Did the CFL’s Labour Day Weekend slate ever deliver on expectations! Okay, maybe Saturday night’s Ottawa Redblacks-BC Lions game was a blowout, but what did we tell you? Lions -2.5 was the best bet of the season. We don’t mess around when we say that. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a thrilling game at Mosaic Stadium. One of our other best bets of the weekend, Hamilton Tiger-Cats +5.5, WON THE GAME OUTRIGHT against the Toronto Argonauts! Isn’t it crazy how lesser teams always find a way to pull a rabbit out of their hats in these big divisional spots?
Not to mention, the Edmonton Elks are starting to look scary. It’s either that or the Calgary Stampeders are worse than we thought. We’ll leave that up to the peanut gallery to decide. Nevertheless, the Tre Ford-less Elks got another dub.
Moving along to Week 14, we will see some interesting rematches and a potential Grey Cup preview. Of course, most of you probably won’t care because you’ll be watching college football or getting geared up to lose all your money on NFL anytime touchdown scorer parlays on Sunday afternoon. THAT SAID, if you’re serious about making money, there might be a few good looks in the CFL.
Although these CFL lines look to be juiced up to the wing-wang, we do see some value. Before you say we need to pull our heads out of our butts, hear us out. Have we ever led you astray?
Before you “hear us out,” take a long and hard look at the latest CFL Grey Cup outright odds:
| Team | bet365 | Bet99 | NorthStar Bets |
| Montreal Alouettes | +210 | +210 | +210 |
| BC Lions | +240 | +240 | +240 |
| Winnipeg Blue Bombers | +450 | +450 | +450 |
| Ottawa Redblacks | +550 | +550 | +550 |
| Toronto Argonauts | +600 | +600 | +600 |
| Saskatchewan Roughriders | +900 | +900 | +900 |
| Edmonton Elks | +4000 | +4000 | +4000 |
| Calgary Stampeders | +5500 | +5000 | +5500 |
| Hamilton Tiger-Cats | +10000 | +10000 | +10000 |
BC Lions @ Montreal Alouettes – September 6
Best moneyline odds: Lions +145 @ Bet99, Alouettes -170 @ bet365
Best spread odds: Lions +4 (-118 @ TonyBet), Alouettes -3.5 (-110 @ 888sport)
Best over/under odds: Over 49.5 points (-120 @ Bet99), Under 51.5 points (-118 @ 888sport)
Alright, hell has frozen over. The BC Lions have finally won a game. All the Nathan Rourke haters have started to sing a different tune and the world has been reborn anew. Praise the Lord, hallelujah. The saviour has cometh!
Listen, Lons haters, while you were selling out for your 30 pieces of silver, the books were looking for this setup. This is what we like to call the “confusion angle.” The books know everyone will chase the Lions now because BC played the way most expected the team would when Nathan Rourke signed. Yes, you may have made some money fading the Lions before we reached this point. That said, most haven’t been fading the Lions much. It has mainly been sharp bettors. The rest have been riding BC through thick and thin, losing on the juice.
Now, you get a gift of a price at BC +4 on the road against an Alouettes team that isn’t a hell of a lot better than the good ol’ Lions on paper. If there’s ever been a time to jump on the bandwagon, it sure feels like now, eh?
Probably not.
BC could easily crush Montreal in what could be a Grey Cup preview, but we wouldn’t count on it. If that were to be the case, BC would be a +1.5 road dog at the most. Even then, that price feels a bit too good to be true. Realistically, you’d want to see a pick ‘ems price to go “all in” on the Lions. C’est pourquoi nous affrontons les Alouettes de Montréal dans ce match. Translation: That’s why we’re riding with the Montreal Alouettes in this matchup.
Pick: Give us the Montreal Alouettes -3.5 (-110 @ 888sport).
Bet on Lions vs. Alouettes
Toronto Argonauts @ Ottawa Redblacks – September 7
Best moneyline odds: Argonauts -105 @ TonyBet, Redblacks -125 @ Bet99
Best spread odds: Argonauts +1.5 (-115 @ Bet99), Redblacks -1.5 (-114 @ TonyBet)
Best over/under odds: Over 51.5 points (-108 @ Pinnacle), Under 52 points (-118 @ Proline+)
The CFL’s worst team humbled the Toronto Argonauts in the Labour Day Classic, which, again, we predicted. Now, everyone views Toronto as damaged goods. Guess what? The books know this. They know that everyone is eager to return to backing the Ottawa Redblacks. After all, Ottawa has been a public darling all season long. Now, they will offer Ottawa at a “sweethearts line” at home. People will jump on it and the books can protect themselves from an outright Toronto win. A genius plan, but if Ottawa pulls out a win and covers the spread, the books are more messed up than a stripped screw.
