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STN Sports Weekly Rundown
March 28, 2024
STN Guests Might Have Had ‘Best Four-Day Stretch’ In a Decade
What comes around goes around. After a college basketball season rife with parity and house wins, guests are having their way during March. “It’s been a really good tournament for the guests,” said Chuck Esposito, Station Casinos’ Race and Sports Book Director. “Thursday to Sunday may be the worst four-day stretch to start the college basketball tournament that I can remember in maybe the last five or 10 years for our side.
On the flip side, it was the best four-day stretch of the tournament for the guests. They’ve been filling our sports books, hooting and hollering and coming away with money.”
With all that in mind, let’s quickly look back at the past week in sports and peek at what’s ahead on the STN Sports app and at the STN Sports Books…
Tourney Time
Following the first weekend of the men’s college basketball tournament, the winning column including more favorites since the Blue Ribbon menu. More often than not, oddsmakers do well when underdogs win or at least cover the spread. Those moments were few and far between in the opening rounds of March Hoops. Favorites, which the public loves to bet, went 38-13 against the number. On Saturday and Sunday, moneyline favorites went 15-1.
“We just couldn’t get the dogs to cover and couldn’t get those parlay busters to go our way,” Esposito said. “We had big upsets by Yale and Oakland, but it wasn’t sustainable into the next round. We had a number of overtime games that just didn’t fall our way.”
One game that burned the House was the North Carolina/Michigan State matchup. As both teams have long histories of success, it was arguably THE marquee game of Saturday. Still, the wagering was one-sided with 72% of the tickets coming in on North Carolina. After a rough first few minutes, the Tar Heels cruised to a 16-point win and easy cover.
“We kept hearing that North Carolina by three-and-a-half or four [points] was easy. We hear that a lot, but apparently it was,” Esposito said. “Texas A&M covering against Houston was good. Having Texas cover against Tennessee really averted carnage.”
Last Man Standing
The March Hoops Last Man Standing pool is crumbling quicker than a Baltimore bridge. Over 3,500 entries started with high hopes but only 220 remain active going into the Sweet Sixteen. The prize payout is nearly $60,000.
Coming Up
Although brackets are more busted than a Playboy model —thanks to early wins by Oakland, Yale and Grand Canyon —things are still rather chalky out there. All No.1 and No. 2 seeds remain in the field, and N.C. State, the biggest “Cinderella” left, comes from the ACC, which is anything but a mid-major conference.
“We’ve seen some puppy love so far next round,” Esposito said, noting that bettors are siding with Illinois against the favorite Iowa State in the early stages. Bettors are also championing double-digit favorite UConn and underdog Gonzaga. “I think we’re going to see some Creighton love against Tennessee. That number has gone down and up, but it wouldn’t surprise me if both Creighton and Illinois are live dogs that the public might play,” Esposito said.
Boys of Summer
Although the Major League Baseball season technically began last week in South Korea, the real opening day is this week. All 30 teams will play on Thursday, meaning the amount of balls, strikes and excitement will be so high that even Shohei Ohtani’s former righthand man will struggled to interpret what’s happening.
“There’s a lot of optimism for a lot of teams right now, but you clearly kind know who’s good and who’s not,” Esposito said. “My guess is the White Sox, the A’s and Nationals will all be plays against early in the season, and I think we’ll be big fans of them pretty much all season on a nightly basis.” Thinking ahead to the Fall Classic, the highest ticket count is on the Dodgers, but Los Angeles is also the odds-on World Series favorite so the liability is relatively minuscule. But, there’s some liability on the Orioles and Tigers winning their respective divisions.
“If you’re looking for a team with some value to win it all, maybe the Cubs,” Esposito professed. Chicago is outside of the Top 10 in the future book odds. Added Esposito, “I think they’re the best team in the NL Central, but they definitely need a little bit more pitching.”
Bets To Know
In case you missed it – Match of the Day on the STN Sports App is in full force! Check in daily for a 10% odds boost on a specific featured game each day.
Weekly Winners
This. Parlay. $50 –> $135,105. One bettor might have had the best weekend of all after turning $50 into $135,105. The guest had an eight-game parlay tied to games on Friday. CONGRATS!
– Utah State ML +155
– JMU ML +195
– Yale ML +600
– Grand Canyon ML +195
– UConn -27.5 -110
– Houston -24 -110
– Purdue -26.5 -110
– Northwestern ML +150