By DANIEL BEHRINGER
LVSportsBiz.com
It’s easy to tell when the Vegas Golden Knights are in action — the Twitterverse lights up with a dithering array of #goknightsgo posts, and there is a steady stream of insta-updates on the latest play or goal scored.
So it was Tuesday, Dec. 4, when the VGK hosted the Washington Capitals before a crowd of more than 18,000 rafter-hanging, glass-banging, more than slightly delirious fans.
At the local sports books, the number climbed steadily on the home team, from -135 to as high as -165 at one shop. The Knights didn’t disappoint, defeating the Caps, 5-3.
The Knights Effect was in full display again on Thursday as they hosted the Chicago Blackhawks. The Knights opened at -240 in many spots before again soaring, even touching the rarefied air of -300 in some locales.
The Knights were on their game and dispatched the Blackhawks, 4-3. (Savvy bettors could have also picked up the Blackhawks on the puck line at even money.)
The Knights were hot, and from our experience, there’s two ways to deal with a hot team, whether it’s in hockey, football, basketball or any other sport you can dream of — climb on the rambling bandwagon or stay out of the way. Those that have climbed on recently have been cashing tickets and watching ticket writers dig out the bills to pay off winning wagers.
As for us, we’ve been trying to figure out the hot trends in college basketball with limited success. On Tuesday, we split tickets on Boston College, winning a first-half wager but losing the game outright in overtime. Hey, at least we had enough left to buy breakfast with the newly installed Burger King app.
We turned up our noses on the Thursday Night Football game, not that we weren’t excited about a Tennessee Titans-Jacksonville Jaguars matchup (we weren’t) nor that we didn’t see any ripe betting opportunities (we didn’t). But we weren’t surprised when the Titans buried the Jags, 30-9.
By Friday we were back to crunching college basketball numbers and zeroed in on North Carolina-Greensboro vs. Elon. The numbers appeared to have lined up with North Carolina-Greensboro at -13. But North Carolina-Greensboro went noticeably flat in the second half and never came close to covering the number. There went our plans for a Whopper and large fries.
On Saturday, the Knights Effect was back in action. The time, the local team opened as a -145 road favorite, a number that climbed to -155. But the outcome disappointed fans of the Golden Knights, who were upended by the last-place L.A. Kings, 5-1.
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We passed on the hockey game but more intrigued by the Army-Navy game. With the game underway in the first quarter, Army leading 7-0 and defense on full display, we marched to the window and played an in-game wager of under 38.5. We weren’t the only ones. The price had swung to -130, but we never really had to sweat the final outcome of 17-10. By one account, it was the 11th straight time the traditional rivalry had gone under. It also created one of the lighter moments during the weekend. Situated in a local card room, we heard a voice on the intercom say, “Please turn that one TV to the Army-Navy game. No one wants to watch women’s volleyball.”
A little earlier in the day, we also cast an occasional glance to a TV monitor as the UNLV basketball team battled Illinois. The Rebels fell short, 77-74. But getting 6.5 points, it was a nice backdoor cover for the local team. In fact the Rebels are a respectable 5-3 ATS, according to Vegas Insider. They next face BYU on Saturday, Dec. 15.
And just as the new week began, there was another glimpse of the Knights Effect. This time the number on the VGK was generally stable throughout Sunday, Dec. 9, to settle around -155 to before the puck drop. But the local team came up winners again, dropping the Dallas Stars, 4-2.
On the same day, the NFL showcased a number of wild finishes. We weren’t there but we can only imagine the thunderous roars as Miami upended New England, 34-33 on a fluke play and Dallas defeated Philadelphia, 29-23, in overtime. Though perhaps most unlikely outcome was the Oakland Raiders’ 24-21 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. If you held a money line ticket on the Raiders, which was available on the Strip as high as +600, you’re buying.
Looks like another jam-packed week with a slew of holiday NCAA bowl games spicing the Dec. 15 schedule. If we don’t see you at the window, look for us in the drive-thru line.
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