The New York Giants head into the 2008 NFL season opener against the Washington Redskins on Thursday without their top defensive weapon, but that hasn’t stopped football betting fans from taking the Giants to beat the spread and win outright.
New York is a 4-point, -200 moneyline favorite against their NFC East division rival in NFL Betting Odds at Sportingbet.com.
The London, England-based sportsbook said Wednesday that about 61 per cent of wagers on the game are on the Giants.
The heavy action on the Giants comes despite the fact they’ll be without Pro Bowl defensive end Osi Umenyiora, who is out for the entire season after undergoing surgery for knee cartilage damage suffered during a preseason game against the New York Jets.
Umenyiora’s 13 sacks last season helped the Giants lead the NFL in that category with 53, and his four tackles paced their surprising Super Bowl win over the heavily favored New England Patriots.
Combined with the retirement of defensive end Michael Strahan, the all-time NFL sack leader who called it quits in June, the Giants defensive line is a shadow of the one that shut down the Patriots last February.
The over/under total for Thursday’s opener is 41, which is up from the opening line of 39½.
Sportingbet.com will have Live Betting available for the Redskins-Giants game (7 pm ET, NBC).
Bet NFL and NCAA Football at Sportingbet.com.
Sportingbet Plc, the world’s largest online betting and gaming group, is based in London and is listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM market (LSE: SBT). The company has over 2.5 million registered customers in 200 countries, who place over 1,000,000 bets (casino, poker, sports and virtual games) per day.
Tags: Free Picks, New York Giants, NFL, NFL Betting, Washington Redskins
September 4, 2008 at 11:47 am
all this college football was a good distraction…but now that it’s Sept. 4th, let’s have some REAL NFL!!
~ S