Broncos quickly drop to touchdown favorites

The Denver Broncos hadn't even put the finishing touches on a win over the New York Jets and the betting had already begun on the Super Bowl.

At the Stardust hotel sports book, one bettor put the $20,000 betting limit on the Broncos. A second made the same bet on the Atlanta Falcons.

Both were testing the early line that favored the Broncos by eight points, a line that quickly dropped to seven as bettors tended to favor the Falcons.

"As soon as we hung it out there we had a $20,000 bet on both sides," said Joe Lupo, sports book manager at the Stardust. "We respected the view of one of the individuals a little more and lowered the number to seven."

It's the first time since the Buffalo Bills were a touchdown favorite over the New York Giants in 1991 that an AFC team has been favored to win the Super Bowl.

Of course, the Falcons weren't even supposed to be in the Super Bowl. When the season opened, bettors could get 60-1 odds on Atlanta winning the Super Bowl.

"I think it's a pretty fair number," said Las Vegas Sports Consultant's Joel Brewster, who sets the odds for most major Las Vegas casinos. "The Broncos are certainly a better team than Atlanta, although the Falcons showed today that they can win a big game."

Brewster put out the initial 8 1/2 -point line to sports books with about five minutes still remaining in the Denver-New York game. Some put it up immediately, while others waited to see where the number would settle before posting it.

A quick flurry of betting dropped the Broncos to a 7-point favorite, and most book operators said they thought the line would settle in at that point.

"Seven is a pretty solid number," Lupo said. "From what I can see, it's a solid seven around town."

Denver, which was an 11 1/2 -point underdog last year to Green Bay, would have been an underdog again this year had the Minnesota Vikings beaten the Falcons for the NFC title. Brewster said he would have probably made the Vikings a 3-point pick over the Broncos.

At the MGM Grand hotel-casino, book director Will Hall waited to see where the point spread would settle before he put up a number.

"I was thinking Denver would be a 9-point favorite, but I wanted to wait to see what other people put up," Hall said.

Last year, bettors wagered a record $77.2 million in Nevada's legal sports book on the game, with untold millions bet elsewhere illegally.

Betting traditionally falls off to almost nothing the day after the championship games and the line remains the same until bettors began putting their money up in the days just before the Super Bowl.

Hall said betting on this year's Super Bowl should be good because of a point spread just around a touchdown and the fact that fans see Atlanta as a team of destiny. Had the Vikings won, though, he said betting would have been bigger.

"I thought it had the potential to be the first pick 'em Super Bowl," Hall said. "That would have really been something."

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