Daily Archives: October 11, 2021

The state has announced that a seven-day soft launch of online sports betting and gaming will begin on Tuesday, Oct. 12.

The Department of Consumer Protection announced Friday that the Connecticut Lottery Corporation, Meohan Tribe and Mashantucket Pequot Tribe may begin a soft launch Tuesday for their online wagering programs. Once the soft launch is complete, online gaming can open statewide. There will be certain restrictions during the soft launch period.

The Connecticut Lottery Corporation has different parameters than the tribes. They will offer online sports wagering within the state only, limited in scope to 750 people through the online platform. Customers will only be allowed to make bets during certain times of the day during this soft launch - 3-11 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, 12 p.m.-11:59 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, then running on a 24-hour cycle through the rest of the soft launch period.

The tribes will be allowed to launch online sports betting within the state, online casino gaming, limited to the games approved by DCP for the soft launch. This does include over 100 games, according to DCP. The soft launch will not include live dealer or peer-to-peer online casino games, and will be limited to wagering by 750 customers. They will follow the same hour limitations as the CT Lottery.

FanDuel, DraftKings and Rush Street Interactive, which have contracted with the tribes and CT Lottery, are allowed to start establishing customer accounts for the 750 individuals that will take part in the soft launch.

The rollout of statewide retail and online sports betting was originally planned for Thursday, October 7, but state officials announced Wednesday that there would be a delay.

Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun opened their sportsbooks Thursday as legalized sports betting began in Connecticut.

Sports betting began at Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun last week. The Mashantucket Pequot Tribe is working with Draft Kings while the Mohegan Tribal Nation chose FanDuel to operate its sports betting.

Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun opened their sportsbooks Thursday as legalized sports betting began in Connecticut.

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Soft Launch of Online Sports Betting, Gaming in CT to Begin Next Week - NBC Connecticut

Thirteen of Louisianas 20 traditional casinos have applied to handle sports wagering the other seven are expected to apply before the Jan. 1 deadline and the first applicants are close to being able to start booking bets on baseball, football, and other events.

Gamblings chief regulator, Ronnie Johns, has the power to sign a temporary certificate of operation that would immediately allow a casino to start offering sports betting at least for in-person, on-premises wagering.

Its possible, but I seriously doubt Ill have any to sign in the next two weeks, said Johns, who chairs the Gaming Control Board. But I am anticipating some recommendations very soon.

He is still awaiting the results of the Louisiana State Polices required vetting of operators, personnel and procedures. Casinos are required to set up a lounge that limits access to bettors 21 years of age and older. All those plans and security procedures need to be reviewed, too.

Despite a slow down because of Hurricane Ida, eight casinos as of Thursday have applied to offer sports betting in Louisiana, according to the

Johns said Hurricane Ida delayed the process for about two weeks as the troopers handling the investigations were reassigned to storm rescue and recovery. Theyre now back to doing the required suitability studies on sports betting applications.

Several of the casinos are ready to go, once the paperwork is out of the way, said Wade Duty, executive director of the Louisiana Casino Association. The Baton Rouge-based organization is the trade association for the 20 so-called brick and mortar establishments that the state has licensed to operate casinos on riverboats, at racetracks and on land in New Orleans.

Initially, wagers will be taken only in temporary sportsbook lounges inside a casino, Duty said. Several of casinos are building multi-million-dollar facilities with banks of televisions and other amenities, but thats down the road. The 80-some-odd pages of new laws and 30 pages of new regulations also will allow sports wagering on smartphones and from computers.

Each of the 20 casinos will contract with two providers to handle geofencing, software and other equipment for betting over the phone and online. Unlike the casinos, which already have been investigated by the State Police, the contractors need a time-consuming full review, Duty said.

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Additionally, the Louisiana Lottery Corp. was authorized to oversee sports betting kiosks that would be placed in the bars and restaurants that serve alcohol. The Lottery is still working on its rules and doesnt expect to be up and going until January or later.

