After a relatively mild spring, those infamous Vegas temperatures arrived quicker than a Ronda Rousey vs Gina Carano Fight. No one, however, was hotter last week than out-of-nowhere golfer Aaron Rai (who?), who won the PGA Championship by three strokes. The British golfer came into the major with longshot odds of 150-to-1.
STN Sports Books took nine bets on him at those odds, with the largest being $20. After the first round, when he was in the mix, his odds dropped to 80-to-1, but he still got no love from guests.
“He ended up being one of the best results for us,” said Jason McCormick, Vice President of Station Casinos’ Race and Sports. “We haven’t had a whole lot of luck in golf with a lot of these guys, but this was one of our better golf tournaments in recent memory, and it ended up being a big windfall for us.” Luckily for the Book, Rai’s golf clubs had more pop than a BTS concert at Allegiant Stadium.
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…
Hockey
Going into the Western Conference Finals against the Colorado, the Golden Knights were 5-2 all-time in the NHL Playoffs against the Avalanche (yet it somehow feels like they’ve played way more often). The VGK will not be intimidated by the Presidents’ Trophy winners. In a shock to exactly nobody, money has poured in on the underdog Knights in a series loaded with stars on the ice. Guests are clearly hoping the Knights don’t have a power failure like some northwest Vegas residents following that Sunday windstorm!
“We’re going to need the Avs. The money continues to flow on VGK, and every game that they win is a thorn in my side from a financial standpoint,” McCormick said, “but from a local standpoint, we’re fans, and we cheer for them…So maybe Avalanche in seven games would be the sports book’s best case, so we can get some handle and some Knights wins, but from a financial standpoint, not only this series, but the VGK are our one big loser in our future book.”
Over in the East, Carolina has coasted through the playoffs so far, going 8-0, and playing a team in Montreal that’s coming off a brutal seven-game series. Easy money, right? Maybe not. Not only did the ‘Canes go 0-3 against the Canadiens this season, they have also been sitting on the couch for 11 days (and here you thought Memorial weekend was a “long weekend”!)
“The fact that Carolina has had this long break is not normally something that you see in hockey working out for the team that’s had the long break, so maybe Montreal can go steal a game quick, but obviously Carolina was the class of the East and has been the class of the playoffs so far,” McCormick said. Still, Carolina is so good that Montreal could get shut down faster than Primm.
“It’s definitely an uphill battle for Montreal from that standpoint. But again, I think that they’ve gotten the confidence now with two Game 7 wins on the road in this playoff run. So they’ve got something going there,” McCormick said. “I’m under the assumption we’ll be Montreal fans. The public doesn’t all too often like betting the ‘dogs, and Carolina hasn’t lost this playoff season yet, so I do think that we will be rooting for Montreal in each of the games as they go forward.”
NBA
The Eastern Conference Finals most certainly feature the hottest teams east of the Mississippi. The Knicks struggled early against Atlanta, but mowed over Philly like a John Deere; Cleveland struggled against Detroit early, but came back to win pretty handily. Prior to Tuesday night’s game, New York had been at home, getting more rest than a hantavirus victim, so they came in as heavy favorites. And they showed why, coming back to win after being down by 22 points in the 4th quarter.
Over in the West, San Antonio showed that it wasn’t going to back down from Oklahoma City, winning Game 1 after physically watching the Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander get the regular-season MVP award. That obviously didn’t sit well with them, as they believe Victor Wembanyama should have won — and the Frenchman then went off, scoring 41 points and reeling in 24 rebounds. “When we talk about a future book standpoint on a team to win the NBA championship, the Cavs are actually our No. 1 team that we’re cheering for, with Oklahoma City second, then the Knicks. We’re absolutely not cheering for the Spurs,” McCormick said.
“There’s a lot of respect for the Spurs. In Game 1, it was a two-to-one ticket count on the Spurs plus the points. We had a lot of moneyline money on them, as well as over money, so it was a poor result for the books as the bettors cashed.”
Bets To Know
Spreads and totals for all Week 1 NFL games have been posted, and our Raiders are even favored! Mendoza mania has begun.
Weekly Winners
WOW. Check out this $50 parlay, hitting for an STN Sports bettor for $11,020.43 Tuesday night across basketball and baseball:
-Knicks/Cavs over 218
-Reds +1.5 over Phillies
-Tigers/Guardians under 8
-Cubs/Brewers under 7.5
-Angels/Athletics over 9
-Dodgers moneyline over Padres
-Guardians moneyline over Tigers
-Mercury/Tempo over 171
-Tempo +9 over Mercury