Floyd Mayweather’s TKO a historic win for sports books

Floyd Mayweather’s historic win over Conor McGregor also was a historic victory for Las Vegas sports books.

“It was the biggest boxing win we’ve ever had at Caesars Palace,” Caesars Palace sports book director Frank Kunovic said. “We won over seven figures.”

Mayweather’s 10th-round technical knockout, which ran his record to 50-0, also was one of the top one or two boxing results MGM Resorts sports book has had, according to sports book director Jay Rood, who said his books won “in the neighborhood” of $1 million.

“It was a great night,” said Rood, whose book needed Mayweather despite taking two separate $1 million wagers on the boxer — one Thursday at Bellagio and one Saturday at The Mirage.

It was the same story across the city, as the vast majority of the money was on Mayweather, but more than 90 percent of the tickets were on McGregor, who closed as a plus-400 underdog at the Westgate sports book.

“We did great, like most of the town,” said Matthew Holt, vice president of CG Technology.

While there was only one $1 million wager made on Super Bowl LI — a $1.1 million bet on the Atlanta Falcons placed on a CG Technology phone app — there were at least six wagers of $1 million placed on the fight.

All of them were on Mayweather: the two $1 million bets at MGM Resorts, a $1.2 million wager at William Hill, two $1 million bets at the Wynn and a $1 million bet at the South Point — which also took an $880,000 wager on the boxer from the Maloof brothers, who pledged to donate their winnings to charity.

McGregor backers painted the town green Saturday at the books. The Westgate opened the day with Mayweather as a minus-700 favorite after taking a lot of action on the boxer Friday but lowered the line to minus-460/plus-355 at one point Saturday after taking a flood of McGregor money.

The line closed at minus-550/plus-400 at the Westgate, minus-475/plus-375 at William Hill and minus-550/plus-350 at MGM Resorts.

The fight was the biggest sports decision in William Hill’s U.S. history, with a McGregor win in the first four rounds a multimillion-dollar liability. In the span of an hour late Saturday afternoon, William Hill bettors placed more McGregor money-line bets than the total of Mayweather money-line wagers since the fight was announced June 15.

Late Saturday afternoon, William Hill reported the betting handle on the fight was twice as much as the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, which generated a state-record combat sports handle of $50 million in May 2015.

Of the first 4,000 tickets written on the fight at Caesars on Saturday, 3,500 of them were on McGregor.

“It is a nonstop parade of McGregor money. It’s crazy. It’s all McGregor,” Kunovic said late Saturday afternoon. “But we’re trying to get as much McGregor money as we can. We’re rolling the dice, so to say, with McGregor losing.”

A Mayweather knockout was the best-case scenario for Caesars.

“It was a huge win for us,” Kunovic said.

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Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.