Louisiana regulators approved emergency rules Thursday to jump-start the ability for adults to wager on sporting events in Louisiana by midway

Meanwhile, Paragon Casino Resort, which is owned by Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana south of Marksville, opened its sportsbook lounge Wednesday. Several television stations showed Joe Horn, the retired New Orleans Saints wide receiver, enter the casinos new lounger and place the first bet. Horn played a longshot parlay with a large payout, in which Horn had to pick the winners in seven games to win his bet.

Paragon and four other Louisiana casinos owned by Native American tribes are licensed by the federal government and not regulated by the state. Their compacts allow Native American casinos to operate games that the state's voters approve. Otherwise, those casinos pay no state taxes and don't answer to state law.

In November 2020, voters 55 of Louisianas 64 parishes approved allowing sports betting in their parishes. Earlier this year, the Louisiana Legislature and Gov. John Bel Edwards established laws that spell out how sportsbooks would be licensed, operated, and taxed.

Wagers would be taxed at 10%, if the bets are placed in casino sportsbook lounges and at 15% on cellphones or websites. The taxes would be on the net proceeds the amount left over after bets are covered and would be paid by the primary licensees.

Gambling is expected to contribute $644.2 million in revenues, without including sports betting proceeds, to this fiscal years budget. Behind income and sales taxes, gambling is the largest contributor to the states $9.9 billion general fund.

The Gaming Control Board meets on Oct. 21.

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13 of Louisiana's 20 casinos have applied for sports betting licenses, becoming close to operational - The Advocate

Joe Asher, President of Sports Betting at IGT, at the Global Gaming Expo on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2021, in Las Vegas. Photo: Jeff Scheid / The Nevada Independent

Statewide, sports betting revenue figures and wagering totals during August were both down from a year ago. The advisory firm described August 2020 as a COVID-impacted, on-steroids calendar that tracked well-above the months historical totals.Still, with eight months completed, Nevada sports gamblers have wagered $4.2 billion while sportsbooks have collected $255 million in revenues, the Nevada Gaming Control Board said last week. Both figures are well ahead of 2019s record-setting year of $5.3 billion in wagers and $329.1 million in revenues.Caesars Entertainment, through Caesars Sportsbook, and Circa Sports, which is operated by downtown Las Vegas casino owner Derek Stevens, trended up in their shares of Nevadas sports betting market for 2021.The difference in market share was striking, however. Caesars is the states leader, according to Eilers & Krejcik, with almost 60 percent of sports betting revenue in the state through August. In April, Caesars completed its acquisition of William Hill U.S. and added the companys Nevada locations.Circa has five locations including Stevens three downtown casinos, the off-Strip Tuscany and The Pass Casino in Henderson, It accounted for just 2.6 percent of the overall revenues.The results from BetMGM during August, which is operated by MGM Resorts International, was viewed as flat by the firm. Still, BetMGM is considered Nevadas No. 2 operator, with more than 15 percent of the market.Several operations experienced a decreasing trend, according to the firm, including Wynn Resorts, which operates just a retail sportsbook on the Strip. The company has yet to launch its mobile WynnBet in Nevada.Station Casinos STN Sports, despite having the states third highest market percentage almost 11 percent fell under the declining trend, according to the firm.Eliers & Krejcik Gaming analysts Chris Grove and Chris Krafcik said Nevada is mirroring other sports betting states where three brands have control of the market.(Caesars) massive retail footprint (80-plus locations) remains its key structural advantage in Nevada, where in-person registration is required for online sports betting, the analysts wrote in a research report. The recent share gains at BetMGM reflect a big increase in BetMGMs Nevadas app download activity.Eilers & Krejcik cautioned that it used information from different data providers and proprietary assumptions and it regards these estimates as low-to-medium confidence because of the states lack of transparency into gaming revenues.Meanwhile, sports betting operators are flooding the airwaves to push their products.Caesars told investors in August it will spend more than $1 billion over the next two years nationally to promote its Caesars Sportsbook, including ads featuring Smoove as Caesar. The comedian grew a following through the TV show Curb Your Enthusiasm. BetMGM was one of the first sports betting operators with a national advertising presence through Foxx, an Academy Award-winning actor, as the King of Sportsbooks.Meanwhile, retired NBA superstar ONeal is a brand ambassador for WynnBet and appeared in an online television ad for the product that starred Oscar winner Ben Affleck, who also directed the spot.Station Casinos has been running an advertising campaign on Las Vegas airwaves for its STN Sports app featuring Cutshall, an Instagram comedian.Howard Stutz is a reporter for The Nevada Independent, a 501(c)3 nonprofit news organization. The following people or entities mentioned in this article are financial supporters of The Indy: Caesars Entertainment - $155,200; Station Casinos - $100,000; and IGT - $7,500. Thesestories were first published Oct. 6by The Nevada Independent within its weekly Indy Gaming newsletter and are republished here with permission. Go tonvindy.comfor more Nevada news and go tothenevadaindependent.com/newslettersto sign up for the newsletter.

