By Daniel Behringer of LVSportsBiz.com
Two Game 5s in major league baseball.
Five NBA preseason games.
Three NHL hockey games.
And an NCAA college football game with a high total.
And it was only Wednesday.
Not bad choices for a weekday in the race and sports books across Nevada.
In case you slipped off the face of the Earth, the St. Louis Cardinals routed the Atlanta Braves, 13-1, and the Washington Nationals rallied in a thriller to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-3, that day. Both winners advanced to the NLCS. Nationals bettors cashed tickets as high as +165.
We tuned in to watch a little of the Nationals-Dodgers game but had a modest investment in Appalachian State at +2.5 vs. UL Lafayette. The Mountaineers eked out a 24-21 win over the Ragin’ Cajuns. Bettors playing “over” 70 in that game never really had much of a shot.
By Thursday, there was another Game 5 in major league baseball, more hockey and more preseason NBA and the Thursday Night Game in the NFL. Still not enough for you? There was also the WNBA Championship Game. In that decisive Game 5, the Washington Mystics, the team that eliminated the Las Vegas Aces, beat the Connecticut Sun, 89-78, and covered -7.
We shied away from action on any of the games, instead marshaling our unimpressive bankroll for college football.
Still, if you were looking for something a little different, pro golfers were teeing off in the Houston Open in Humble, Texas. With few big names in the tournament, oddsmakers installed Henrik Stenson as an 8-1 favorite, and the field was 6-5. (There was also a golfer by the name of Jhonattan Vegas, who was listed at 40-1. He’s not from Las Vegas, however. He was born in Maturín, Venezuela but played college golf at the University of Texas.)
Like a lot of people, we were up early for college football on Saturday. We tuned into the Red River Rivalry, the annual shootout between Texas and Oklahoma. We had a slight lean to Texas, which closed at about +10.5 in most spots, and under 75.5, but didn’t actually play either. With the game well underway and Oklahoma leading, 7-0, we glanced at a mobile sports betting app and noticed an in-game wager on the total was 52.5.
It was a prime opportunity for an “under” 75.5 bettor to arbitrage that bet with “over” 52.5. As we have remarked before in this space, in-game wagering has opened up an entirely new dimension in sports betting. Anyone serious about betting and capitalizing on game trends obviously has already latched onto this concept. And for the record, Oklahoma beat Texas 34-27, and both “under” 75.5 and “over” 52.5 would have paid.
We saved our actual investing for Army -5 vs. Western Kentucky. Sadly the Cadets’ triple-option offense apparently ran out of options as the Hilltoppers won, 17-8.
There were upsets throughout the day. South Carolina, a 21-point ‘dog by game time, stunning national championship contender Georgia, 20-17 in double overtime, was arguably the biggest of the day. However, UNLV’s 34-10 victory over Vanderbilt ranks high on the list. UNLV was 15.5-point underdogs, and it was the Rebels first road win ever over an SEC team although no one is going to rank the Commodores, now 1-5, as an SEC powerhouse. But if you cashed a money line bet on the Rebels at +525, you can buy lunch next time we see you around. At that price, maybe even dessert.
The seemingly endless sports-betting day, which included two major baseball playoff games sandwiched between other events, ended well into the evening when the Vegas Golden Knights finished off the Calgary Flames, 6-2. The win rewarded bettors who laid -155, puck line bettors who collected +175 and those who played “over” 6.5. As a wire account noted, the local team rediscovered its offensive mojo at an opportune time, after losing to Boston on Tuesday and at Arizona on Thursday and facing division foes in upcoming games.
It was such a sports-saturated weekend, in fact, that there was only about eight or nine hours between the end of the final NHL games and the kickoff of the first Sunday’s NFL games, another London affair between the Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers that began about sun-up local time. The Panthers, -2, dumped the Bucs, 37-26. But it was another lucrative day for the sports books with favorites going 3-9 against the spread. Even the five most popular picks in the Westgate Las Vegas SuperContest — the Rams, Jaguars, Seahawks, Vikings and Cowboys and — were an underwhelming 2-3.
Also VGK fans got a double-dose of weekend hockey action as the Knights traveled to L.A. to play the Kings on Sunday. About 24 hours after beating Calgary, the Golden Knights fashioned a 5-2 victory over the Kings. We could hear “over” bettors cheering the final goal scored in the third period since it sent the total over 6.5. VGK side bettors paid -160 for their winning tickets but got around +180 on the puck line.
For the record, we stayed away from the NFL and the NHL over the weekend.
And what happened to Jhonattan Vegas? Sadly, he finished at +3 at the Houston Open and didn’t make the cut.
What’s next?
— Monday Night Football has the Detroit Lions at +3.5 at the Green Bay Packers. The total is at 45.5.
— NASCAR’s playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway, which was stopped because of rain on Sunday, takes place on Monday afternoon.
— Major league baseball’s NLCS resumes Monday with the Nationals leading the series, 2-0. The ALCS moves to New York for Game 3 on Tuesday with the series tied at one game each.
— The Golden Knights host the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.
— The UNLV Rebels travel to play the Fresno State Bulldogs on Saturday. Rebels are +14.5 and the total is 53.5.
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