Bettors may have golden tickets on the Knights

Behind steady play from goalie Marc-andré Fleury, the Vegas Golden Knights notched victories in their first three regular-season games and created a believer in John Lytle.

Lytle strolled over to the sports book at Texas Station

Gambling Hall

& Hotel in North

Las Vegas to make a futures bet that the new

NHL franchise would capture the

Stanley Cup in its inaugural season.

When Lytle, an

Air Force veteran who served in

Iraq, posted his

$100 ticket on

Instagram, a few of his friends purchased their own, locking in odds as high as 200-1.

Lytle is among a contingent of

Las Vegas residents in line for a massive payday if the Golden

Knights prevail in the best-of-seven series against the

Washington Capitals. The series is tied 1-1. Game

3 is scheduled for tonight in Washington, D.C.

While the winnings will not be the windfall the soccer club Leicester City delivered to fans who got 5,000-1 odds on the middling club winning the Premier League two years ago, the money will be nothing to sneeze at.

Lytle, a senior at UNLV, already has plans to use the $20,000 in winnings to pay for a portion of his law school tuition.

Across the area, bettors on the Golden Knights include non-hockey fans who purchased $5 futures bets to commemorate the team’s inaugural season and sophisticated bettors who employed complex arbitrage

“I ride with my city the whole way. We’ll either raise that Cup and have a parade from downtown to the Strip, or we will bow our heads and get them next year.”

John Lytle, who bet $100 at 200-to-1 odds for Vegas to win the Stanley Cup