With apologies to the Rat Pack, you are now officially entering the golden era of Las Vegas. On Monday night, the Golden Knights ended the Dallas Stars’ season and punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in six years. Not bad for a couple of misfits in the middle of the desert.
And, as they have done all season long, the guests cleaned up like a hotel housekeeper. With all that in mind, let’s quickly look back at the past week in sports and peek at what’s ahead on the STN Sports App and at the Station Casinos Race and Sports Books…
Knight Up
The Vegas Golden Knights found themselves in unfamiliar territory during Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals… underdogs. Local bettors gobbled up the plus price like a Thanksgiving feast, making it the largest decision of the NHL playoffs so far. In fact, Chuck Esposito, Station Casinos’ Race and Sports Book Director, said Game 6 might have garnered the biggest handle of the hockey season.
“Everything was just magnified. You were getting them at a plus price and it was a closeout game,” he said. “It still shows the power of the local market out here, and we’re a local’s casino. We’re seeing a huge uptick in betting compared to last year at this time, and that can be tied to the Knights not making the postseason last year. This year it’s drastically different in terms of handle, large bets, and atmosphere.” Game 5 of the series (which saw Dallas besting the VGK) was a huge win for the Book, but it gave it all back on Monday. In Game 6, the Book needed Dallas and under 5.5 goals, but neither happened, as it was apparent early on that Dallas was crashing like a Twitter server during a presidential launch.
To little surprise, the Knights opened the NHL Stanley Cup Final as favorites. But, it was startling just how much the public believes in them against a Florida team more rested than pastry dough. “Bettors quickly let us know that we were too low. The early action on the series has clearly been in favor of VGK early on,” Esposito said. While it’s been well publicized that the Knights possess a lot of liability for Station Books, Esposito put it in perspective. “It’s nothing like it was in their inaugural season, and it’s nothing like we had on the Lakers this year, so it’s manageable,” he said. Most pundits are giving the edge in physicality and goal to the Panthers, but the Knights have the advantage in depth and style of play. And, oh yeah, they have Game 1 and a potential Game 7 in Vegas.
NBA Finals
Turn up the air conditioners because the Miami Heat are here. On Monday night, the No. 8 seeded Heat handily beat the Boston Celtics in Beantown to advance to the NBA Finals. They’re now the first No. 8 seed to make the finals after a full regular season. Despite Boston playing at home and riding a three-game winning streak into Game 7, the guests were banking on the boys from South Beach. The Book was taking in more money than the Golden Knights ticketing department. “The public really backed the Heat heavily, both with the points and on the money line,” Esposito said. “The under was really good for us, but the side wasn’t. We really had a good week, but we gave a big chunk of it back with the Knights and Heat winning outright.”
A few bettors were hoping to turn Celtic pride into a Boston bonanza. Prior to the Heat-Celtics series, Station took in a bet in the $50,000 range on Boston to win the best of 7. There was also a bet roughly of the same value on Boston in Game 6. The former lost the bet, but the latter cashed like the Folsom Prison Blues.
The Denver Nuggets (remember them?) enter the NBA Finals as a significant favorite in the series and in Game 1. The Nuggets, despite their impressive record, have gone unheralded for much of the season, as their opponents have had a rockier Denver reception than the mountains that surround the Colorado city.
“Take nothing away from the Heat, but Denver is well rested, they have home-court advantage and they didn’t lose a home game in the postseason,” Esposito said. While some bettors may shy away from such a big price on Denver, they can rest assured knowing a slew of prop bets will be posted. One of the early NBA prop bets already up is a cross-sport wager tied to Florida. The bet: How many combined wins will the Heat and Panthers have? It’s an interesting bet, and based on the prices, oddsmakers believe it will be a low combined total. Still, considering the Sunshine State could very well claim two trophies in June…
Bets To Know
A prop-a-topia is coming. With the Knights in the Cup Final, Station Sports Books are planning to unveil a gluttony of prop bets. In fact, compared to the earlier rounds, there will be double or maybe triple the number of prop bets made available prior to the June 3 puck drop. “You got isolated games with either one or two days in between and it’s VGK, so it’s going to get our imaginative juices flowing,” Esposito said. “We can really be creative and we’ll put up as many different things as we can to intensify or enhance interest in the series.”
Weekly Winners
ACE! This bettor hit a crazy long short 4-team parlay in tennis which paid on May 30. $5 turned to $1,500! The legs:
-T Seyboth Wild +1100
-M Purcell +105
-G Pella +240
-T A Tirante +400