For the third time in nine years, the Vegas Golden Knights are in the Stanley Cup Final, but they weren’t favored going into the series against the Carolina Hurricanes, meaning they had a plus price in Game 1 and in the series…which was music to VGK fans’ ears on Tuesday when the hometown squad bested the ‘Canes 5-4 in dramatic come-from-behind fashion.
Let’s get into it.
NHL
Going into Game 1, about 80% of the tickets were on the VGK, as was the majority of the money. “That’s kind of what we’ve seen as we’ve gone through these playoff series with them,” McCormick said of the Knights’ backing. “Looking at the series, obviously, the Sports Book will be big Carolina fans, but as we sit here in Las Vegas, it’s hard not to be fans of our Vegas Golden Knights and be cheering for them to bring home another cup.”
Whereas the Book is in good financial shape with the Hurricanes in the future book, the VGK is different, as it carries tremendous liability. They were bet all season long, even when they had their highest odds of 14-to-1.
The Knights’ relationship with the STN Sports Books is more complicated than a reality TV romance. Following the Game 1 win, the Knights are now favored to win the Cup.
NBA
To say the least, an NBA Finals matchup of the Knicks vs. Spurs is causing oddsmakers more heartburn than a Hot Ones episode. “We’re not in a good situation on both teams as we head to the Finals, but we’re in a little bit better situation on the Knicks than we are for the Spurs,” McCormick said.
San Antonio entered as the series favorites, due to having home-court advantage and some tall guy named Wembanyama, but guests have been falling in love with the Spurs all season, especially during the Western Conference Finals. But, as the Knicks sat at home resting, watching OKC and San Antonio duke it out for seven games, New York money continued to pour in. Now that the Finals are set, guests are back on Wemby and Co.
“We’re seeing a little bit of Spurs money here early,” McCormick said. “I do think we’re going to see balanced money, and if not, kind of a flip-flop reaction from the public, maybe game by game.” With New York being a mass-market team and the Spurs having arguably the best young player on the planet, the handle should be big. Said McCormick,
“The NBA Finals are going to be great. Obviously, when you have a market like New York and a team as hot as they’ve been playing going against this upstart, fun-to-watch Spurs team, and it’s hard not to cheer for this young man and the young club that they are, it should get loads of handle.”
Myles Garrett
On Monday, the Browns traded reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams, a team that was already the favorite to win the 2027 Super Bowl and had the league’s highest expected win total. The trade dropped L.A.’s future book odds drastically, and it takes a massive trade for a non-quarterback to move the market.
“It feels like the Rams are doing what they did just a couple years ago when they acquired Matt Stafford and were able to go on to win a Super Bowl, and just keep adding these pieces,” McCormick said. “We saw this out of Micah Parsons, but that was two and a half weeks before the season started last year. These are incredible, historical defensive trades that we’re talking about. You didn’t kind of see this type of movement with these types of players. Organizations just didn’t trade these types of guys.”
There are also rumors that Aaron Donald, a man more jacked than a Jiffy Lube car, will come out of retirement for this season. Either way, this is the third time the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year has changed teams the next season. F— them picks, right!
Tigers Collapse
For the Detroit Tigers, June couldn’t come fast enough, as they’ve been free-falling more than Tom Petty. Detroit, which entered May with a 16-16 record, left the month with a 22-38 record, going 6-22 during that 31-day span.
And despite those Monday and Tuesday wins at Tampa, it may only be a matter of time until Tarik Skubal is reporting to duty from a new zip code. The Tigers have become a clear bet-off.
Bets To Know
The world’s eyes will be on America next week when the World Cup kicks off. Believe that the STN Sports App has offerings for all the early matchups all the way to the finals.
Weekly Winners
The French fried the STN Books last weekend, particularly after a $1 million bet on Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League Final cashed on Saturday at Red Rock. It was among the largest sports bets ever placed in Station Casinos’ 50-year history. Because PSG was a -160 favorite, the guest pocketed $625,000 from the seven-figure wager.
To top it off, Victor Wembanyama, a Frenchman, led the Spurs past the Oklahoma City Thunder, which was not a great result for oddsmakers either.