Vegas sportsbooks report 'colossal' losses on NFL playoff upsets

It’s only fitting that the day commonly known as “Blue Monday” should come right after two upsets in the NFL playoffs. Yet despite the disheartened fans of the Dallas Cowboys and Kansas City Chiefs, no one appears to be feeling as blue as the Vegas sportsbooks.

The divisional-round upsets by the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers were not very kind to William Hill, a bookmaker that reportedly suffered a “seven-figure” loss during Sunday’s playoff action.

“Seemed like a blue-collar betting day with public parlaying, teasing and pounding money lines on Packers and Steelers,” Bill Sattler, the director of specialty games for Caesars Entertainment, shared with ESPN’s David Purdum. “We salvaged the under in [the] late game, but another solid week for the public.”

Saturday’s bets largely saw the general public putting their money behind the favourites, including the New England Patriots who managed to cover one of the largest spreads in NFL postseason history with a 34-16 drubbing of the Houston Texans.

But Sunday’s bettors took a decidedly different turn going heavy on the underdog Packers, the Steelers plus the points, and on the money line. Aaron Rodgers sealed the doomed fate for Vegas bookkeepers with an incredible completion to Jared Cook, setting up Mason Crosby’s game-winning field goal with no time left on the clock. As Purdum reports, most of the damage to the bookkeepers’ wallet had been done long before the Steelers and Cheifs had taken the field.

“It’s just colossal,” Jay Rood, vice president of MGM race and sports, said of his company’s losses.

“Awful,” said Westgate SuperBook assistant manager Ed Salmons of Sunday’s results. “Can’t be worse.”