Bettor wins more than $50K off $103K in wagers on Golden Knights

Gamblers bet big and won big on the Golden Knights in their season-opening 4-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night at T-Mobile Arena.

A Westgate sportsbook bettor won more than $50,000 off $103,500 in money line wagers on Vegas, as the book handled the most money ever wagered on a regular-season NHL game.

“The handle was phenomenal. There was a huge handle on the game,” Sunset Station sportsbook director Chuck Esposito said. “It was greater than the wild-card playoff game between the Rays and A’s and was more than some of the NFL games from last weekend.”

The Knights closed as minus 200 favorites at Station Casinos, and countless bettors also cashed in on Vegas on the puck line (-1½, +125) as Las Vegas books took a hit.

“From a fan’s perspective, it was definitely ‘Go Knights Go.’ I went to the game, and it was a blast,” Esposito said. “But from the business side of it, we were rooting against them a little bit, most definitely on the puck line. Whenever they cover that, that’s tough to beat, especially in home games.”

Despite losing the six-figure wager, Westgate sportsbook director John Murray said the book didn’t take a major loss overall.

“We sold a lot of it back,” he said. “Didn’t lose too much.”

Knights’ viewing party

Sunset Station will host its first Knights’ viewing party Friday at Club Madrid for their game at San Jose. The party is free and open to the public and includes free giveaways.

Last Man Standing

Station’s Last Man Standing NFL survivor pool started with 6,492 entries and 344 remain. Station’s LMS college contest started with 3,555 entries and 218 remain.

Mattress Mack

Houston furniture store owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale placed a $1.5 million wager to win $3.3 million Thursday on the Astros to win the World Series (+220) on a mobile app at FanDuel sportsbook in New Jersey.

McIngvale has a total of more than $5 million in bets to win more than $11 million on Houston to win it all. The wagers are to help offset a possible loss of $15 million on a promotion offering a full refund of any mattress set purchase of at least $3,000 if the Astros win the World Series.

Historic sportsbook

William Hill will open the first sportsbook at a U.S. professional sports venue at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., pending regulatory approvals, as part of a partnership announced Thursday with Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals and Washington Mystics.

The book, which will span multiple floors, will be open daily, year-round, and will be accessible to ticketed and nonticketed fans during game days and nonevent days. Fans also will have the chance to watch major events when they aren’t live in the arena, turning the arena into a 20,000-seat TV viewing area.

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Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.