Monday Morning Gambler: Tale Of Two Teams, It Was The Best Of Bets, The Worst Of Bets
By Dan Behringer for LVSportsBiz.com
Didja hear the one about the Las Vegas pro team that won and covered last week — then went out and did it again?
In the first game, they trailed early, but came on strong, won decisively and easily covered for bettors.
Who was that team?
No, it wasn’t the rabidly popular Vegas Golden Knights. In fact, the Golden Knights,, heavy favorites vs. the Montreal Canadiens, lost, 3-2, to the Canadiens in Game 2 of their Stanley Cup semifinal series.
Rather, it was the Las Vegas Aces. The WNBA team was -14 vs. the New York Liberty on Tuesday but won handily, 100-78.
A win is a still a win. It doesn’t matter whether there are 18,000 delirious people applauding and screaming, as is generally the case as the gold-hatted Knights ply their craft on Zamboni-smoothed ice, or 2,000 spectators scattered out at the Mandalay Bay Events Center watching the Las Vegas Aces.
A team’s popularity, amazingly enough, has little to do with whether or not a bettor gets paid. Although betting limits vary. At Station Casinos properties, for example, the limit on a WNBA game is often $1,000. NHL and Major League Baseball will often have limits of $5,000. And a limit of $10,000 is often the case with NBA games.
Regardless, the Aces returned to the court at the Michelob Ultra Arena on Thursday. The betting line crept up from -15 to -15.5 to -16 by tipoff for the rematch. But the Aces, powered by Stacy Plum’s 18 points, and 17 points and seven rebounds from A’ja Wilson, outscored the New York Liberty in every quarter on their way to a 103-76 win. The New York Daily News called it a “beat down.”
It was also another cover. Talk about ticket-in, ticket-out.
The Aces next play at the Minnesota Lynx on Friday.
Meanwhile, bettors backing the Vegas Golden Knights in a potentially pivotal Game 3 and laying around -170 or -180 were again disappointed late Friday. The Canadiens tied the game at 2 late in the third period on a miscue from popular Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, then won it in overtime, 3-2, to take a 2-1 series lead.
An intriguing betting opportunity arose after Game 3. The series price, which Station Casinos posted at -550 for the Golden Knights prior to the start of the series, fell to -160 for the Golden Knights and +140 for the Canadiens. Opportunity? Or trap?
Regardless, the VGK redeemed themselves among bettors again willing to lay -170 or -180 with a 2-1 win on Sunday in overtime. The victory knotted the series at two games each. Game 5 will be at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday in front of those 18,000 or so screaming fans. The Knights are around -240 or -250 favorites for that game with the total at 5.
Elsewhere:
— Favorite pays off: John Rahm went off as the favorite at about +950 to win the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego. And on Sunday, the 26-year-old Spaniard rewarded bettors by winning the tournament with a final score of 6-under par. Las Vegan Collin Morikawa, who was +1900, finished tied for fourth place at 2-under par.
— No Betting Allowed (NBA)? Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals with the Milwaukee Bucks at the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday illustrates the unpredictability of betting the NBA. The Nets, -0.5 for the first half, easily covered the first 24 minutes, 57-43. But it was the underdog Bucks at +2 who won the deciding game in overtime, 115-111.
— Ill-fated outcome of the week: If you played the Cincinnati Reds at the San Diego Padres under the total of 7.5 on Thursday, you were apparently on your way to an easy winner. The Padres led 2-0 after eight innings. But the Reds scored four runs in the top of the ninth. Even then, under 7.5 was safe. That is until the Padres answered with four runs in the bottom of the ninth to win it 6-4 and send the total over. Ouch.
