Leading bookmakers say the Canterbury Bulldogs have no bite without superstar fullback Ben Barba and could miss the finals if he sits out a large slice of the 2013 NRL season.

The NRL premiership second favourites stood down their champion indefinitely on Monday citing behavioural issues.

Early indications were Barba, one of the favourites to score the most tries in 2013 and take out another Dally M medal, could miss a considerable number of games.

“Premiership betting and other markets are in disarray,” Tattsbet’s Gerard Daddy told AAP, as bookmakers either suspended or adjusted their NRL market within hours of the news breaking.

“Canterbury were second favourites but we can safely say they can’t win the competition if Barba doesn’t play on what we saw last year.”

Bill Richmond from Sportingbet Australia said without Barba the Bulldogs had no scoring bite in them.

“Take him out of the spine and they don’t look anywhere near as dangerous in attack,” said Richmond.

“If he misses a lot of games, they can’t win the premiership.

“We’ve already wound them in from $3.75 to $3 to miss the eight, he is that important to them.”

Sportsbet’s Ben Hawes, however, said the Bulldogs still had a team capable of threatening for the premiership.

“Look, it’s a massive, massive blow to lose the reigning Dally M player of the year,” he said.

“But we haven’t written them off just yet.”

A number of betting agencies began winding out Canterbury’s premiership odds amid speculation Barba would miss several games or more while he seeks help to overcome a number of personal off-field issues.

The news had an immediate impact on Canterbury’s round one clash with the Cowboys who firmed from $2.60 into $2.15 on the back of news Barba would not play.

Barba also drifted from $10 to $13 in the leading tryscorer market and from $11 to $15 in Dally M betting with Sportingbet Australia.