 1-0 vs. the Oilers and the Flames-Red Wings first period was scoreless. Let’s recap the rest of Thursday’s (full-game) action, and look for some more Best Bets on Friday. Then, as has been our custom here, we’ll rerun our NFL “takes” column from last Wednesday with our early Super Bowl bets including some related props.Thursday Recaps
CBB: Loyola-Marymount upset No. 15 Saint Mary's 78-74 in OT as 6.5-point home underdog late Thursday. Earlier, No. 1 Purdue (-7-5) covered in 87-73 win vs. Iowa. No. 7 UCLA (-15) beat Oregon State 62-47 and pushed vs. consensus closing line, covering for those laying -14.5.