As crazy as it was in the Rose Bowl on Monday night in the frantic final minutes of Florida State’s 34-31 victory over Auburn for the BCS championship, there was just as much tension and, for some, heartbreak in the sports book at the Las Vegas Hilton.
“We had four guests in the book to watch the game,” Jay Kornegay, sportsbook director at the LVH Race and Sportsbook, told The Post in an email. “One had a ticket for $50,000 (wagered $100 at 500/1) on Auburn but didn’t hedge. There were three others that had $20 each on Auburn at 1,000-1 (the early future’s odds), but again they failed to hedge.”
Hedging means if a bettor stands to win a large amount if a certain team wins, he would bet a smaller amount on the other team to guarantee some winnings. These four Auburn backers at the LVH ended up with nothing.
“From what I heard, they were at the ‘cashing windows’ after Auburn’s last touchdown (Tre Mason’s37-yard run with 1:19 to go),” Kornegay continued. “Unfortunately it didn’t work out for them. I really hope others learn the lesson. When you have that kind of potential profit, you need to hedge your bet and lock in a winner.”
Kornegay said the outcome – Florida State winning but Auburn covering the 10-point spread – was “a positive one” for the sportsbooks up and down the Vegas strip.
“The public bet the game like a Super Bowl,” he said. “If you liked the favorite, you laid the points, and if you liked the underdog, you bet them to win the game outright.”
The result: A lot of losing bets, but likely few more costly than those four big tickets at the LVH Sportsbook.