What does that tell you? One of these two things will happen.
- The game is going to middle. That means Ottawa will win by one point. Therein, Toronto covers the spread, and Ottawa cashes the moneyline, but not the -1.5 spread. This is an excellent outcome for the books if the public decides to bet the Argonauts to win outright and the Redblacks on the spread since both the odds are cheaper than betting the opposite way (Toronto’s spread/Ottawa’s moneyline).
- The Argos win outright and cash both the spread and moneyline markets. This works best for the books if the money hits Ottawa on both fronts.
Knowing the Argonauts, the team is due to lose by a phantom point or something of the like. Nevertheless, Toronto should put up a W in its ATS record, especially after two brutal ATS losses.
Pick: Give us the Argos +1.5 (-115 @ Bet99) point spread.
Bet on Argonauts vs. Redblacks
Saskatchewan Roughriders @ Winnipeg Blue Bombers – September 7
Best moneyline odds: Roughriders +110 @ bet365, Blue Bombers -130 @ bet365
Best spread odds: Roughriders +2.5 (-120 @ Bet99), Blue Bombers -2 (-118 @ TonyBet)
Best over/under odds: Over 47.5 points (-109 @ Pinnacle), Under 48 points (-118 @ TonyBet)
Alright, we have two looks for this game.
As you may recall, last week, we took the Under. The idea was that both defences would come alive. Nope. That couldn’t have been farther from the truth. In fact, the public started to hammer the Under, so that play wasn’t even a right read. No BS; we messed up there.
That said, we’d be remiss if we didn’t circle back to the Under. After the offences came alive last week, we anticipate the public will bet on the Over. Also, the injury to Blue Bombers top linebacker Adam Bighill might keep him out of action, so that might lead to more people betting the Over. Not to mention, why are the books only hanging 48 points at the highest if the Over were so likely to hit?
Moving along, we won’t bore you with how long the Roughriders losing streak has been. What we will say is that Saskatchewan is due for a win. By all means, the Roughriders should’ve won, but bad special teams mistakes killed the bottom line, which is why they took the dreaded “L”.
As John Wayne once said, “Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday.” The Riders boys learned something “yesterday.” As such, we expect Saskatchewan to come out gunning for a win, like Wild Bill Hickok in his heyday. We understand that getting back up on an unruly, unbroken horse can be scary, but to tame the beast, you must keep riding it and yield it to your desires.
Pick: Give us the Under 48 points (-118 @ TonyBet) total and the Roughriders’ +2.5 (-120 @ Bet99) point spread.
Calgary Stampeders @ Edmonton Elks – September 7
Best moneyline odds: Stampeders +100 @ 888sport, Elks -120 @ 888sport
Best spread odds: Stampeders +1.5 (-112 @ TonyBet), Elks -1.5 (-110 @ 888sport)
Best over/under odds: Over 50.5 points (-118 @ 888sport), Under 51.5 (-120 @ Bet99)
The Edmonton Elks, man. What can we say? As we expected, the public loved the Elks, and the sharps faded the public. Those sharp players found value in Calgary’s price. The thing was, Calgary couldn’t get dialled into the game. On the other hand, Edmonton kept moving the ball and taking advantage of the Stampeders’ mistakes.
Frustrating stuff, but that’s the nature of the beast when it comes to betting. You can make the proper read, and everything could line up on paper, but at the end of the day, things just don’t work out how they should. Nevertheless, we know that this particular angle has yielded a decent ROI in the long run.
While everyone is jumping back on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ bandwagon, we will bite the bullet and back the Stampeders to cover the spread.
Call us stubborn if we lose. That’s a fair criticism, but if our lives were on the line, if push came to shove, we would back the Stampeders all day long.
As the newly anointed starting quarterback of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers, Russell Wilson likes to say, “CSB Nation, LET’S RIDE!”
Pick: Give us the Stampeders’ +1.5 (-112 @ TonyBet) point spread.
