I did raise the point in the other thread about the ref's influencing the games. Mainly the prime time and early UK games. Go back and look at the scores. The majority of them have come down to the final drive just like a Hollywood movie. A good example is last night. Bengals were doing nothing on offense and boom they get a few penalities there way and take the lead and the Rams can't catch a break.
Jags, Ravens, and Cowboys were 3 of the top 4 moneyline favorites this week (Chiefs were 4th) and they all lost. Maybe one or 2 losing is believable but all 3? Since online sportsbooks have taken over NFL has been so fishy it's not even funny. You can't even go through a commercial break without seeing an ad for draftkings. Hell they even show the betting odds on the ticker during the game.
Vegas had to have made a killing week 1 with Chiefs, Bengals, and Bills all losing. And don't even get me started on how many Survivor Pools were busted this week.
Originally Posted by paintedbynumbers
I don’t know about the NFL intentionally manipulating games to create more drama at the end (and not coincidentally keeping viewers tuned in for the entire game), but sports books really don’t care who wins and loses the games. They make pretty much a guaranteed profit regardless of outcome. They set money line odds in such a way as to do so. They have experts setting lines based on their evaluation of the probability of upsets, and those experts do a very good job at making those evaluations. The goal is to generate appropriate action each way to ensure profit.
Just as a concrete example, suppose the odds maker thinks an underdog has a 1/3 chance of pulling off the upset. For fair odds, he would set the money line as -200 on the favorite and +200 on the dog. If the betting public mostly agrees with that assessment they will bet about 1/3 of the action on the dog and about 2/3 on the favorite. Regardless of outcome, the book would break even - The $2 bet on the favorite for every $1 on the dog would be used to pay off the bettors if the dog wins, and likewise money bet on the dog would pay the winning bettors on the favorite if they win.
In reality the books do not give fair odds. In the example above they might set odds at +180 and -220. Assuming the public bets at the same 2/3 to 1/3 split, the book makes its profit regardless of outcome. (Making the math easier), suppose there is $4400 bet on the favorite and $2200 bet on the dog. If the dog wins, the bettors are owed 1.8x2200 or $3960. Since there was $4400 bet and lost the book makes $440. If the favorite wins the book must pay 100 x 4400/220 or $2000. The book has 2200 in losers so it makes $200.
The odds I set were somewhat arbitrary. The book sets these more exactly to give itself roughly the same profit regardless of outcome. There may be games where the odds maker does not anticipate public action correctly and exposes the book to increased risk, but this also gives the book increased profit opportunity if the game goes right. Over the long haul, such cases tend to balance each other out and the book makes essentially a steady profit on all betting regardless of game outcomes.
Sports bettors are gambling. Sports book makers are not.