There’s no such thing as a June Gloom when you have sports! Yes, three of the Big Four sports leagues are on a summer hiatus now, but we still have baseball, basketball trades, the WNBA, a major UFC card, a Slap Fight and a little thing across the pond called Wimbledon just began.
Fear not, all is not as lost as the 99-cent shrimp cocktail, and the sporting world isn’t as broken as a Middle East ceasefire. Plus, we just had an incredible seven-game series in the NBA Finals with the Oklahoma City Thunder ultimately prevailing.
“Game 7 had the biggest handle of all the games,” said Chuck Esposito, Station Casinos Sports Book Director. The game garnered multiple $20,000-$40,000 wagers on both sides. In addition, as we previously told you, one STN guest made a $350,000 wager on the Thunder early in the series at an inflated price. He pocketed $50,000 when OKC bested the Indiana Pacers 103-91 on Sunday night.
With all that in mind, let’s quickly review the past week in sports and peek at what’s ahead on the STN Sports App and the STN Sports Books…
Thunder Rolls
As onetime Vegas headliner Garth Brooks has said many times, the Thunder rolls. That’s what happened on Sunday night when Oklahoma City capped off a spectacular season with a championship. A favorite all year, OKC had short odds to win the title, so they carried little liability to the STN Sports Books. Game 7, coincidentally, could not have gone any better for the house.
“The amount of action on the Pacers in Game 7, both moneyline and point spread caused the line to drop a full two points from 8.5 to closing at 6.5,” Esposito said.
“The moneyline was kind of ridiculously low for what the point spread was, but I just think people felt that anything could happen in a Game 7.” For The Books, “anything” didn’t happen — everything did! “There’s no question we were clearly Thunder fans going into the game, both on the money line, the future books and the point spread,” Esposito said. “It was kind of one of those weird games where having the game fall between one to six points still would’ve been fine, but it actually worked out better having the Thunder cover.”
The Book also had a “fairly big decision” on the first-half spread, and ironically needed the Pacers to cover that line, which they did. The Book needed the game to stay under the total of 216, which it did. In a perfect world, odds-on favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander would win the Finals MVP, which he did. The stars really aligned, and oddsmakers were happier than Wayne Newton at a Botox facility.
Major Injuries and The Odds
While the Thunder won, and deservedly so, a huge “what if” hovered over the game, and will for years to come. What if Pacers All-Star Tyrese Haliburton hadn’t ruptured his Achilles in the first quarter? Would the result be different?
The fallout of the injuries to Haliburton, Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum and Milwaukee Bucks stud Damian Lillard — all likely to miss next season with Achilles tendon tears — is drastically shaking up the 2025-2026 NBA odds. In fact, STN Books broke with tradition and delayed putting out odds for next season, a departure from previous years in which the following season’s future book odds are listed immediately on the heels of the NBA Finals.
“We waited for a day to let everything settle in,” Esposito said. “There is a lot of uncertainty, there’s no question, but as uncertain as it is for our side of the counter, I think there’s that much uncertainty for the other side of the counter, as well.” Still, there’s even more uncertainty about the financing of the A’s baseball stadium on The Strip! “I think the balance in the East is going to be way different now. You saw a young Cavaliers team take some leaps and bounds last year.
Does this really open the door for the Knicks now, once they get a coach?” Esposito opined. “I still think there’s going to be movement if Giannis [Antetokounmpo] is moved or other big-name players are moved.”
Durant Impact
One of the most significant NBA chess pieces has a new zip code, and it might cause more waves than a Vegas summer monsoon. Hall of Famer Kevin Durant, who remains a walking bucket at age 37, was traded from the Phoenix Suns to the Houston Rockets over the weekend, leading many to believe the Texas squad is narrowing the gap in the Western Conference.
“I think it helps a little, but I still think they’re at least another scorer away,” Esposito cautions. “Being in the West, I don’t think it’s a dramatic change right now. I think it was a good trade for both teams, and it pushes the Rockets, who were good last year and started the trend in the right direction. It helps them.”
With the Slim Reaper now in the fold, Houston might need sunblock for all of KD’s burner accounts.
Bets To Know
With some sports winding down, baseball is heating up BIG TIME. Check the menu for a huge menu of player props and parlay opportunities every single day.
Weekly Winners
$50 —> $5,691.11 WNBA parlay! This bettor hit all 4 underdogs on the WNBA schedule Tuesday. The legs:
-Fever +145 (over Storm)
-Sky +190 (over Sparks)
-Wings +345 (over Dream)
-Mystics +260 (over Lynx)