The Book Report Volume 3
We start this week for The Book Report in Las Vegas where football season has brought on a massive rush to get signed up for one of the pro football handicapping contests with millions up for grabs.
Players from around the country have descended upon Vegas to sign up for contests like the Circa Million 2, which has seen the most action due to the guaranteed prize pool of $3 million dollars. For the right to pick 5 games for 17 weeks, contestants paid $1000 and could enter a maximum of 3 times to compete for a guaranteed $1 million first-place prize. The extra attraction to this contest comes in the form of an overlay, an amount of money up for grabs regardless of how many entries the contest receives. Because the book does not take a rake (a cut of the action), Circa needs 3,000 entries in order to not lose money on the contest. The good news for the book was that over the last few days, hundreds have entered to bring the total entered to nearly 2,000 as of Tuesday. There will be an overlay, but not nearly as much as there could have been.
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I was happy to add to the total number of entries on Sunday of last weekend.
In addition to the Million 2 contest, Circa has launched the first-ever Circa Survivor, a survivor pool format that also costs $1,000 to enter. This is a winner-take-all format for $1 million dollars but it also carries a need for 1,000 entries in order to cover the overlay. The Survivor has been pacing nicely with well over 800 entries as of Tuesday afternoon.
The Westgate SuperContest has long been seen as the most prestigious football handicapping contest in the country but this year, it has really struggled for entries. In most years, the contest will see well over 3,000 entries but in 2020, everything is off. The SuperContest has not cracked to 1,000 threshold yet and with their entry fee set at $1500, $500 more than Circa's, it's hard to see a late push coming this week. Additionally, the SuperContest takes a rake and awards just a percentage of the total pot to the 1st place winner. In the coming years, you would imagine changes will come to the rules of the SuperContest.
If you are interested in football handicapping contests this fall and you live in New Hampshire, New Jersey or West Virginia, DraftKings has a contest that has the potential for another massive overlay. With $2 million guaranteed money, the DK Pro Football Picks contest has an entry fee of $1500 but had less than 200 entries as of Tuesday afternoon.
With 3 states eligible to participate in the contest, there was an expectation that many East Coasters would get involved. However, even with a late push, the odds of winning the $1 million first-place prize will be tremendous. If you can be physically in one of those 3 states authorized to be in the contest every Sunday, this is an opportunity that could change your life and should be strongly considered.
Back to Vegas for a second, the Golden Knights deep run in the postseason has brought out the big guns for one gambler who decided to drop a five-figures on VGK to hoist the Stanley Cup in Edmonton later this month.
The NFL made massive waves on Tuesday by announcing a deal with one of the most powerful offshore sportsbooks in the world. BetCris, located in Costa Rica, has become an official partner of the NFL in Latin America and will sponsor the NFL games in Mexico in 2021. We are a long way from the days when the NFL called gambling a serious threat to the integrity of the game.
That wasn't the only massive news to break on Tuesday as the University of Colorado announced that they were becoming the first major college sports program to agree to a partnership with a legal US sportsbook. PointsBet, headquartered in Denver, signed a 5-year marketing and sponsorship deal that will make them the official sportsbook of Buffalo athletics.
Remember, the NCAA spent years suing to stop the legalization of sports gambling on college athletics.
And finally, another pro sports team added a sportsbook partner as BetMGM was named the official sports betting partner of the Detroit Lions. BetMGM will be prominently displayed inside and outside of Ford Field as well as on team-controlled media.
“The Detroit Lions historic relationship with BetMGM has been years in the making and we’re proud to announce details of our official partnership,” said Detroit Lions Team President Rod Wood in a release. “We’re continuously seeking new ways to entertain and involve our fans which is especially important during such unusual times; this partnership with BetMGM will provide additional and exciting opportunities to engage our fans.”
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Matt Perrault is a featured writer at BettingPros and the host of the Daily Juice podcast. For more from Matt, check out his archive and follow him @sportstalkmatt.