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STN Sports Weekly Rundown

October 28, 2021

Who needs a bank when you have Station Casinos Race & Sports Book and the STN Sports app? Is it too early to go ahead and trademark “$tation ¢asino?” For the third straight week in a row, bettors beat the book on NFL Sunday, something that hasn’t happened in six years. “What really stands out to me this year is that we’re not even halfway through the season yet and you see such a wide gap between the good teams and the teams that are perceived to be bad teams,” Station Casinos Race & Sports Book Director Chuck Esposito said. “You’re seeing more double-digit favorites early in the season than I can ever can remember before.” One team not likely to be a big favorite anymore this year: the Kansas City Chiefs, as the aura of invincibility is done. Let’s look at what else we’ve learned this week, and what we have to look forward to.

Count Your Cards
Seven weeks into the NFL season and it’s time for everyone to take the Cardinals seriously. On behalf of fans everywhere, mea culpa. Kliff “Crown Em” Kingsbury’s team is 7-0. Still, Esposito thinks it’s hard for people to buy into the Cards as the frontrunner in the league, the NFC or even their own division. “When I look at the NFC, I still have the Bucs, Rams, Cowboys and Packers slightly ahead of them, but I could be wrong,” he said. Having said that, the Cards are about to get a really good litmus test on Thursday Night Football when they take on the lowercase packers (The lowercase packers are defined as a championship-caliber team without Davante Adams — by rule, they cannot be the uppercase Packers until he returns.) But, the lowercase packers still have the reigning MVP and Chicago Bears unofficial shareholder Aaron “I Own You” Rodgers. Fun fact, the last two times a reigning MVP was playing against a 7-0 team, the MVP’s team won. Punctuate that!

Bad News Bears
If you bet the over in the Buccaneers/Bears game on Sunday, nobody would fault you for starting your victory lap at halftime. After all, there were 38 points on the board at the midway point and you didn’t even need 10 second half points to cash in — not to mention the Bucs offense was rolling and they still have, ya know, a pretty good quarterback. Surely the Bucs would toss another TD on the board and the Bears can muster up a field goal, right? Right?? Ughhh. Welcome to Bad Beat City. Population: You. Let’s fast forward to the third quarter. The Bucs offense is on cruise control and happy to eat up the clock. The Bears’ offense, meanwhile, went into hibernation. Points scored in the third quarter? None. Enter the fourth quarter. Early on the Bucs add a field goal, so the over is still very, very much in play. The Bears did nothing to help. The Bucs, now up by 35, pull Brady and insert Blaine Gabbert. He’s good for, wait for it, 15 yards of passing and no touchdowns. These two teams combined for a total of 3 points in the entire second half. 3! Say hi to the Buc-under-eers and rip up that over ticket. “Goofy things can happen,” Esposito said. Honorable bad beat mention goes to backers of the Washington Football Team. WFT had four fumbles. Plus, QB Taylor Heinicke stepped out of bounds at the half yard line when he could have walked into the endzone. A touchdown there, even with a missed extra point, would have covered the line. WFT? More like WTF! “It is a head-scratcher sometimes the way we lose these games, but that was a really bad beat for our side of the counter,” Esposito said. One bad beat goes to the house, the other to the STN customers. We’ll call it even.

Real Time Rams
There was a fleeting moment on Sunday where Lions fans suddenly had a glimmer of hope. Could they pull off the impossible? The winless Lions were actually up 10 points in the second quarter against the mighty Rams. Cue up Al Michael’s “Do You Believe In Miracles” line, right? No. Granted the Lions covered the huge spread, but it was rather telling the analytics still said L.A. had a 65 percent chance of winning when they were down 10 points. And the in-game players were loving it, as they loaded up on the Rams. “You had players that didn’t want to lay the 15 or 16 points prior to game time getting a much more advantageous price,” Esposito said. “We continue to see a rapid increase in in-progress and in-play wagers. It’s a huge part of what we offer and the handle on that continues to uptake pretty much on a daily basis.” Having said that, Chiefs fans also swarmed STN app’s in-play on Sunday and they pretty much all got stung by a Titan-sized beatdown.

