ODDS ARE, BETTORS WILL HAVE EYE ON XFL.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

When promoters of the XFL, the World Wrestling Federation's pro football spinoff, are asked if the league will offer honest sport, they turn to an unusual group of character witnesses.

Bookies.

The questions come naturally. Will the XFL, which opens its inaugural season this weekend, present competition or a scripted show like wrestling? Will the players, coaches and officials be trustworthy, or will results be slanted to give NBC and UPN television viewers the most theatrical storylines?

The answers are written on the Las Vegas odds boards. They show up in the form of point spreads, brightly lit invitations to bettors to try to take the casinos' money.

``If Las Vegas is willing to set point spreads on games and post odds on who will win the XFL championship, that speaks volumes about the credibility of the football product,'' said Jeff Shapes, a league spokesman.

He's correct - and how strange that must sound to a sports establishment that believes gambling can have only a corrosive effect on games' credibility.

For the operators of Nevada sports books, whether to take the XFL seriously is a sober business decision. If the league isn't on the up and up, if teams aren't playing to win, if there's a script, then the casinos could get killed by bettors who are in on the fix. That they've decided to book XFL wagers indicates their doubts have been satisfied.

By a convenient coincidence, the league's four western teams, including the L.A. Xtreme, have been training in Las Vegas. Several sports-book managers attended the all-out scrimmages there Jan. 20 and liked what they saw.

``People think that because (WWF boss) Vince McMahon is involved, it's going to be a wrestling type of deal,'' said John Avello, director of operations for the race and sports books at the Bally's and Paris hotels in Las Vegas. ``I went out there and saw the (scrimmage) games myself. I saw the players who are participating. They're ex-NFL players - and players who maybe should have got a shot but didn't. They're ex-NFL coaches. I didn't see any actors out there. The football is real.''

Avello said his and other sports books will likely place a limit of $500 to $1,000 on XFL bets, which is a little different from NFL games, for which the desert sky is the limit. But he said that's not a reflection on the XFL, just a common practice when it comes to ``things that are new to us.''

Since none of the teams has played an actual game, the tricky part was setting opening-week spreads. Linemakers scouted the scrimmages, scanned rosters and coaching staffs for proven talent, and factored in home-field advantages and the always-popular intangibles before posting their numbers.

In case you care: The Xtreme is a four-point favorite over the San Francisco Demons in Sunday's opener at Pacific Bell Park. The Xtreme also is a 5-2 favorite to win the XFL championship in April.

XFL officials note that they aren't encouraging fans to bet. On the other hand, unlike their NFL counterparts, they are pointedly not discouraging it either. This is about as close as any league in a major U.S. sport has come to embracing gambling.

``In the public's mind, it's one more notch up on the credibility ladder,'' said Rich Rose, an XFL senior consultant who used to run the Caesars Palace sports division. ``The longer (the season) goes, the more they'll see it's 100 percent sport, not something where the referee is going to get hit over the head with a chair.''

Pro wrestling hit the big time as entertainment because it no longer sells itself as competitive sport. Pro football's newest league is selling itself as competitive sport. And having set that standard, it will succeed or fail like any other league, on the quality of its players and play.

The curiosity factor alone will bring the XFL an early television audience. But people will tune out if the talent appears minor league, if the ``smashmouth'' rules offend, if the action is overshadowed by TV gimmicks like the microphone in the huddle, and if the results seem more artificial than the cheerleaders.

``They (viewers) are going to see the product come Saturday and Sunday and understand this is real, hard, smashmouth football,'' Rose said. ``It's going to be the game on the field, presented in an entertaining way.''

And played to win? According to people with a lot to lose if they're wrong, you can bet on it.

XTREME SCHEDULE

Date Opponent Time

Sunday at San Francisco 1 p.m.

Feb. 10 Chicago 5 p.m.

Feb. 17 at Las Vegas 5 p.m.

Feb. 25 Memphis 4 p.m.

March 3 at New York/New Jersey 5 p.m.

March 11 at Birmingham 4 p.m.

March 18 Orlando 1 p.m.

March 24 Las Vegas 5 p.m.

April 1 at Memphis 1 p.m.

April 8 San Francisco 4 p.m.

--All home games at Coliseum

--Ticket information: [phone]. Prices are $20, $25 and $35 per game.

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Box: XTREME SCHEDULE (see text)