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Joe Asher's 'retirement' didn't last long; sports betting executive joins IGT - Northern Nevada Business Weekly

According to an article in Florida International University student-run publication Panther NOW, petitioners in busy parts of campus have verbally harassed and coerced students while gathering signatures for efforts connected to the future of sports betting in Florida.

These petitioners are legitimately harassing students, meaning they are going to them, insisting and calling them different names and curse words, David Luis, a Student Government Association senator at FIU, said in an article published Tuesday quoting various students.

A petition photographed in the story was allegedly handed out Sept. 22 within a classroom and is tied to the measure sponsored by Florida Education Champions (FEC), a political action committee financed by DraftKings and FanDuel. That petition seeks to allow statewide mobile sports betting by qualified commercial interests. The effort will require 223,000 signatures before the ballot proposal can reach the attorney general for a fiscal analysis and the state Supreme Court for an advisory opinion before it can go on the November 2022 ballot as a constitutional amendment question.

However, as signature-gathering efforts are underway for multiple petitions connected to gambling-related initiatives, there appears to be confusion about how each group is conducting itself on FIUs campus in Miami. The photos within the Panther NOW story also show a booth manned by two persons with four images that contain the text Support The Seminoles Compact and Sign Petition Here. One of the individuals pictured in that photo is also shown pictured in the Green Library Breezeway, despite university policy prohibiting signature gathering within 50 feet of FIU libraries.

A spokesperson for the FEC, Christina Johnson, told Sports Handle Thursday that paid petition gatherers for FECs ballot initiative have not appeared on the FIU campus since mid-September, which would be after the harassment described in the Panther NOW report.

Florida Education Champions have not had an organized presence of paid petition gatherers on the Florida International University campus since mid-September due largely in part by other groups using irresponsible, threatening and potentially criminal, signature-gathering practices, Johnson said.

Meanwhile, representatives for the Seminoles petition have remained on the campus, in a location that meets university guidelines, said Gary Bitner, a spokesperson for the Seminoles.

We are aware of the FIU article and our team has already followed up to ensure all representatives continue to act appropriately, including being courteous and respectful at all times, Bitner said. Its important to note that no accusations of bad behavior have been made toward anyone working on behalf of the Seminole Compact.

They obtained permission in advance to be on the FIU campus and they have been focused on obtaining pledges of support for the compact as part of an overall public awareness and education effort that includes a statewide digital and broadcast advertising campaign.

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Separate from verbal harassment as well as an allegation of sexual harassment in the story sexual comments toward [women], complimenting their bodies, per the report it is illegal in both Miami Dade County (as of 2018) and the state of Florida (as of 2019) to pay signature-gatherers per signature, as opposed to paying gatherers hourly, which is permitted.