The Fall Guys
The Fall Classic is here. The Astros and the Braves are the last two teams standing, giving us a Sun Belt showdown. Raise your hand if you had these two pegs for the World Series during Spring Training… Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? The ‘Stros, baseball’s modern day “Evil Empire,” came in as a slight favorite. The Braves, you must remember, are doing this without arguably their best player, Ronald Acuna, who went out in July 10 with a knee injury. Also, where did the Braves come from? They were still an under. 500 team on Aug. 3. But, as the leaves changed colors the Braves became the beasts of the NL East, going 34-19 in September and August. Were they the best team no one was talking about? Probably. Are those teams scary in the postseason? Definitely. “I think it’s a really interesting series. I think this has a potential to maybe go seven games,” Esposito said. “I think we’ll have a phenomenal handle on it. There’s a lot of props on the board and on the app for every game.” Game 1 went to the Tribe, but it feels like a long series, so gamblers should have the right to choose between Texas and Georgia.

Over it?
In what world do you easily clear an under in a nine overtime game! Happy Valley turned sad on Saturday after No. 7 ranked Penn St. was upset by unranked Illinois. But that was hardly the story line. This was: it was the longest game in the history of college football based on overtimes (granted, the rules changed this season to aid in that, but still)! The two teams swapped field goals in the first two overtimes, giving us a 16-16 game. Now, under the new rules, they each had to duke it out for two-point conversations. This happened again, and again, and again, and again, and again…(how many is that)? and again, and again, and again. Illinois finally took home the win with a 20-18 victory after that never-ending story. Honestly, there have been Hollywood marriages that haven’t lasted this long (Here’s looking at you, Britney. #FreeBritney) Perhaps lost in the chaos was the fact that this game somehow still went considerably under the total… after nine OTs! “It was so much fun to watch,” Esposito said. “We were Illinois fans. We needed Illinois to win outright. There was a lot of hooting and hollering up in the hub area, and we finally got an overtime game to kind of go our way.”

Great Lakes Battle
We can all agree that the cream of the crop in college football is Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State and Oklahoma. However, there’s a big one in the Big Ten that could have some serious Playoff implications, as No. 6 Michigan goes to East Lansing to play No. 8 Michigan State. Both are undefeated and would love to have a Top 10 win on their resume. Esposito thinks that Michigan specifically would have a tremendous case to be considered a top squad if they get the victory. Having said that, there’s one major undefeated team Station’s book boss thinks has a weakness. Who would it be? Cue up the music… “OOOOk-lahoma, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain.” “Of all the four teams — Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State and Oklahoma—the most upsettable team would be Oklahoma,” Esposito said. “I still think defense is still their Achilles heel. And it wouldn’t surprise me if they get beat at some point, just because of their defensive deficiencies.”

Trouble in the West
Over in the Association, Chicago is really good and maybe the only saving grace in the Windy City, considering the Blackhawks and Bears are already deep dish in slumps. But the early struggles of the Lakers and Suns are surprising and concerning. Another surprise is all the high scoring games, particularly considering fans are filling arenas this season (Few arenas allowed full houses last season.) “You’re slowly starting to see the totals tick up,” Esposito said. “I think with fans, you expect favorites to play more defense and have different momentum swings. I’m kind of surprised that we’re seeing this uptick and these high totals so early.”

VG-not-OK
The times, they are a-changin’ in the NHL. Since 2017, the Vegas Golden Knights have been a favorite among gamblers. But that is no longer the case. Their win against the Avalanche notwithstanding, VGK is mired in a slump and seem to be more beat up than the morning eggs at Lucky Penny. “We are seeing for the first time the Knights being bet against,” Esposito said. “They are a bet against right now almost on a nightly basis, which is very uncharacteristic for our side of the counter. You’re seeing a little bit of the fan base maybe turn a little bit.” Another team winning for the house is Buffalo, who’s been playing well, even without future Golden Knight Jack Eichel. “They’ve been good for our side of the counter,” Esposito said. But hey, we always have hope in our hometown heroes. We know they can turn it around.

Housekeeping
Don’t miss out! There’s still time left to take advantage of the $500 bonus from Station Casinos. Users have until Oct. 31 to create new STN Sports Mobile account. A bonus of up to $500 will be deposited into user’s account based on their initial deposit and the amount wagered within 30 days.

STN Sports Weekly Winners