On Sports Betting: Runnin’ Rebels Pay Off Big On Money Line As Golden Knights Bettors Cruise
By Daniel Behringer for LVSportsBiz.com
Sports bettors had a rare quintet of Las Vegas-centric opportunities over the weekend.
It began with the sonic boom heard around the college basketball world when the unheralded and unranked UNLV Runnin’ Rebels toppled previously unbeaten and No. 4 ranked San Diego State on Saturday.
The Rebels used balanced scoring and defense to beat the Aztecs, 66-63, easily covering +14 in the game. As The Associated Press noted, the Aztecs’ woeful defense, sloppy offense and costly turnovers didn’t help their cause.
Caesars properties had UNLV as high as +950 on the money line. It was the fifth time in six games the total went under for the Rebels.
A black chip on the money line parlayed with under 136 paid $1,904.55. Leave $4.55 so the ticket writer can grab a breakfast special, and you’re still in very good shape for the weekend.
“It’s a really great win for our program. It’s a culmination of the hard work we’ve been putting in. I credit our guys for being so focused,” coach T.J. Otzelberger told The AP after the game.
If you missed the first opportunity, there was another later Saturday when the Florida Panthers met the Vegas Golden Knights before 18,480 full-fledged hockey fanatics at T-Mobile Arena, the house that (MGM CEO Jim) Murren built, on the Strip.
The Knights had won four in a row, and oddsmakers made the home team a fat -200 favorite.
Much to no one’s surprise, the Knights won again, beating the Panthers, 5-3. A combined three goals in the third period pushed the total over 6.5.
The VGK improved to 9-3-2 under coach Peter DeBoer, successor of Gerard Gallant, who was unceremoniously fired Jan. 15.
As The AP noted, the analytics are improving under DeBoer. The home team now ranks No. 1 with 36.4 shots per game, have the second-fewest shots allowed per game (27.3), the second-most goals per game average (3.64), the third-most goals scored (51) and have the fifth-most points (20) since DeBoer’s first game as coach roughly 24 hours after Gallant was fired.
And while it’s a minute sample, as The AP pointed out, Golden Knights’ win percentage was just .296 (8-14-5) before the coaching change after allowing the first goal and is .500 (3-2-1) under DeBoer after allowing the first goal.
From a gambling standpoint, if you bet the Knights on their five-game homestead, they’re probably tired of seeing you at the window cashing out, an experience we’re not even remotely familiar with.
The next opportunity came late Saturday with a heavyweight title fight before a sold-out crowd of 15,816 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena that saw Tyson Fury reclaim the WBC heavyweight championship belt by stopping Deontay Wilder.
Wilder’s corner conceded in the seventh round, The AP reported, after Fury had dropped Wilder in the third round and again in the fifth. After bloodying Wilder’s ear, the news service reported that the British giant, who stands 6-feet-9, appeared to lick blood off Wilder’s shoulder in the sixth round, then led the crowd in a rendition of Don McLean’s “American Pie” after the fight, totally befitting a raucous Saturday night on the Las Vegas Strip.
If you drove your Chevy to the levee on Fury, you laid -110 to win 100. But Fury to win by KO, TKO or DQ in round 7 was 35-1. Under 10.5 rounds paid even money.
”He manned up and he really did show the heart of a champion,” Fury said of Wilder. ”He’s a warrior, he will be back, he will be a champion again. But the king has returned.”
The fourth opportunity came Sunday afternoon when the Pennzoil 400 got underway at the 1.5 mile, high-banked Las Vegas Motor Speedway. A few hours later, Joey Logano rode to victory in his No. 22 Pennzoil Ford.
“The pit crew was amazing today,” he told USA Today after the race.
“I think we gained a spot every time at least.”
A bet on Logano paid about 7-1.
And finally much later Sunday, the Golden Knights were at The Honda Center in Anaheim to play the Ducks.
Once again a steep favorite at -165, the Golden Knights won, 6-5, when Shea Theodore scored in overtime and William Karlsson (who had not scored a goal in 21 games) pulled off his third career hat trick. The VGK pushed their winning streak to a season-high six games, the NHL’s longest active winning streak.
“I think we’ve just played good hockey. We’ve really tightened up our systems,” Theodore told The AP. “I think we are sticking to that and really starting to feel that pressure of the end of the season.”
So let’s go back to the start of the weekend. If you were foresightful enough to parlay UNLV +950 x Golden Knights -200 x Fury -110 x Logano +700 x Knights -165, a black chip wagered would have returned a handsome $38,533.06 — and a slew of paperwork to sign.
Which is a pretty good Las Vegas weekend by almost anyone’s standards. And you could be out celebrating with them good ol’ boys who, in Don McLean’s classic, were drinking whiskey ‘n rye.
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So what’s next?
— The Golden Knights return home to face the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday. It’s the start of a four-game home stand.
— The Runnin’ Rebels host the Boise State Broncos at the Thomas & Mack.
— If you’re eager for baseball, the major league season gets underway March 26 with some games’ first pitch slated for 10:10 a.m. local time. We don’t expect there will be much of a line at the counter.