According to the Panther NOW report, petitioners on the Modesto A. Maidique Campus in West Miami-Dade County said they were paid per signature.

[Petitioners] seem to be getting more and more aggressive towards students, said Daniel Jones, a sophomore studying international business at FIU. Theyll chase students down as they walk through the Green Library (GL) breezeway. If you dont want to sign their petition, they use very vulgar language.

It is unclear if any additional allegations of harassment in signature-gathering efforts in general have continued since the campus article. The Florida International University media relations office referred an inquiry to the FIU Police Department, which did not immediately respond.

Also according to the Panther NOW report, some petitioners actually entered and interrupted a Crisis Communications class and a Finite Math lecture to obtain signatures, confusing both students and one professor who assumed the petitioning was sanctioned by the university.

To be sure, petitioning is activity protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which was noted by FIU Police Chief Alexander Casas. He told the school paper that, for that reason, we do not ask if persons collecting signatures are being paid to do so. Casas also said that the department would assign officers to the areas of campus where petitioners usually visit campus.

The third gambling-related petition for which signature-gathering efforts are underway is 21-15, which would authorize a limited number of new casinos. This initiative is backed by the Las Vegas Sands Corp., which has donated $17 million to the Florida political action committee Florida Voters in Charge, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal. The elections website does not show any valid signatures yet for that initiative.

Both the Sands-supported and FEC-backed initiatives would, if they gain the required 891,589 signatures, make the November 2022 ballot. Signatures must be submitted to the state for verification by Jan. 2, 2022, and verified by Feb. 1, 2022, in order for an initiative to get on the November ballot. Once there, they would need a 60% majority to make the constitutional amendments effective. These ballot initiatives require that signature-gatherers and circulators register with the Secretary of State and provide information such as names, addresses, dates of birth, and a circulator affidavits.

The Seminoles petition is not aimed at amending the state constitution, but is apparently more symbolic in nature. Petitioners for that measure have appeared on at least one other campus the University of Central Florida located in East Orlando.

According to a Sept. 16 report in NSM Today, published by students from UCFs Nicholson School of Communications, canvassers visited campus in early September to gather signatures in response to lawsuits challenging the Seminoles compact, which would allow the tribe to have an effective monopoly on statewide mobile sports betting.

From the story: The canvassers said they sought the signatures of UCF students to demonstrate to the federal court that there is public support, in hopes of bypassing the lawsuit.

That sweeping new 30-year compact executed in April would deliver Florida annual $500 million payments from the Seminoles. The compact also allows the tribe to offer sports betting at physical sportsbooks at its six casinos in the state, and the legality of that part of the compact is not disputed. The compact was approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior on Aug. 6, but multiple lawsuits are now challenging its validity for other reasons.

But it is unclear if the canvassers supporting the compact, or any who have appeared on the FIU campus on behalf of the Seminoles effort, are being paid by signature, or hourly, or at all.

As for the FECs ballot initiative, a heavy lift for which time is of the essence, its effort continues. The group has so far validated nearly 29,000 signatures with 100,000 pending as of Sept. 27.

Johnson said: Florida Education Champions is leading its signature-gathering efforts across the state through digital ads, direct mail, and via petition gatherers going door-to-door and at collegiate and professional sporting events and locations to collect the more than 890K valid petitions needed by Floridas Feb. 1, 2022 deadline.

On at least the one campus, though, the streams have crossed and confusion abounds. This is not only a higher education lesson but instructive for all: Read the fine print.

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Campus Efforts Tied To Florida Sports Betting Allegedly Lead To Harassment Of Students - Sports Handle

Crowds at the casinos during football games are proving that Gov. Ned Lamont was on target with his sharp focus on the start of the NFL season to usher in the new sports industry in Connecticut.

While the state didnt meet that target, the kick-off of in-person betting last week, just three days before the matchup between the New England Patriots and Tom Bradys Tampa Bay Buccaneers, brought beefy crowds to the states two tribal casinos over the weekend.

