“It’s only two weeks into the season, but wow, expect the unexpected in pro football,” said Chuck Esposito, Director of Station Casinos Sports Book. “The crowds have been electric in the Book, the cheering, the groaning, the wins, the losses, the losses to wins. Sundays have been fun.” And, oh yeah, Vegas is officially a city of champions.
The Champs Are Here
The Las Vegas Aces stole some of the NFL’s shine on Sunday, and it was glorious. In winning the WNBA title, the Aces became the first pro franchise to bring a championship to Las Vegas. Bettors were all in on the Aces early, too, as they were the most-bet team all season, both in individual games and on the future’s board.
“Even with all the football going on Sunday, there was just a huge eruption in the room when they won,” Esposito said. “Everybody was hooting and hollering and going crazy.” Even an NV Energy circuit breaker couldn’t trip up these Aces. While all the games generated a nice handle, Esposito said Game 4, the clinching game, saw the most action.
“The guests really backed the Aces thinking that they were gonna close this out in four games and they were absolutely right.” He added, “Although we didn’t win because the public was all over the Aces, the series drew a lot more interest on the WNBA and the overall handle was increased. The awareness was better. From a fan side of it, we were really happy to see them win.” It was the most-bet WNBA series of all time. Who run the world? Girls.
Pro Football Week 2
The Jets were down by 13 points with 1:33 to go in the game; Miami was down 21 points in 4th quarter; Arizona was down 20 points with 8:34 left in the 3rd quarter. All three won. Prior to Miami’s epic comeback, teams entering the 4th quarter trailing by 21 or more were 0-710.
“Those comebacks were just unreal,” Esposito said. Atlanta covered late, and the Giants won, which has been increasingly rare the last few years. Other underdogs who covered the line or won outright included all the teams from Florida and Texas, and they didn’t even need Ron DeSantis or the San Antonio migrants to help.
As for the hometown Raiders, they might already be in a must-win scenario, having dropped their first two games. The road won’t be easy, as they travel to Tennessee to take on the Titans (who were the No. 1 seed in the AFC last year.) They then host the Broncos before traveling to Kansas City. The Sports Book, though, didn’t fare well in the three primetime games, where all three favorites (Packers, Bills, Eagles) covered.
“What really helped and what was really unusual is all three of those games staying under the total,” Esposito said. “Keeping that Eagles game and Packers game under were paramount.”
Remember Me, Jimmy?
During the offseason, the San Fransisco 49ers tried desperately to trade the disturbingly handsome Jimmy Garoppolo. When the team couldn’t find a dance partner, Jimmy G stayed but was relegated to backup duties. After Trey Lance went down with a season ending ankle injury on Sunday, the boys from the Bay were thanking their lucky stars that Jimmy GQ was there. Like the Bee Gees, the 49ers are staying alive thanks to JG. At the Station Casinos Race and Sports Book, the 49ers Super Bowl odds actually went down once Garoppolo took the reins, meaning the team is perceived to have a better chance with him under center.
“I’m not sure I can think of another backup that would have the impact of Jimmy G,” Esposito said. “Right now there are a lot of backups where you see about a touchdown difference in the point spread between the starter and backup, but that’s not the case with the 49ers. In fact, the numbers are shaded a little more toward Garoppolo right now.” Entering the season, the 49ers had odds of about 25-to-1 to win the whole thing. They’re now lower, around 16-to-1.
College Football Blowouts
The youngsters did the Sports Book no favors on Saturday. With the exception of a few teams (we see you, Michigan State,) the Top 15 squads in college football all won big, easily sailing past point huge spreads. “That was a losing day for our side of the counter,” Esposito said. Most of these top teams manhandled the inferior competition. Even the Green Valley salon doesn’t see this many blowouts in a day.
The Trilogy Concludes
Another weekend, another mega fight. On Saturday, the final chapter between Canelo Álvarez and Gennady Golovkin closed. In the end, the heavily-favored Álvarez won in a unanimous decision. “We did see a lot of play on GGG late in the day, but I think that was because of the value of the price,” Esposito said. GGG, who many thought won the first go-round in 2017, was nearly a 1-to-4 underdog.
And, because of, uh, let’s just say “questionable” scorecards, GGG was close to pulling off the upset. Honestly, we’ve seen better judging at a Miss America pageant. “Overall, the Canelo decision was good for us,” Esposito said, “but again, it’s great when you have a mega fight like that on a football weekend.”
Bets To Know
Like Adam Levine, you no longer have to be faithful to just one! In a new feature, the STN Sports App is now allowing guests to parlay prop bets, so long as they come from different games.
Guests can now group something like the Aaron Judge home runs prop to a Josh Allen’s passing attempts; or maybe Javonte Williams rushing yards to the inning of Albert Pujol’s 700th homer, assuming he gets it. “These have been really popular out of the gate,” Esposito said.
Weekly Winners
A couple tickets cashed this week that had more legs than a ZZ Top song. One STN bettor turned $20 into $3,000 after hitting an 8-team parlay that was a mix of college and pro football. The game that clinched it? The Titans/Bills over. Although that total closed at 48.5, the bettor got a line of 47.5, having made the bet earlier in the week before it rose. Further, the guest wasn’t afraid of taking some big spreads, including Alabama -50, Ohio State -31, Tennessee -47 and Wisconsin -37.5.
And that wasn’t even the most impressive cash of the weekend. A Wildfire Sunset guest wagered $50 on a 10-team parlay of college football (nine favorites and one underdog.) All the bets covered, giving the guest a payday of $43,000.