By Dan Behringer for LVSportsBiz.com
You may be a Las Vegas Raiders fan.
You may own and wear some Raiders gear. (A Derek Carr autographed jersey is a good place to start. You can add the beanbag chair with logo later.) Even Gov. Steve Sisolak owns a Carr jersey.
But are you ready to bet them? If you are, there are a slew of numbers to consider.
The first is for their first preseason game when they host the Seattle Seahawks at Allegiant Stadium Aug. 14. That line is currently Raiders -1 or -1.5 with the total at 37.5.
But wait, there’s more. So much more.
Maybe you like the season win total, currently sitting at 7.5, according to Covers.com. If you like under, the website says the price is -130. Figure eight wins would be in the +110 range.
But perhaps you’re already thinking big and like the Raiders to win the Super Bowl on Feb. 13 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. If you do, you can find them anywhere from +6000 to +7000. (Good luck with that bet.)
How about the Raiders to make the playoffs? That would pay around +330, according to Covers if the Silver and Black qualify for the NFL tournament. You would lay -400 to bet no, the Raiders stay home for the playoffs.
To win the division would be +1600. To win the AFC around +3000.
“We went 12-4 in 2016 and were one-and-done in the playoffs. So there hasn’t been any real progress,” owner Mark Davis told the Las Vegas Review-Journal . “We are hoping that we’re building something here. At the same time, results are the only thing that speaks. That’s what speaks to me, and we just haven’t done it yet.”
Is this the year?
And … would you put your money on it?
The Raiders, of course, open the regular season on Monday Night Football at what will likely be a rocking Allegiant Stadium on Sept. 13. They are generally +4 or +4.5 vs. the Baltimore Ravens with the total around 51 or 52.
Elsewhere:
— Get Kraken: The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook made the Vegas Golden Knights -280 vs. the expansion Seattle Kraken for their first game Oct. 12 at T-Mobile Arena. The Kraken are +240. The total is 5.5 with under -130 and over +110. If the fat price on the Knights doesn’t tempt you, you can find them on the puck line at about -110.
— Rematch: A little more than a month after that, Gonzaga’s men’s basketball team will play UCLA at T-Mobile on Nov. 23. No line yet on the game although when they met in the Final Four, the Bulldogs were double-digit favorites. You perhaps remember the Zags won that game, 93-90, on a last-second half-court heave.
— Heavy duty: Heavyweights headline UFC 265 on Saturday in at Houston Toyota Center on Saturday. Derrick Lewis will challenge unbeaten heavyweight title prospect Ciryl Gane. Gane is currently about -350 and Lewis +260 in the five-round main event. Vegas Insider noted that Lewis, who is a Houston native, has cashed in five of seven UFC bouts where he has been listed as the underdog.
— Going for the gold: Was Las Vegas’ Collin Morikawa a good bet at around +700 to win the Olympic gold medal in golf? Fresh off a win at The Open, it might have seemed so.
“This is still golf,” Morikawa, 24, said Tuesday ahead of the start of the men’s tournament at Kasumigaseki Country Club. “It doesn’t just flow over to the next day, and I’m automatically going to start making birdies every single hole.”
His comment turned out to be prescient. In the end, it was Xander Schauffele, 27, who became the men’s Olympic champion with a final-round 4-under par 67. CT Pan of Chinese Tapei defeated Morikawa on the fourth hole of a crowded seven-player playoff for the bronze.
— Laugher of the week: Detroit 17, Minnesota 14. Nope, not a football score. Those were the final numbers in the Major League Baseball box score last Wednesday after the Tigers beat the Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis. The teams combined for 14 runs in the fourth inning, and the Twins rallied with six runs in the bottom of the eighth and two more in the bottom of the ninth before losing by a field goal. Kudos to an analyst at Covers.com who touted over 10 on the game.