Baseball playoffs, including the Red Sox-Yankees wild card game that the Red Sox won Tuesday night, have attracted smaller crowds, but they still represent a bump in attendance at the casinos.

As for state coffers Connecticut wont get a cut of that sports betting revenue at the casinos. Not a dime of it.

Under the new Connecticut gaming law, sports bets placed on tribal reservations, like in-person bets on table games, arent taxed. The state will collect 13.75 percent of revenue for online sports betting once the websites of Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort casinos are up and running.

Revenue from the Connecticut Lottery Corps retail and online sports betting sites will not be taxed, because the lottery, as a quasi-public agency, transfers all its revenue to the states general fund after expenses.

Online platforms for sports betting are expected to go live Tuesday, starting with a soft launch available to a limited number of users selected by the fantasy sports companies that have partnered with the tribes and the lottery. The state Department of Consumer Protection announced the soft launch date in a Friday afternoon news release.

Online, non-sports casino games, which are part of the 2021 expansion, will be taxed at a rate of 18 percent of revenue, rising to 20 percent after five years. Those systems and approvals are still in the works with no targeted start date.

Tribal and casino officials wouldnt disclose how much revenue sports betting generated in its first week, or how many bets were placed, but pointed to strong volumes so far.

Performance has been better than expected, with Sunday being especially strong, Jeff Hamilton, president and general manager at Mohegan Sun, said in a written statement.

Mashantucket Pequots tribal chairman Rodney Butler, in an interview, said he was very pleased with the volume of bets placed over the weekend at Foxwoods, which the tribe owns, given it happened during soft launch period before the casino has ramped up its marketing.

While football was a big draw last weekend, that was not the case for baseball games during the week. Even the highly anticipated New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox American League wild card game did not bring crowds to the betting kiosks.

Football is 1, 2 and 3, said Butler, a former defensive back for the University of Connecticut, adding that baseball is slow and steady because theres so many games.

And, in the often-said words of Yankees announcer John Sterling, you cant predict baseball.

At Mohegan Sun, one person was at the two rows of betting kiosks at the moment when the first pitch was thrown at Tuesdays Yankees-Red Sox game, a few feet away from Bow & Arrow Sports Bar. A crowd gathred in the bar, many of them Yankees fans.

An employee helping patrons place bets on the kiosks said people had lined up hours ahead of the Pats-Bucs matchup to bet on the game.

Ahead of the Yankees-Red Sox game, large screens mounted high on the walls and the two dozen or so betting kiosks showed the Bronx Bombers were the slight favorites to win. At game time, a $30 bet on the Red Sox paid $63, including the original wager. Payoffs for Yankees bets were lower.

The Red Sox beat the Yankees 6-2.

The Mashantuckets and Mohegans got an early start on in-person sports betting, taking wagers ahead of the Connecticut Lottery Corp, which is still awaiting approval from DCP to launch its retail sites giving the tribes a slight edge.

Initially, well get some decent volume because theres no other options in the state,Butler said. But once they get their other locations, especially the key ones in Stamford, Bridgeport and Hartford, I think those will do pretty good volumes for the state.

What will set the casinos apart, he said, is the experience factor. Foxwoods plans to open its permanent sportsbook in mid-November.

That will be a sight to see. Its like sensory overload, Butler said. Well drive volume based off that entertainment value were creating.

But ultimately, he expects most gamblers will choose the convenience of making wagers online.

The reality is once you get online with sports betting, and in particular, internet casino, that will be a much more profitable venture, but still will pale in comparison to the numbers that you see that we report to the state on our slot handle, Butler said.

The casinos contribute 25 percent of total slot revenue to the states general fund per tribal contracts with the state. Foxwoods reported slot revenue of $30.8 million in August, the most recent data available, resulting in a $7.7 million payment to the state. Mohegan reported $43.7 million, paying $10.9 million to the state.

