The San Francisco 49ers are making significant changes on the roster, following the decision to fire their head coach and general manager. There is a lot of optimism surrounding the 49ers, and that has shown up in wagering on the team. The win total was set at 4.5 wins following the release of the schedule.
Our friends at Odds Shark pointed out that money is coming in on the over. However, there remain enough questions that oddsmakers are a little surprised. Chris Andrews runs the South Point sportsbook in Las Vegas, and he had this to say:
“The Niners kinda surprised me, the Browns really didn’t,” says Andrews. “The 49ers … I know they have a new coach but boy the cupboard’s kinda bare. We’re not sure who their starting quarterback is going to be.”
Over at Covers.com, Ashton Grewal recently ran down some of the notable coaching changes. He suggests staying away from the 49ers entirely.
The Niners decided to clean house in the front office and the sidelines too. Chip Kelly is gone and Shanahan is the new head coach and offensive guru by the Bay.
We already went over Shanahan’s success with Matt Ryan and the Falcons a year ago. The problem is San Francisco still owns one of the least-talented rosters in the league.
Best strategy might be to stay away from San Fran until we get a clearer picture of what this team looks like under Shanahan.
The month of August will likely have a significant impact on 49ers win total bets. It’s possible opinions don’t change much, but with Shanahan’s team finally getting on the field for preseason games, bettors will either become that much more excited about the team, or they will release this is a serious rebuilding process that is not going to look good in year one.
I’ll be heading to Las Vegas the weekend of the 49ers first preseason game. I haven’t decided yet what I want to wager on at that point. The public is strongly favoring the 49ers over, and I am usually a little skeptical when the public is hitting one side so hard. I do think the 49ers could win five or six games thanks to the latter half of their schedule, but I’m still hesitant to bet the over.