Thursday, November 11, 2010

Uh oh: Cameron Newton's status forces Vegas to pull odds

CamSmile I have friends in high places. I have friends in low places, too.  I have friends on Tidefans.com that are so well connected they make Neuromancer look like an Atari console.

But absolutely nobody has better information about what’s going on behind the scenes than the people who make books in Vegas.

If this is any indication, smoke trails are leading people to find fire:


“We’re hearing reports that Cameron Newton’s status may be a game-time decision,” said Stoneback, Wednesday morning. “A professional player came in this morning bet Georgia and soon after we got an alert from one of our services about the news.”

Stoneback said the game was starting to fall off the board online around the same time and that he would wait to hear more definitive news regarding Newton’s status before putting it back on the board.

If Newton is suspended, multiple oddsmakers have estimated that Auburn, which was set between -7 and -8.5, will fall to as low as a 3-point favorite.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it dropped by 6 or 7 points,” said Stoneback. “When Jake Locker got ruled out against Oregon, the number moved 7 points.”

Newton is at the center of reports that he and his family asked for money during his recruitment before signing with Auburn. Two Mississippi State recruiters said late Tuesday that Auburn quarterback Cam Newton and his father, Cecil Newton, admitted in phone conversations that they intended to be paid for playing at a certain school during Newton's recruitment last year, ESPN reported.


As a general rule of thumb, it takes about a million in wagers to move a line by one point in either direction. If the line went from –8.5 to –3.0 then it would mean that about $5 million in wagers were being placed on Georgia for Saturday’s game.

Auburn Head Coach Gene Chizik has been adamant—Newton will start. However, it’s looking more and more like that might not be his call to make.

Stay tuned, sports fans.

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