MGM Resorts’ Rood rides wave on sports books’ biggest day of year

About two hours before kickoff, the phone is lighting up. The screen next to the phone is showing the bets pouring in by the minute. Jay Rood answers the phone in a manner similar to a quarterback calling signals during a two-minute drill.

"This is Jay. What's up?" he says calmly before making a snap decision. "I'll take 110 for right now."

The wager he approves from the Bellagio is for $110,000 on the Denver Broncos at plus-5½.

From the control room at The Mirage, Rood oversees the action at 12 MGM Resorts properties. He's the sports book director — the quarterback — and he's also feeling some pressure on Super Bowl Sunday. The biggest betting event of the year puts bookmakers under a hot spotlight.

Two weeks ago, when the line opened on the game, support poured in for the Carolina Panthers. Cam Newton was the public's preferred quarterback. Bets on the Broncos were few and far between for 10 days. But as kickoff approaches, Peyton Manning's side is attracting more than a fair share of action.

"We have spun on the game," Rood said. "We're now Panthers fans."

The biggest bet at MGM Resorts, Rood said, was placed Jan. 25 for an amount "just shy" of $1 million on Carolina as a 4½-point favorite. The late run of support for Denver forces Rood to make a quick move.

It's 1:27 p.m. when he says, "We're going to go to 5. They are just going to keep betting it until we do something here."

Rood drops the point spread a half-point to get in line with a majority of Las Vegas books at 5. He assesses the book's position with kickoff about two hours away.

"The game is really going to come down to the money line, avoiding Broncos money line and avoiding the Panthers-and-over combo," he says. "It looks good as long as we don't have a scenario of Peyton riding off into the sunset."

That was a hint of what was to follow.

***

8:30 a.m. — Arriving at his office at The Mirage, Rood carries a pot of barbecue pork he made at his Green Valley home. His wife, Audra, sends along a bowl of chocolate chip-oreo cookies. Just like most other offices where employees are forced to work on this Sunday, almost everyone contributes something to a homemade buffet in the break room.

"There are like 20 different scenarios," said Rood, who projects win-loss results while looking at wagering totals and occasionally running reports. "About Wednesday afternoon or Thursday it shifted, with a lot of Broncos money coming in, and it has been all Broncos money since Saturday."

11:15 a.m. — The book is jammed with bettors, but the lines to the windows are moving fast. It's a slow period behind the wall, where nothing particularly intriguing or mysterious is happening in the back offices.

Scott Ghertner, director of public relations for MGM Resorts, is present to coordinate media requests. Ghertner predicts Seattle coach Pete Carroll will someday wind up coaching the Rams, who are relocating to Los Angeles. There is no proposition bet available on that.

"That's the big bet screen," Rood said. "About 1 o'clock is when the screen will start flying."

The "big bet screen" shows a continuous scroll of wagers of $1,000 or more. Wagers of $20,000 and $50,000 fly by without Rood blinking an eye. Each bet comes with a code number to specify at which MGM Resorts book it is placed.

12:05 p.m. — Rood spins around in his chair to catch the start of a race at Santa Anita Park.

"A six-horse field and one is scratched," Rood said. "Why do we even book horses? I think we're in dire straits right now. In 10 years, you might not have horse racing in casinos. But the sports handle has been growing every year for six or seven years. The appetite for sports betting is insatiable."

When in college in the early 1990s, Rood was a frequent horseplayer.

"I love the sport," he said. "I probably paid Sunland Park more than I paid New Mexico State in tuition."

1:27 p.m. — After adjusting the line to 5, Rood tracks his position.

"We're two hours to kickoff, and we have about $14 million in handle right now," he said. "We'll probably get another $2 million."

The Super Bowl futures handle was up about 30 percent this season over last season, Rood said, and he's in a winning position on the Broncos and Panthers.

MGM's books have written around 6,500 tickets on Carolina and 5,700 on Denver on the point spread alone. On the money line, there are around 4,800 tickets on the Broncos and only 635 on the Panthers. The "worst result," Rood says, is the underdog winning outright at a price of plus-175.

"I'm pretty happy I went to Panthers minus-3½ in the first half," he said, "because everybody is laying it with the Panthers."

1:42 p.m. — Rood approves a college basketball futures wager for $5,000 on Duke at 18-1 odds. "I'll take that," he says. "Duke has got problems."

2:12 p.m. — Sharp bettors are playing the game under the total of 44, and Rood decides to drop the number to 43½.

2:40 p.m. — Rood approves a $100 wager on Carolina to score exactly 5 points. At 2,500-1 odds, that's a potential payout of $250,000. He points out there are 52 tickets on the Panthers to score exactly 4 points at 8,000-1 odds, and that's the most bizarre revelation of the day.

"If the Panthers score exactly 4 points, we lose $2 million," Rood said.

2:50 p.m. — Rood tells a short story about how his career began. He took over at The Mirage when Robert Walker retired as bookmaker in 2007.

"I started in '92 at the Caesars Tahoe sports book," he says. "After the '92 football season, I packed up and drove to Seattle. I got a job running a bar up there. But I couldn't handle the rain, and I didn't want to live in Seattle."

After eight months, he moved to Las Vegas and worked at the MGM Grand as a ticket writer for five years. About 15 years ago, he relocated to The Mirage.

2:55 p.m. — A $1,000 bet comes in on the Broncos to score zero points at 100-1 odds. It's noted that no team was shut out in the previous 49 Super Bowls.

3:02 p.m. — Bets are flying across the screen. Rood answers a call and approves a $420,000 money-line wager on Carolina at minus-210. (That bet never actually gets made, but a $160,000 money-line bet on the Panthers, approved an hour earlier, does show on the screen.)

3:35 p.m. — The final two wagers, for $24,000 and $4,400, pop on the screen, and both are on the Broncos.

***

Manning was far from spectacular, but the Denver defense dominated in a 24-10 victory. Broncos linebacker Von Miller, who opened at 50-1 odds, was voted Most Valuable Player. Hundreds of prop bets were posted.

The score staying under the total was a positive for the books. The Broncos winning outright tempered Rood's enthusiasm, but it was a crowd-pleasing result for underdog money-line bettors.

"We're going to be paying that all night. People are howling out in the book," he said. "We basically pushed on the game, and we came out a winner on props and we'll hold some on the futures. Nothing disastrous."

Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907. Follow him on Twitter: @mattyoumans247