Hot takes, bad beats and all things sports betting, a weekly newsletter by Steven Money.

STN Sports Weekly Rundown

June 29, 2022

There’s no question that the bettors outfoxed the Station Casinos Sport Book in the NBA Finals earlier this month, but the books honed its inner Ryan Reaves and counterpunched back with the NHL (and they didn’t even get a five-minute major.) “The bettors did real well on the NBA, and I’d say our side of the counter kind of returned the favor on the NHL,” said Chuck Esposito, Station Casinos Sport Book Director.

On the heels of the Books’ knockout win, let’s quickly look back over the sport’s landscape and take a peek at what’s ahead on the courts, on the diamond, on the field and on the STN Sports App and at the Station Casinos Race and Sports Book.

Nice Ice

The Stanley Cup resides in Denver, and that is good news for the odds makers. Because the Colorado Avalanche were essentially the preseason favorite to hoist the cup, the team’s odds were relatively low all season. That translates to fairly low liability on the Sports Book end of things. In addition, fans dumped money on Tampa Bay all series long, believing the two-time champs would make a run. During the series, the Station Casinos Sport Book saw multiple bets of $20,000 and $40,000, and the majority of those were on the Lightning. Sorry Lightning fans, but only NV Energy can be electric all the time.

Once again, the Book took home the W after Cale Makar was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy. Going into the Stanley Cup Finals, Makar was the favorite to win the MVP award. “There were a lot of tickets on Makar, but he was a really low price. He was the favorite. Overall everything revolving around hockey was really good,” Esposito said.

Brookl-IN

Honestly, community theaters don’t offer as much drama as Kyrie Irving. Mystery hung over the All Pro… and Nets… and NBA for several weeks because of his contract. There was suspicion he might opt out of his contract or force a trade. The Lakers were often linked to Irving. On Monday, the former Duke product decided to opt in to his contract with Brooklyn, leaving the Lakers more disappointed than a carnivore testing out an Impossible Burger.

“We had lowered a number of teams, including the Lakers, with anticipation that a trade could happen,” Esposito said. “Once he opted in, we kind of raised the odds on everybody back to where they were and then dropped the Nets back down.” For a guy who believes the Earth is flat, he loves the NBA world revolving around him. The Station Casinos SportBooks are also keeping an eye on several other potentially-on-the-move players who could raise or lower odds for teams. See: James Harden, Zach LaVine, Bradley Beal.

The Field

Are you ready for some football? Station’s Books and the STN Sports App are in full football mode, as they put up a trove of NFL bets a little more than a month before preseason kicks off. Guests can now bet, among other things, on the Rookie of the Year or the season-ending leaders in passing, rushing or receiving. Bettors can try to accurately predict whether a team will or won’t make the playoffs or which division the Super Bowl champion will reign from. “I think the one thing everyone’s kind of talking about is the Raiders and the ‘no’ price on them making the playoffs,” Esposito said, referring to the prop bet in which Vegas is more than 2-to-1 favorite to NOT make the playoffs.

“They play an arguably the toughest division in all of football, and it wouldn’t surprise me if somehow they won the division.” That would be a tough task considering the offseason upgrades made by the Chargers and Broncos… and, oh yeah, the Chiefs — remember them? — are still in there. “Who knows who’s going to ultimately win that division and how many teams are going to make the playoffs,” Esposito opined, “but it’s a tough case for the Raiders right now, because it is such a good division.”

The Cleveland Browns. Man, you can’t find this much uncertainty in Criss Angel’s show. While Deshaun Watson’s case moves forward, there’s increasing belief that he will be suspended for the NFL season, thus making Jacoby BrissettCleveland’s QB 1 (ya know, since Baker Mayfield seems to be headed for the northwest.) With the unknown permeating this franchise so pungently, the Sports Book is left in an odd position: While guests can wager on Cleveland to win the Super Bowl, their Week 1 game is not on the board, nor are other props, including their regular season win total.

“If Watson is out for an extended or indefinite period, I think Jimmy Garoppolo will go on the Browns’ radar,” Espositosaid. “They have one of the best offensive lines in football, one of the best running back duos in the league and a good defense. I don’t think they go into the season with Jacoby Brissett.” Still, perhaps because of a potential trade for Jimmy G or a favorable outcome for Watson, Cleveland still has the fifth lowest odds in the AFC to win the big game. The Browns must look at Kyrie Irving’s drama and think, “Hold my beer.”

Wemble-DONE

Wimbledon is only a few hours old and odds makers have already dodged their first bullet —their biggest bullet, actually. On Tuesday, Serena Williams lost in her opening match. The GOAT had 20-to-1 odds going into the tournament, and guests loaded up on her. In fact, she carried the highest liability for the Book. By far. Unlike a hungover tourist at The Pond in July, the Sports Book won’t have to sweat this one out.

Bad Beat

Even sketchy vegetable stores don’t serve up beets beats this bad. Since the baseball season began, the Dodgers and Yankees have continued to win games on the run line. When each team wins, they’re covering the run line more than 80 percent of the time. Odds makers thought the baseball Gods were smiling Sunday when both teams went down early. Then, both teams managed to come back late and take their respective games to extra innings. When free baseball occurs, a team usually wins by just one run, so the Book felt like it would limit its damage with either losses from Yankees and Dodgers, or at least one run games. Not so fast my friends. Both covered the run line in extras. “It just amplified what the loss was,” Esposito said. “It’s just kind of the nature of the beast with these teams.” The Yankees and Dodgers are delivering pain to the Book that even Hydrocodone can’t cure.

Bets To Know

The UFC is here for UFC 276 and there are going to be some fireworks. The STN App and Station Casinos have posted UFC round props, DEC/KO/TKO/SUB/DRAW props, and much more! Also, tennis fans have plenty of action with Wimbledon Men’s and Women’s tennis odds, all available in the app.

STN Sports Weekly Winners

This STN Sports bettor easily cashes out with a nice 8 team parlay on June 26th. $12 bet to collect $3,155.59!

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• – Angels UN 9.5 +100
• – Dodgers -123
• – D’Backs -120
• – Phillies OV 7.5 -105
• – Phillies +151
• – Angels -137
• – Reds OV 8 -105
• – Reds +139