At the midway point of 2026, the STN Sports Books are still running on a full tank, thanks to Wimbledon, baseball and that little soccer tournament. And, oh yeah, LeBron James is leaving the Lakers.
“The Lakers are still a very popular team, but we need to see how they fill out their roster,” said Chuck Esposito, Station Casinos Race and Sports Book Director. “Their odds in the future book will definitely rise a bit unless they go out and do something drastic, either through free agency or trades or something else.”
Without LeBron, the Lakers could face more questions than a Jeopardy contestant. 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…
World Cup
The World Cup continues to enthrall us like that Saturday flyover by the Thunderbirds, with guests seeing more green than the Washington, D.C. Reflecting Pool. “The atmosphere and crowds in our Books have been tremendous, but we haven’t necessarily done tremendously on it financially. Now going into the knockout rounds, maybe we have a chance for a little redemption,” Esposito said.
“We definitely had some sweat on Mexico,” Esposito said. On the other hand, oddsmakers did get an upset win on Monday when Paraguay beat the heavily favored Germans on penalty kicks. “Any time you get an upset at this stage, it’s really good for our side of the counter,” Esposito noted.
At the time of this writing, the USA was headed into their round of 32 game – it turns out they prevailed as well, albeit facing a very controversial red card. USA!
MLB
Major League Baseball is drunk, and because so many teams are hovering around .500, guests are getting burned like a tourist lacking SPF 50. In fact, only six teams in the entire league are 10 games above .500 or greater. “There is way more parity than I can remember in a very long time. probably a decade,” Esposito said.
“On a daily basis, anybody seems like they can beat anybody. Baseball’s been tremendous for us this year. One of the better seasons that I can remember.” Another way baseball is bucking the trend this season? Home teams are winning less than 53% of the time at their friendly confines, a much lower rate than in past seasons.
In a typical season, and this one could rebound, home teams prevail about 59% of the time. “It’s historically low this year,” Esposito said, “and I think that goes back to the tremendous parity in Major League Baseball.”
NBA
With high-profile trades (read: Ja Morant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard) and the uncertain future of LeBron James and Jaylen Brown, the NBA is already providing more fireworks than the July 4 sky. Although it’s not known where LeBron James will play in the 2026-2027 season, the Golden State Warriors seem to be the odds-on favorite.
Should that happen, expect their future book odds to drop drastically, as the Warriors would have LeBron, Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and possibly Draymond Green, who is a free agent. There are rumors that they’d be interested in trading for Anthony Davis, too (although the Wizards claim they have interest in shipping him off.)
“If LeBron goes there, the Warriors are definitely pushing all their chips into the center of the table and going for it, trying to have one more shot with LeBron and Steph and maybe make a run at San Antonio and OKC in the West,” Esposito added. “It makes them a better team than they were last year.”
The Warriors might soon have more stars than the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Added the STN oddsmaker, “LeBron doesn’t have to be necessarily the guy there. I think with having Steph and other players that they have, and playing for Steve Kerr, I think it’s a good fit, to be honest with you.”
Bets To Know
What else can we say that hasn’t been said for an electric World Cup so far? As the excitement and tension heats up throughout the knockout stages, you can bet that STN Sports will have betting menus exploding like host stadiums from coast to coast.
Weekly Winners
With Mexico’s 2-0 win on Tuesday, one guest’s $787,000 bet on the World Cup co-host nation to beat Ecuador netted an additional $415,00. Viva!