LAS VEGAS -- If expanded sports betting legalization is taking its toll on Sin City sportsbooks, you sure couldn't tell this weekend.
On Sunday, a line of bettors 100 or so deep stretched all the way to the back of the SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas. On Saturday, every seat was taken at the South Point sportsbook as LSU and Alabama collided in a classic. Bookmaking in Las Vegas, at least for now, is booming.
On Sunday, it was definitely good to be a bookmaker.
Here is this week's Notable Bets, our weekly wrap-up of sports betting storylines from around the nation.
NFL notable bets
Chiefs a popular pick
• William Hill took a $440,000 bet on the Titans +6 and still had significantly more money on the Chiefs at its sportsbooks in Indiana, Iowa, Nevada, New Jersey and West Virginia. Twenty minutes before the game kicked off, 90% of the point-spread bets and 73% of the point-spread money was on the favored Chiefs.
• Las Vegas sportsbook operator CG Technology took a $90,000 money-line bet on the Chiefs (-270) that would have won a net $33,000. The Titans won 35-32 in a wild finish that produced an estimated $10 million swing nationwide that went against the betting public.
• The action was lopsided on the Chiefs everywhere. Two hours before kickoff, more than 97% of the money was on Kansas City at Caesars Sportsbook. FanDuel reported that 95% of the money was on the Chiefs.
Biggest upset of season
• The Falcons beat the Saints as 13.5-point underdogs. By the point spread, it was the largest upset of the season so far. "It was our biggest winner of the NFL season to date," said John Murray, executive director of SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas.
• "The Falcons outright was huge," said Alan Berg, senior oddsmaker for Caesars Sportsbook. "We held like 72% [of the money bet] on that one. The Saints were on most of the big money-line parlays."
• Since the 2003 season, NFL teams favored by 13 or more were 183-20-1 straight-up, according to sports betting database BetLabsSports.com.
Books clean up (again)
• "Today was a big day," CG Technology oddsmaker Dave Sharapan said Sunday night. "I think we only lost one game, the Bears game. Everything else was a very positive result." The Bears won and covered in a 20-13 victory over the Lions, who were without quarterback Matthew Stafford. The line moved from Bears -2.5 to -6.5.
• "There are going to be a lot of happy people with Sunday's results," Berg said Sunday night.
• "This is our second-best Sunday of the season," the SuperBook's Murray said.
Other notes
• Respected bettors played the following games at Caesars Sportsbook:
Giants -2.5 and -3 (even). The Jets beat the Giants 34-27.
Buccaneers -4. Tampa Bay beat the Cardinals 30-27, failing to cover the spread.
Browns -2.5. Cleveland won and covered in a 19-16 win over Buffalo.
• Four of the six largest NFL bets at sportsbook PointsBet were on the Giants.
• "The Steelers' cover and outright win [over the favored Rams] was another great result and helped us turn a solid Sunday into a fantastic one," PointsBet director of communication Patrick Eichner told ESPN.
• The same New Jersey bettor who won $400,000 on the Titans at William Hill bet $440,000 on the Buccaneers -4.5 and $420,000 on the Browns -3, as first reported by Covers.com.
• More bets were placed on the Jets-Giants game than were placed on any other game at the sportsbook at The Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
• More money was bet on the Panthers-Packers game than was bet on any other game Sunday, just ahead of Falcons-Saints, at Caesars Sportsbook.
• Thirty minutes before kickoff of the prime-time game, five times as much money had been bet on the Cowboys as had been bet on the Vikings at MGM sportsbooks in Nevada. Minnesota won 28-24.
• Caesars Sportsbook took bets from respected customers on both sides of the Monday night game between the Seahawks and 49ers. The 49ers are consensus 6-point home favorites. "I just moved to 6.5 after we took a bet from a sharp guy [on the 49ers]," Berg said. "We took a bet at +6.5 [on the Seahawks] earlier in the week. I feel like it's going to bounce around between 6 and 6.5. There seems to be opinions on those numbers."
Early Week 11 lines
From Caesars Sportsbook, at completion of Sunday night game.
