When it came to major sports prior to 2017, Las Vegas could count prizefights, UNLV games and minor league hockey and baseball. Then came the NHL Golden Knights, which made the Stanley Cup finals in its first year and proved sports betting can coincide with local sports, even flourish, according to USBETS.
The success paved the way for the Raiders move from Oakland to Las Vegas and has attracted interest from the Oakland Athletics, in relocating. The WNBA Aces called Las Vegas home. The NBA, MLS are also talking about franchises in Las Vegas.
“When we got the Knights, especially at the unfortunate time when there was a shooting, I think the team really brought the town together,” said Motoi Pearson, who grew up in Las Vegas and is currently a senior trader at WynnBET. “It was wild to see an actual sports team that wasn’t UNLV playing, for a change.”
The Knights and the other teams in town created a community outside the Las Vegas Strip, said Jay Kornegay, executive vice president of sportsbook operations for the SuperBook. “A lot of people don’t see that, but there is a lot of pride in this community that’s never been recognized. Maybe that’s why Las Vegans have a little chip on their shoulder when it comes to the city that they love. Some people still think I get my milk at the Mirage.”
What’s unique about Las Vegas is the number of fans visiting from elsewhere which can sustain a team. ”When you go to the Raiders or Knights games, you always see a fair share of visiting teams’ fans in the stands. I’ve talked to a number of them over the years, and I hear a similar story: Once the schedules come out, they circle that game in Las Vegas and a lot of them are going to make it an annual trip.”
Westgate SuperBook’s John Murray is bullish on the impact an NBA team would have on local sportsbooks’ handle, calling it “a real game changer.” And nobody batted an eyelid when plans for a $3 billion entertainment district south of the Strip that would include a 20,000-seat arena for an NBA team, four existing arenas with similar capacity.
The Knights had very few takers with long odds. “They were gonna be the worst team in the league, but we were happy they were here,” Kornegay said. Once they started winning, all bets were off. “Wagering became a storm.”
It really caught us off guard. By the time we got to December, that’s when they really caught the eyes of some of the more professional bettors.”
The ascension of the team to the finals altered the perceptions of Las Vegas ability to support teams.
The forecast of Robert Walker, director of sportsbook operations for US Bookmaking, is equally sunny.
“Vegas is well-positioned,” he said. “We have the rooms. Whenever I see a big fight, it’d better be in Vegas. If not, I don’t consider it to be a big fight.
Kornegay said it got to where the SuperBook had to shift the Knights’ odds off a truer number in order to reduce liability, explaining, “Almost every single game, we needed the team the Knights were playing [to cover and/or win]. It was great and painful at the same time. Even the sharps weren’t really touching the other side.”
“Las Vegas is a very diverse community. We have natives from all four corners, but one of those corners includes the northern half of this country, and those are true hockey fans.”
Comparing the Knights’ and Raiders’ respective arrivals, Kornegay said, “I think the difference is that, as a sport itself, the hockey volume increased five to 10 percent because of the Knights moving here. The NFL was already popular. You didn’t see that amount of uptick outside of the Raiders, but you certainly did on their games [after they moved to Vegas].”
