Sports gambling column: Week 13

What constitutes being on a hot streak? Is it like the general rule of science, where something has to happen three times in a row to make it true? Or is it like me winning two bets in a row? Not the latter, right? Yeah, I won two bets in a row after never winning one before. This weekend, I decided to take the under (the line was at 53 points) in the Mountain West Conference Championship, which was between Fresno State and Boise State. Now, you probably read that and think one of two things, either that I’m a degenerate gambler (correct), or that I must really know what I’m doing (I wish). The truth is, this over/under just looked like free money to me, so I decided to put $10 on the -110 money line, which won me my $10 back and another $9.09. But why was I so confident that these two teams wouldn’t be able to put up a combined 53 points? I banked on the cold weather making this game low-scoring and also based my bet on the 24-17 game these two teams played earlier in the year in better conditions. When the game started, it was pouring rain and almost freezing cold, so I was feeling pretty good. However, the score at the end of the first quarter was 7-7, which made me a little nervous. But when the snow started to fall just a few minutes later, I felt that I was sitting pretty. This game was on Saturday night, so I was doing other things and wasn’t checking the score all too often. After I saw the snow, the next time I checked was when the game was going to overtime, tied up at 13. This scared me for a couple of reasons, one of them being the fact that I didn’t have the clock on my side anymore, and the other being that I just witnessed a seven-overtime game where the two teams each scored over 40 points by themselves. Needless to say, I was relieved when Fresno State scored the walk-off touchdown, meaning that I had easily won because the final score was 19-16. I should’ve put more money on it, but hindsight is always 20/20. The $9 I won will probably end up going towards buffalo wings, which is always a good investment in my book.

For gambling advice, there’s not much that I like this week, so just be careful out there if you’re going to bet on something. I’m thinking of putting some money on the Falcons, who are a +210 underdog at the Packers. I’m probably going to stay away from this one because Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers may have intentionally thrown the game against the Cardinals last week because he wanted former head coach Mike McCarthy to get fired (he did). Also, most of the time, betting on a team that plays its home games in a dome when they are on the road in cold weather is not a good idea. I’m thinking about betting on the Falcons anyway, but I probably won’t end up doing it.

I also think that the Jaguars-Titans game will probably finish with under 37.5 points scored, as the last time these two teams played, the score was 9-6. But betting NFL unders is boring, and if I bet on this game, I’m going to feel obligated to watch it, and I won’t enjoy that. If the over/under was closer to 45, I’d probably do it. I’m not going to. I’ll see you next week.


Money spent to date: $110

Winnings to date: $45.59