Casino offers ‘biggest, baddest’ football pool
Season-long contest has $100,000 buy-in
LAS VEGAS – A new season-long football pool at a Las Vegas casino is taking America’s favorite gambling sport to new heights, with a $100,000 buy-in and a $490,000 top prize.
The NFL handicapping pool run by the M Resort cost $10,000 more to enter than the average sale price of a Las Vegas condominium in August.
Seven entrants – including some top prognosticators and a couple deep-pocketed amateurs – must pick the winners of five NFL games each week against the spread, with a point system tallying wins, ties and losses.
It’s similar to other contests across the nation, but this pricey pigskin pool is now the most exclusive competition around.
“This is the biggest, baddest, strongest, fastest football contest in the world,” said Steve Fezzik, a professional sports gambler who’s competing. He won more than $400,000 by winning the Las Vegas Hilton’s annual handicapping contest two years in a row.
That contest attracts hundreds of entrants each year with a $1,500 buy-in, making Fezzik’s wins the past two seasons about as improbable as winning a major poker tournament twice in a row.
In the M Resort contest, second place brings $140,000, and third place gets $70,000.
Mike Colbert, race and sports director for Cantor Gaming, which runs the M Resort’s sports book, said risk is what the high stakes pigskin pool was designed for. “I don’t think it’s a contest for the average guy,” Colbert said. “You’re not dealing with anyone in this contest with less than a seven-figure bankroll.”