How much will sportsbooks lose if Knights win Stanley Cup?
Before their inaugural season, the Golden Knights were as high as 500-1 long shots to win the NHL title, and sportsbooks narrowly avoided a collective loss of more than $5 million when their magical run ended in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final.
Local books are in much better shape this time around on the Knights, who are favored to win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup on Tuesday at T-Mobile Arena. But books are still on the hook for seven figures if the Knights, -170 favorites over the Florida Panthers in Game 5 and -1,600 series favorites, win the title.
In fact, Circa Sports alone might lose seven figures.
“As you can imagine, it’s very fluid,” Circa co-owner Derek Stevens said Monday via text message. “And since we posted VGK for Game 5, it’s all been VGK bets.
“Overall, I’m hoping it’s less than a $1 million loss, but it could be more than $1 million by the time it’s all done.”
BetMGM will lose six figures if the Knights win the championship.
“Even though their odds weren’t as long as 2018, we’re still looking at a small six-figure loser if the Knights lift the Cup,” MGM Resorts director of trading Lamarr Mitchell said. “The support the team has here in town is just phenomenal. Everybody loves the Knights.
“It’s a great story for the city. For the bookmakers, not so much.”
The Knights were 20-1 at Circa to win the Cup when the season started and 10-1 at the Westgate SuperBook when the playoffs started.
A BetMGM bettor in Nevada made a $10,000 wager to win $140,000 on the Knights at 14-1. Circa bettor Jon Grace needs the Knights to cash $111,493.40 in futures parlays.
‘It was worth it’
The SuperBook and South Point reported liabilities of less than six figures on the Knights.
“We’re stuck a little bit. Nothing horrible,” South Point sportsbook director Chris Andrews said. “It’s definitely not a great series financially for us, but it’s one of those deals where we’ve had so many people in the book and it’s really created so much traffic that I’m not going to complain. It was worth it to have all those people around.”
Said SuperBook vice president Jay Kornegay: “The number isn’t anywhere close to what we were looking at six years ago. It’s surprisingly low, which is one of the reasons we’re very comfortable, on the business side of things, rooting for our team.
“On the fan side, we’re all in. We’ve all been rooting our hearts out for this team.”
Likewise at Station Casinos, where Red Rock Resort sportsbook director Chuck Esposito said the liability pales in comparison to the inaugural season.
“I don’t think it’s anywhere close to that number industrywide,” he said. “People bought tickets on them to win the Cup in their first year as a souvenir. They were not even thinking they realistically could win the Cup.
“Outside of the liability, we’re all clearly Knights fans. The crowds and the atmosphere in the book have been crazy for Knights games. It would be phenomenal for the town if the Knights were able to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup.”
‘Biggest handle’
The betting handle, or amount of money wagered, has skyrocketed in the Stanley Cup Final.
“This is by far the biggest handle I can remember seeing on hockey,” Esposito said. “(Tuesday) night’s game is going to resemble a pro football game — and maybe a pro football playoff game — handlewise.”
In the Knights’ 3-2 win in Game 4, Mitchell said MGM took six-figure wagers on both teams. Likewise, Kornegay said the SuperBook has taken some big bets on the Panthers.
“The ticket count is very lopsided in favor of the Knights. But the money does vary because our bigger wagers have been on the Panthers,” he said. “We usually label them the haters, because they want to bet on the other side. They see some type of perceived value on the Panthers. But the public has been all over the Knights with both hands.”
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.