Las Vegas Sports Book Notes: Football Contests for all Budgets

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It's mid-July in Las Vegas with the devil's breath of 107 degrees screaming daily which makes taking a walk down the strip in the day almost unbearable. But for those that do dare, it's worth the while if looking for unique things offered on the sports book boards that have never been seen, or seen so soon before.

Almost everyone has their season win totals posted for the NFL and college football season. The best NFL games of the year are already posted at the Westgate SuperBook and the most interesting college games of the year have been posted at the South Point and Golden Nugget. There's Heisman odds, MLB Cy Young and MVP odds, NFL division odds and Nevada approval for accepting Olympic wagers now allows us to bet 1-to-10 on USA men's and women's basketball each to win the Gold in Brazil.

We'll be taking a look at Las Vegas happenings weekly all the way through football season, but first let's start out with the football contests around town that fit just about anyone's budget.

How does free sound?

Station Casinos and Boyd Gaming are giving away over $1.25 million between them for free just for turning in selections weekly. There's also a few $25 contests and then a couple high-end tournaments offered at the Golden Nugget and Westgate.

Everyone knows about the Westgate's world renowned SuperContest with its $1,500 entry fee that saw a record 1,727 contestants enter last year, but some may not be aware that there's a high-end contest downtown at the Golden Nugget called the Friday Football Showdownwith an entry fee of $2,000. Last season there were 87 contestants with the winner taking 60 percent of the pool that translated into $117,000.

The major difference between the two high-end contests is that the Showdown is played like a football season with eight weeks determining who the top seven handicappers are after making seven selections using side and totals of college and NFL games. Those seven contestants advancing win $3,000. Weeks 9 and 10 is a wild card round with the non-qualified contestants all making nine selections each week which determines the final seed of the eight player bracket. The wild card winner faces the No. 1 seed, No. 2 faces No. 7 and so on. The winners of the quarterfinals get $2,000 for advancing.

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