On Sports Betting: Knights Make Triumphant Return to General Delight of Bettors

By Daniel Behringer of LVSportsBiz.com

They’re baaaack.

Vegas Golden Knights fans, that is. You see them everywhere, wearing jerseys in grocery stores and displaying their custom license plates on their vehicles.

Beyond cramming T-Mobile Arena and stirring up social media with the #goknightsgo hashtag, Knights fans obviously make their presence known in the sports book. Published reports and social media posts noted that serious fans, casual fans and bettors jumped all over the VGK in their Wednesday home opener vs. the San Jose Sharks. According to reports, they were betting the money line, the puck line, and presumably the total in some fashion.

Ironically, there was Sharks money in play too because the price on the VGK came down — and came down sharply. Station Casinos opened the local team at -240 on Sept. 30, but the price dipped as low as -180 in that locals spot before closing at -200. Across Las Vegas, the total opened at 6, but “over” bettors drove that up to 6.5 on game day.

Regardless, the VGK prevailed, 4-1, an easy winner for money line and puck line bettors at around +125 but likely dooming a good number of parlays with the “over.” (Since you wondered, we were expecting a closely fought game and had the Sharks on the puck line, a ticket that was a clear loser by the third period.)

After a start to the NHL season — the VGK game was one of four on the Wednesday card — there was still more activity to entice bettors. In addition to more hockey, bettors could find major league baseball playoffs, the NFL and even a pair of college football games.

If that wasn’t enough, we spied an intriguing prop bet on whether or not the Miami Dolphins will go winless this season. The Yes on that prop bet was +325 and No was -450.

Call it Christmas in October.

The same held true on Friday. We were out and about briefly, and there was a lively crowd at one of the local race and sports books. They erupted into cheers when the New York Yankees broke open a tie game with the Minnesota Twins in the middle innings in Game One of their ALDS en route to a 10-4 win. There were three other major league baseball playoff games on the schedule, college football later and then of course, the much-awaited rematch between the VGK and the Sharks at the SAP Center, also known as the Shark Tank, in San Jose.

The VGK closed at around -125 with the Sharks generally +105 in what some saw as a revenge match after the Sharks ousted the Knights in a controversial playoff game last season. Revenge or not, the Knights came away with a 5-1 win with the total again coming in under 6.5. (We passed on betting this game, lost a bet on Central Florida -3.5, which lost outright to Cincinnati, 27-24, but did cash a ticket on the Yankees-Twins “over” 9 at even money.)

There was more of the same on Saturday. We saw the usual crowd at one local book — and a line almost the length of two first downs waiting late in the day to see a the ticket writer.

If the usual assortment of baseball and football wasn’t enough to lure you, there was also preseason NBA action. In what was arguably the preseason marquee matchup of the day, the Los Angeles Lakers, laying 4.5 on the road vs. the Golden State Warriors, covered in a 123-101 victory. While it’s still preseason, oddsmakers have the totals right on target. The final score sent the total just “over” 223.5.

There wasn’t much doubt in the eventual outcome of the Boise State-UNLV game. There was, however, drama in the point spread, which had opened at Boise State -20.5 in some locales, then moved to as high as -24.5 and even -25 in some shops before kickoff. Boise State bettors caught a huge break when the Broncos recovered a Rebels onside kick late, ran it back, then scored a touchdown to cover the number or at least earn a push with a final score of 38-13.

(You had to ask: We had a loser in college football when Oklahoma got off to a shaky start and failed to cover -33 in a 45-20 win over Kansas. But we recouped some of our losses when Northwestern, +7.5, gave Nebraska a good fight before losing, 13-10.)

We were up early Sunday and sided with several handicappers and at least some of the public in playing the Chicago Bears vs. the Oakland (soon to be Las Vegas) Raiders. The line on the Bears moved from -4.5 to as high as -6.5.  After spotting the Raiders a 17-0 lead before a sell-out crowd at Tottenham Stadium in London, the Bears rallied and led at one point, prompting a boisterous chorus of cheers at one casino bar.

But it didn’t matter as the Raiders responded, beating the Bears outright, 24-21. It was just another day in the NFL where ‘dogs covered seven games and won six outright, according to Vegas Insider. The Indianapolis Colts beating the heavily favored Kansas City Chiefs rewarded money line bettors at +500. (We recovered a little loot from our ill-advised Bears bet when the Dodgers, priced at -145, beat the Nationals, 9-5, in Game Three of their NLDS.)

Elsewhere:

— In the UFC middleweight championship Saturday in Melbourne, Australia, Israel Idesanya defeated Robert Whittaker by KO/TKO. Ideesnya was -120.

— Gennadiy Golovkin narrowly beat Sergiy Derevyanchenko by unanimous decision Saturday to take the IBF championship at Madison Square Garden. Triple G was anywhere from -450 to -530, according to SB Nation.

— Kevin Na won his second Shriners Hospitals for Children Open title on Sunday with a playoff win over Patrick Cantlay at TPC Summerlin. An adjusted line from Station Casinos made Na even money after Round 3.

What’s next?

— Monday Night Football has the Cleveland Browns at +5 at the San Francisco 49ers. The total is currently 47.

— There’s a full slate of major league baseball playoff games on Monday with the Yankees and the Astros poised to sweep their division matchups against the Twins and the Rays, respectively.

— The Vegas Golden Knights will host the Boston Bruins on Tuesday at T-Mobile Arena.

— The NBA regular season opens Oct. 22 with a TNT double-header.

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