Come faceoff, sportsbooks aren’t cheering for Knights
Still have major liability on team winning first Cup
Bettors hit the Golden Knights’ trifecta Sunday night, when Vegas vanquished the Vancouver Canucks 5-3 to cover the money line, puck line (-1½) and over the total of six goals.
“If they win, cover the puck line and the game goes over, that’s usually a pretty good game for the other side of the counter,” Sunset Station sportsbook director Chuck Esposito said. “Personally, I’m a huge Knights fan. I love them. But from a business standpoint, I think I can speak for the whole industry that pretty much nightly when they play, we’re rooting against them. Especially on the puck line.”
The Knights are 10-2 in the bubble, 6-6 on the puck line and have a 7-5 over-under record. They’ve covered the puck line in a game that went over three times during that span, including their first two round-robin games (5-3 over Dallas, 6-4 over St. Louis).
“That combination is deadly,” William Hill sportsbook director Nick Bogdanovich said. “It doesn’t help when it’s the last game of the night and any live parlay is going to it.”
Bogdanovich said his book has taken four to five times more money on Knights’ playoff games than other ones.
“An absolute ton,” he said. Bettors who wagered to win $100 on Vegas on the money line in every game in the bubble would be up $580. The Knights lead Vancouver 3-1 in the bestof-seven Western Conference semifinal series and can close out the Canucks in Game 5 on
Tuesday in Edmonton, Alberta.
The Knights are -230 favorites on the money line, +110 on the puck line and the total is 6 (Over Even).
Vegas is the +180 favorite to win the Stanley Cup. The Tampa Bay Lightning are the 2-1 second choice, followed by the New York Islanders (+450) and Dallas Stars (6-1).
“Knights action is always great,” Westgate sportsbook director John Murray said. “We have big liability on them winning the Cup, although nothing like it was in 2018.”
Las Vegas books would have lost almost $7 million if the Knights had won the Stanley Cup in their inaugural 2017-18 season, when their preseason odds were as high as 500-1 at the Westgate. But the Washington Capitals beat the Knights in five games to win their first Cup.
Trump-biden toss-up
President Donald Trump continued to gain ground on Joe Biden over the weekend in betting odds on the U.S. presidential election, which now appears to be a toss-up.
Democratic nominee Biden dipped from a -130 favorite over Trump to -118 on Thursday following the Republican National Convention. But the election is now a pick’em at offshore
book Pinnacle (-108/-108) and at William Hill in the United Kingdom.
“It’s a coin flip,” Bogdanovich said.
Betting on the election is not allowed at U.S. sportsbooks.
Contest updates
Contest sign-ups have started to pick up at Circa Sports, but the downtown Las Vegas sportsbook still is staring at a $2.6 million overlay in its two $1,000-entry NFL handicapping contests.
Eleven days before the NFL’S Sept. 10 season opener, Circa had 934 entries Monday in its Circa Sports Million II contest, which needs 3,000 entries to meet its $3 million guarantee.
The book had 413 entries in its Circa Survivor contest, which needs 1,000 entries to meet its $1 million guarantee.
The Westgate also has seen an uptick in entries in its three NFL handicapping contests.
The book has 516 contestants in its $1,500-entry Supercontest, 23 in its $5,000-entry, winnertake-all Supercontest Gold and 31 in its Supercontest Reboot, a $500-entry contest covering Weeks 9 to 17.