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STN Sports Weekly Rundown

December 27, 2023

‘Dogs Rule Christmas and Two Guests Win Big With Ravens

Pets aren’t always the best gifts to give, but the STN Sportsbook was given a lot of dogs on Christmas. In fact, all three underdogs covered on Santa’s Day, and two of them won outright. Christmas really bookended three straight days of NFL action that began with two underdogs, the Steelers and and Chargers, covering (one of them winning outright.)

“The Bills not covering against the Chargers was huge. It killed parlays and teasers,” said Chuck Esposito, Station Casinos’ Race and Sports Book Director. “We were able to chop things up over the first couple of days of the holiday weekend and do well to the NFL.” In Pittsburgh’s case, we all probably should have foreseen someone named Rudolph pulling out all the stops on Christmas weekend.

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…

Pro Pigskin

The San Fransisco 49ers had pretty much been crowned Super Bowl LVIII champions for the past few weeks, but the Baltimore Ravens had something to say about that on Monday. Lamar Jackson and Co. smashed the Niners like ground beef at Irv’s Burgers.

“We did have a lot of moneyline play on the Ravens. People that liked the Ravens just felt they were clearly a live dog and they were,” Esposito said. In fact, the two biggest bets of the weekend were on the Ravens. STN Books saw moneyline bets of $75,000 and $50,000 on Baltimore. Because of the Ravens’ 33-19 win at Levi’s Stadium, oddsmakers are rethinking the NFC/AFC Super Bowl line, and it’s set to drop a full point (The NFC is now favored by a field goal.)

“Baltimore delivered a message. They were clearly the more physical team,” Esposito said. “The Ravens clearly know that they can play with them, and the Niners clearly know that they got smacked in the mouth.” The Ravens outright win also marked the 8th consecutive week the underdog has won outright on Monday Night Football. Still, only the big man in the red suit is undefeated on Christmas.

Big Bets

In addition to the $75,000 and $50,000 money line bets on Baltimore, STN Sports Books also had five-figure money line bets on the Patriots and Giants. “There seemed to be some value with guests playing the money lines on the dogs this weekend, taking some flyers late in the season because of the price,” Esposito said.

New England won in Denver as 7.5-point underdogs; the Giants, meanwhile, covered the line on Christmas afternoon but failed to get the win, making that money line ticket less appetizing than Buddy The Elf’s famous spaghetti.

College Pigskin
On Dec. 23, the 37th installment of the Vegas Bowl kicked off at the Death Star. The Utah Utes, no strangers to the Allegiant confines, entered the game as touchdown favorites over the Northwestern Wildcats. Both offensives seemed to miss the memo that they’re actually supposed to score points in order to win the game — They were both colder than a North Pole ice chest. In the end, Northwestern took home a 14-7 win in the lowest-scoring Vegas Bowl in more than 20 years. While fans weren’t totally mesmerized, sports books across the valley saw the game as a thing of beauty.

“Both Northwestern and the under and the second half under were really positive outcomes for us,” Esposito said. “Utah’s fans, like they did in the PAC 12 championship the year before, traveled extremely well and backed those travel plans with their pocketbooks. We were huge Northwestern fans in that game.” About 70% of the tickets were on Utah, and the money heavily favored the Utes, as well.

College Football Lines

There figures to be a slew of activity on New Year’s Day’s two college football playoff games, but that’s not the case so far — and that’s abnormal. After opening lines were posted for Alabama vs. Michigan and Texas vs. Washington on Dec. 3, both games dropped a full point and haven’t moved since.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of money bet on them, but we’ve had three weeks of no movement on either, which is not normal,” Esposito said. With so many people in town for the Christmas holiday, it was very conceivable that lines would change or shift based on money wagered, but that’s yet to happen. Then again, let’s not rush this like a Raiders game plan on Christmas.

“You see 80% of the action on any game occurring on the day of the game and the 24 hours leading up to kickoff,” Esposito said. “I expect the handle on these two games to be extremely robust as we get closer, and there’ll be a ton of props and things to wager on the STN Sports App as well.”

Bets To Know

The College Football playoffs are almost here, and the handle on these two games is expected to be extremely robust as we get closer. As we approach kickoff, there will be a ton of props and bets to wager on the STN Sports App.

Weekly Winners

A $5 bet turns into a $1,706 win for one STN Sports bettor! Check out this 3-leg First TD Scorer parlay from the weekend:

– Jonathan Taylor +650

– David Montgomery +550

– Jerome Ford +600