Thursday
Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns (-2.5, 40.5)
Sunday
Atlanta Falcons at Carolina Panthers (-6, 50.5)
Buffalo Bills (-6, 39) at Miami Dolphins
Dallas Cowboys at Detroit Lions (Off)
Denver Broncos at Minnesota Vikings (Off)
Houston Texans at Baltimore Ravens (-4.5, 49)
Jacksonville Jaguars at Indianapolis Colts (Off)
New Orleans Saints (-4.5, 51) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
New York Jets (-1, 38) at Washington Redskins
Arizona Cardinals at San Francisco 49ers (-13.5, 45.5)
Cincinnati Bengals at Oakland Raiders (-10, 49.5)
New England Patriots (-3, 46) at Philadelphia Eagles
Chicago Bears at Los Angeles Rams (-7, 41.5)
Monday
Kansas City Chiefs (-4.5, 53) vs. Los Angeles Chargers (in Mexico City)
Byes: Green Bay Packers, New York Giants, Seattle Seahawks, Tennessee Titans
College football roundup
LSU-Alabama
• More money was bet on LSU-Alabama than was bet on any Sunday NFL game at Caesars Sportsbook.
• The only NFL game that attracted more money than LSU-Alabama at CG Technology was Chiefs-Titans.
• The betting public flocked to underdog LSU on the money line. The Tigers were more than 2-1 underdogs to beat Alabama straight up. LSU won 46-41.
• "The [LSU-Alabama] game was a loser," Berg said. "We got beat up on straight bets. A high percentage of them were LSU money lines.
"While we lost on that game," Berg added, "we won more on Wyoming-Boise State than we lost on LSU."
• Right before kickoff at an MGM sportsbook in Nevada, a bettor placed a $40,000 money-line bet on Alabama (-200). It was the largest bet on the game at MGM sportsbooks.
Other notes
• A bettor in Nevada hit a $1,548, five-leg college football parlay Saturday with William Hill that paid $367,594.25. The bettor had Illinois on the money line (+500) against Michigan State, over 47 in Illinois-Michigan State, Minnesota on the money line (+220) against Penn State, over 48 in Penn State-Michigan and California on the money line (+245) over Washington.
• Updated odds to win the national title at the SuperBook:
LSU 2-1
Ohio State 2-1
Clemson 7-2
Alabama 6-1
UGA 14-1
Oklahoma 40-1
Penn State 40-1
Utah 40-1
Oregon 50-1
Minnesota 80-1
• Updated odds to win the Heisman Trophy at Caesars Sportsbook:
Joe Burrow -700
Jalen Hurts +700
Justin Fields +700
Tua Tagovailoa +1,200
Chase Young +10,000
• Akron could make dubious point-spread history Tuesday. The Zips, who are 0-9 against the spread this season, are 17-point home underdogs to Eastern Michigan. No team has failed to cover the spread in 10 straight games to start a season since at least 2004.
Odds & ends
• On Saturday, when told that he should write a book, iconic oddsmaker Jimmy Vaccaro of the South Point, a witty 40-plus-year Vegas veteran, quipped, "Write a book? I'm going to take a nap."
• Indiana sportsbooks won a net $11.5 million off $91.7 million bets in October.
• Boxing: The SuperBook took a $229,007.95 bet on Billy Joe Saunders at -10,000 in his WBO super middleweight title fight against Marcelo Esteban Coceres on Saturday. Saunders stopped Coceres in Round 11, and the bettor won a net $2,290.10.
• Esports: The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement allowed state sportsbooks to accept bets on the League of Legends World Championship, which concluded Sunday with underdog FunPlus Phoenix defeating G2 Esports 3-0. It was the first esports event for New Jersey bookmakers, and the betting interest was said to be "light."
• NBA: The Phoenix Suns are off to an 8-1 start against the spread.
• Horse racing: A bettor at Australian sportsbook TAB won $34,992 off a $1 bet after correctly picking six consecutive races stretching from October into November. "This collect of almost $35,000 from a $1 outlay is simply one of the most remarkable paydays in TAB history," TAB's Trent Langskaill said.