The expansion of gaming, which is expected to yield nearly $30 million in revenue to the state after the first year with hopes of that growing to $100 million after several years, comes as both casinos continue to recover from the pandemic, which led to declines in business.

Its a dirty little secret in sports betting. Its a very low-margin business. There are states that have lost money in certain months in sports betting and operators have lost money, Butler said.

julia.bergman@hearstmediact.com

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Sports betting off to a good start at casinos, but no state revenue - CT Insider

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Greg Wyshynski

David Purdum

Betting on hockey is a bit like stargazing. The sights are breathtaking. The time is well spent. Your patience for something -- really, anything -- to happen is rewarded when you see that sudden streak across the sky. Then another. Then, hopefully, another.

Which is to say that hockey is not basketball nor football in frequency of scoring events. NHL teams averaged 2.94 goals per game last season, which ended a five-year upswing in scoring. But what the NHL lacks on the scoreboard, it makes up for in strategy. There are a number of ways to bet the sport in interesting and profitable ways.

Here's a guide to wagering on the NHL. For some expertise, we spoke with Ed Salmons, vice president of risk management for the SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas. A veteran Las Vegas bookmaker, Salmons is on the SuperBook's oddsmaking team that oversees hockey for the sportsbook.

There are a few ways to answer this. The general answer is "not as many people who bet on other sports." Hockey is the fourth-most popular sport by betting handle. At the SuperBook, the average MLB game draws five times as much betting handle as the average NHL game. But it's difficult to really pin down specifics on hockey betting totals, as only Colorado reports bets on "ice hockey." It is lumped into categories with other sports in most states.

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Another answer is "more people than used to bet on hockey." The arrival of the Vegas Golden Knights to The Strip in 2017 created heavier volume on hockey at the sportsbooks, especially from fans visiting the city to see their teams play. So did the spread of legalized single-game sports betting around the U.S., giving fans access to hockey wagering (and allowing teams to inundate them with advertising about hockey wagering).

Beyond the casual bettors, there are also those hockey wiseguys who bet the NHL frequently -- and successfully.

"One guy has been beating us for two years straight now," Salmons said. "He bets a ton of games, too. I give that guy all the credit in the world, to bet that many games and win. It's hard to do."

High-volume betting syndicates, who search for variances in odds at sportsbooks, also get involved in hockey any time a price on a game gets out of whack with the consensus market price.

According to Salmons, the most popular wager on the NHL is the money-line bet. That's essentially betting on a team's odds to win the game outright. Let's say you like the Washington Capitals to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers and they're a -140 favorite to win that game. Bet $20 and the payout is just over $34. But let's say you like the Flyers here, and they're +115 to win the game. Your $20 will net you $43 if they win.

The next most popular bet is the "puck line." (Some people call it the "goal line," but that's a little confusing given there's an actual "goal line" on the ice in hockey.) This is essentially "betting the spread" for hockey, where you get odds based on a team winning or losing by a certain number of goals. Since hockey is a low-scoring event sport, the typical puck line is plus or minus 1.5 goals. This can change if there's a lopsided matchup or if money is flooding in on one result or another. It can also change via your wager, as "alternate puck lines" are available with longer or shorter odds.

The other popular hockey bet is the total, aka the "over/under" for a game. The total number of goals in an NHL game is usually set between 5 goals and 6.5 goals, but there are times when the total will be set higher or lower than that range based on matchups or betting trends. This is another wager where alternative totals can get bettors friendlier odds if, say, one result is more heavily favored than another.

According to Salmons, hockey fans aren't known for only betting games one way. "Tons of parlays, big parlay sport," he said. "They'll parlay the money line or the goal line."

To quote Anakin Skywalker in "Revenge of the Sith," this is where the fun begins. Here are a few of the prop bets on NHL games that we fancy the most:

Player props: Most of the familiar names in an NHL game will have stat props attached to them, where you can wager an over/under bet on their total number of goals, assists and points for a game.

