Circa Sports Contest
Mike Palm of Circa Sports joined the show to discuss his MLB observations, preview today’s slate of games, and to provide an update on the Circa Sports Contest. “ Circa Resort reveals eclectic beverage program by Gaming Today. Contest sign-ups have started to pick up at Circa Sports, but the downtown Las Vegas sportsbook still is staring at a $2.6 million overlay in its two $1,000-entry NFL handicapping contests. The play cost pro poker players Gregorich and David Baker the $1 million first prize in the Circa Sports Million II contest and an unprecedented sweep of Las Vegas’ two most prestigious NFL.
The NFL regular season is over and there are multiple Las Vegas football handicapping contest winners at Circa Sports and the Westgate.
Altogether, the winners from the four contests — two at each sportsbook — took home nearly $5 million.
Circa Sports Million, Circa Survivor winners emerge
This was the second year for Circa Sports Million and first for its Survivor contest. The latter paid out 35 winning entries.
Circa Sports Million
After paying a $1,000 entry fee to compete in the Circa Sports Million football handicapping contest, each contestant played for a $1 million grand prize by making five NFL picks a week against the contest spread.
All told, more than $3 million in prize money was up for grabs in the Circa Sports Million.
This year, a player using the alias DSR90-1 took home the $1 million first-place prize by making the most correct selections during the season. Once again, the Circa Sports Million contest also had quarterly prizes for winners throughout the season.
There was a new prize added to the contest this year. The player with the fewest correct picks throughout the season won a “boobie prize” of $100,000. Not too bad for essentially having the worst picks for the season.
Circa Survivor
Making its debut, the Circa Survivor contest required players to select one team to win straight up each week. There are no point spreads to be concerned with for the survivor contest.
The twist for Circa Survivor was that Thanksgiving Day was considered one week in itself. Instead of a 17-week season, then, participants had to correctly choose winners in 18 weeks. That posed a challenge as the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens was canceled on Thanksgiving.
Circa Survivor had 1,390 entries with 35 contestants picking winners each week of the season. The total prize pool for all 35 players to share this year was $2.39 million.
Each survivor entry that made it to the end of the NFL season without a wrong selection took home a modest $68,285.71. Two participants survived with two contest entries. Both of those players will take home a total of $136,571.43.
Westgate SuperContest, SuperContest Gold winners announced
The Westgate (formerly Hilton) SuperContest is the longest continually running football handicapping in Las Vegas. The first SuperContest took place in 1988, and the SuperContest Gold was added in 2017.
The $1,500-per-entry SuperContest returned in 2020 along with its high roller $5,000-entry, winner-take-all counterpart SuperContest Gold.
Professional poker players David Baker and Mark Gregorich won the $435,623.20 first-place prize in the traditional Westgate SuperContest.
The two poker players were also hoping to take home the grand prize in the Circa Sports Million. They fell just short of the sweep, finishing in a tie for second place in Circa’s handicapping contest.
The duo discussed participating in both contests and how they hedged a little to ensure they won something:
Talk about a roller coaster of emotions. These two guys who won the SuperContest joined @MitchMossRadio and @paulyhoward to describe their journey this year in these contests. Catch it all on #FollowTheMoney pic.twitter.com/kWBdBTx1dw
— VSiN (@VSiNLive) January 5, 2021
BRETTFAVRE 444 is the alias of the player who took home the only prize for SuperContest Gold. After a small administration fee was deducted from the entry fees, the contestant won a grand prize of $360,000.
Circa Sports Betting Contest
Look for both contests to announce contests for next year soon.