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STN Sports Weekly Rundown

December 20, 2023

Niners Winning Ways Altering Super Bowl Line, New STN App Debuts

After an NFL weekend in which favorites dominated the slate, the Seahawks outright win (and the total staying under) proved to be profitable for the house. For the seventh straight week, the underdog won outright on Monday Night Football. Oddsmakers are already calling it “miracle Mondays.” The Miracle on 34th Street ain’t got nothing on the Mondays. Because of the Seahawks win, money changed hands like it was in the transfer portal.

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 Station Casinos Race and Sports Books…

Pigskin

Who are the Buffalo Bills exactly? They can certainly be about as dangerous as any team in the NFL, but they are also capable of laying more eggs than a chicken without Pepto Bismol. “I don’t know any other way to describe the Bills other than Jekyll and Hyde. You don’t know what Bills team you’re going to get from week to week,” said Chuck Esposito, Station Casinos’ Race and Sports Book Director. On Sunday, the late money poured in on the Bills over the Cowboys.

“The Cowboys really haven’t beaten any of the upper echelon teams, and that was a really bad loss for them,” Esposito said, adding that a $50,000 bet came in early in the week on the Cowboys. The number changed later as Buffalo money piled up like cars in a snowy midwest freeway. “By game time, it was a bad number that that guest had taken. The game had clearly gone up, so the late push was really on Buffalo, but there was some big money bet on Dallas early in the week,” Esposito said.

AFC Vs. NFC

We’re still about about two months from the Super Bowl descending on our city, but the line is already moving like a Californian relocating to Vegas. Right now, the NFC is favored by more than a field goal. “This line is clearly the product of one team and one team only, the 49ers,” Esposito said. “The Niners clearly look like the best team in the NFL, and I think the AFC is quasi-wide open. It’s going to be who gets hot and has the swagger.” The 49ers are hotter than Brandon Staley’s seat was at halftime of the Thursday night game. The Chiefs and Ravens seem to fit the bill as teams that could give the Niners a run for their money, and we’ll get a potential Super Bowl preview on Christmas when Baltimore travels to The Bay to take on the 49ers, who the public and pros have been backing week after week. “

That game can alter the landscape a little bit, but it clearly just looks like the Niners and just kind of a lot of parity at the top in the AFC,” Esposito said. “It wouldn’t stun me if Ravens came out of the AFC. It wouldn’t stun me if the Dolphins or Chiefs came out of the AFC. And I think you have to throw the Bills in a little bit, too.” The 49ers entered the season as one of the favorites to win the whole enchilada, coming in at 7-to-1 odds. They’re now a prohibitive favorite. “They’re a team from the business side of it that we’re not rooting for. From the fan side, the Niners are a popular team with big offensive players that from a prop standpoint would be great. From a betting perspective, there’s no value on them now to win it all,” Esposito said.

Holiday Cheer

Due to the holiday, the NFL TV schedule is more scattered than an MGM Grand floor plan. This week includes a Thursday game, two Saturday games, a slate on Christmas Eve, and three games on Christmas Day. Still, bettors are getting an early jump on the slate, as the Book has seen money come in on the Falcons, Chargers, Steelers and Eagles. Philly entered December with just one loss, but they’ve now failed to notch win so far in Santa’s month, having lost three straight, including to Seattle against a backup quarterback on Monday. That game opened with Philly favored by 4.5. It then went to 2.5. Then, after it looked like Jalen Hurts would play, it shot up to 5.5. It went down when Geno Smith said he would quarterback Seattle, which he didn’t ultimately do. “It was really one of the weirder line moves that I can remember in a very long time. It just fluctuated back and forth almost hourly,” Esposito said.

VGK’s Winning Ways

The Vegas Golden Knights are totally tuned in, and guests won’t change the station (pun intended!) The VGK are the points leader in the NHL at this moment in time, and guests are still betting on their boys. Although they melted down like a Hanukkah candle in Carolina, the Knights are no longer that team that lost five of six last month.

“That was beneficial for us,” Esposito said of the November skid that seems eons ago. “There’s no question that bettors still like to bet them and back them, and it pretty much takes one win to flip everybody back to Go Knights Go. We continue to be No Knights, No from the business end,” Esposito said. Tuesday night helped.

Bets To Know

It’s not just one bet – it’s all of them! STN is in its new app era. On Dec. 19, STN Sports App debuted a new look, new features, and new ways to win. With the new app, guests will experience massive growth in sports betting options, higher parlay payout rates, and sports waging from a single wallet and the much-desired same-game parlay offering. Wet your App-etite.

Weekly Winners

Entering the week — heck, for the last two weeks — only three entries from a field of 6,324 remained in the hunt for the $150,000 prize in Station Casinos’ Last Man Standing NFL completion. One contestant had the Bills over the Cowboys, one had the Rams over the Commanders and one had the Seahawks over the Eagles. All three won, meaning Christmas could bring some real holiday cheer for someone.