Each Friday, we’ll comb through as many articles, tweets and podcasts as we can find related to the world of sports betting and daily fantasy sports, and publish the good stuff here.
Stumble upon something you think we should include? Email [email protected].
* * *
Extending the nation’s longest losing streak, the Trump administration is on the wrong side of yet another issue.
The Trump administration is siding with professional sports leagues in their opposition to allowing New Jersey to offer sports betting, while Republican Gov. Chris Christie is calling the leagues “hypocrites” for opposing betting while having teams in Las Vegas.
The solicitor general’s office filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court this week supporting the leagues ahead of arguments scheduled for Dec. 4.
The Vegas Golden Knights entered their inaugural NHL season with the lowest win total in the league (26.5). Through eight games, they’re 7-1. An article published by FiveThirtyEight said the Golden Knights are the best expansion team in NHL history, but they “will still probably miss the playoffs.”
Three weeks into the NHL season, there’s little that makes sense in the standings. The Montreal Canadiens and the New York Rangers — Eastern Conference stalwarts in recent years — have combined for three wins.1Meanwhile, several of the league’s recent doormats — like the Philadelphia Flyers and the New Jersey Devils — are looking surprisingly dangerous. But perhaps the biggest oddity of all is this: The Vegas Golden Knights are playing some good hockey.
Of course, it’s early and the Knights are up against some tough narratives: The quixotic practice of desert hockey hasn’t exactly worked out for the NHL to this point (looking at you, Phoenix), and no expansion team from the past 26 years has made the playoffs in its first season. But no expansion team from the past 26 years — or in the history of the NHL, for that matter — has gotten off to this good of a start, either.
The Knights’ six wins in seven tries are remarkable considering how their expansion brethren have fared. Among the other nine expansion teams that began play since 1991, only three — the 1992-93 Tampa Bay Lightning, the 1993-94 Florida Panthers and the 1993-94 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim — managed to win more than one of their first seven games. And then there’s the case of the putrid 1992-93 Ottawa Senators, who didn’t win their second game until their 23rd try.
The Golden Knights have been attracting a significant betting handle in Las Vegas.
More money was bet on last night’s Vegas Golden Knights-Chicago Blackhawks game @stationcasinos than was bet on Jets-Dolphins on Sunday.
— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) October 25, 2017
Las Vegas sportsbooks said they’ve taken more action on the Dodgers than the Astros in the World Series.
“The perception is the Dodgers are a lot better than the Astros,” Westgate sports book director Jay Kornegay said. “But once you start digging into the stats and looking at these two teams, they’re very comparable.
“A lot of people think the Dodgers can walk through this but I think it’s going to closer than they think.”
The early action at Station Casinos was heavily in favor of Los Angeles to win the Fall Classic.
“It’s been pretty one-sided,” Sunset Station sports book director Chuck Esposito said. “The first several wagers we accepted were all on the Dodgers. The Dodgers are the much more public team.”