One of our favorite wagers is betting on shot totals. Goals contain a lot of variables, from the play of teammates to the actions of the opposing goaltender. While shots can go wide or get blocked, it's a more controllable outcome and a more predictable one based on a player's typical shot generation.

Same goes for goalies and betting save totals. You can base it on the defense in front of them or the expected game situation, e.g., if his team is leading in the third period, there's a good chance he'll still be facing multitudes of shots. There are also wagers on when a player scores and player vs. player props. Much more will be available through the NHL's puck and player tracking technology, like the distance a player traveled in a game. Sportsbooks have already licensed that data.

Team props: Arguably the most popular team prop get is total goals -- not for the game, but for an individual team. This is a good wager if you think you know how one team will perform in the game but you're not sure how the opponent will hold up their end of the scoring bargain on your game total bet. There are also prop bets for when a team scores and other events.

Game props: As we said, hockey is a low-event sport. Over the last two seasons combined, 22.8% of games went to either overtime or a shootout. Well, there's a prop for that: betting on whether a game will end in regulation, or whether a team will win the game in regulation -- a bet that can give a favorite more profitable odds through specificity. There are also props regarding goals scored by period and other totals. Game props also feature more "coin flip" type bets, like whether the final score will be even or odd. (Bet as you'd like, but we'd rather separate our hockey-style bets from our roulette-style bets.)

These are some of the most popular wagers among fans. You can bet on teams to win the Stanley Cup, either conference title or their respective divisions. There are also season wins and points total prop bets. You can also wager on whether a team will make the playoffs. (The Buffalo Sabres are +1400 to make the playoffs and -3500 to miss the playoffs, to present one extreme example.)

For individual futures, the NHL is blessed (or cursed) with no fewer than seven major awards that get odds every season, from MVP (Hart Trophy) to coach of the year (Jack Adams).

Limits vary book to book and are typically based on the size of the overall handle on a particular sport. You'll find much larger betting limits on the NFL, for example, than the NHL. A big bet on NHL is $5,000 at the SuperBook. "But on Knights games, you'll see 10- and 20-dime [$10,000/$20,000] bets all the time," Salmons said.

Salmons compared the amount bet on his book's odds to win the Stanley Cup to how much is bet on The Masters in golf. Anecdotally, the arrival of the Golden Knights increased the amount of action on Stanley Cup futures, as fans who visited the city would drop a few dollars on their teams. But that was before legalized hockey betting started spreading through the U.S.

The Colorado Avalanche (+550) are the favorites to win the Stanley Cup, followed by the Tampa Bay Lightning in a bid for a three-peat (+700), the Vegas Golden Knights (+750), the Toronto Maple Leafs (+1200) -- which would require them to win a playoff round for the first time since 2004 -- and the Boston Bruins (+1400). Along with the Avalanche (-220) and the Lightning (+130), the New York Islanders (+350) and the Golden Knights (-180) are favored to win their respective divisions.

For individual awards, Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers is the heavy favorite for the Hart Trophy (MVP) at +200; Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Lightning (+400) is the favorite to win the Vezina (best goalie); Cale Makar of the Avalanche (+500) is the favorite for the Norris (best defenseman), while Cole Caufield of the Montreal Canadiens (+300) is the favorite to win the Calder Trophy (top rookie).

Entering October, the Islanders had received more bets to win the Stanley Cup than any other team at the SuperBook. Another interesting betting trend to watch involves the NHL's newest team, the Seattle Kraken. In July, Caesars had them at an over/under of 73.5 points. But as money surged to the over, that total is now 90.5 points -- and both the over and the under currently stand at -110.

To repeat the feat of the Vegas Golden Knights and play for the Stanley Cup in their first season? Seattle is +2200 to win the West. Odds can change fast. If you like that wager, better get ... Kraken.

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How to bet on hockey - The ins and outs of wagering on the NHL - ESPN