Feb 5, 2019

  • Ben Fawkes

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    Ben Fawkes

    ESPN Staff Writer

    • Runs day-to-day editorial operations at Chalk, ESPN.com'south gambling department
    • Joined ESPN in 2010

  • David McIntire

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    David McIntire

    Special to ESPN.com

    • Freelance writer
    • His book, "Pond with the Sharps", is on a season spent betting football game in Las Vegas

On New year's day's Day 2017, Damon Graham's forenoon started like any other NFL Sun: He got upwardly, watched some football game and headed to his i p.m. shift at a Las Vegas Starbucks.

By the time he took his intermission a few hours after, he'd won nigh $900,000.

Graham became the latest winner of the Westgate Las Vegas SuperContest, an NFL handicapping competition that started every bit a local event in the late 1980s and has since become the premier gambling competition of its kind. Through ownership changes and remarkable growth, the basics have remained the aforementioned: Y'all plop down the $1,500 entry fee and then pick v NFL games confronting the spread each week during the regular season. Every correct choice is worth a point, every push one-half a point. Nearly points at the end of the year wins.

The simplicity is the allure. Graham beat 1,853 contestants that season, and every year social media juices the growth of the SuperContest even more than. As the competition expands, it naturally gets harder to win: While Graham bet correctly on 65 percent of his picks, SuperContest winners are increasingly finishing above 70 percent. That's unbelievably accurate for Vegas, where a bettor generally needs to striking 52.3 percent to make money above the standard vig (the amount charged by a bookmaker to accept a bet), and the pros take a proficient year if they shell the house 55 per centum of the time.

So how exactly did an secret competition amongst Vegas insiders become a meg-dollar national sensation, one where a new wave of bettors, far from the Strip, have home quit-your-day-chore money? The SuperContest'due south rise is not simply a matter of luck and timing just also a reflection of the people who created and play this super-rich, super-tense, super-fun competition.

The Showtime

In the 1970s and '80s, Las Vegas casinos started looking for new ways to attract business organisation. Some bookmakers offered odds on unusual topics, such equally who shot J.R. Ewing on "Dallas." The SuperBook at the Las Vegas Hilton decided to take a dissimilar approach.

Dave Tuley, Senior Reporter, Vegas Stats and Data Network (VSiN): Contests in Vegas casinos -- football, equus caballus racing, slots -- accept e'er been virtually driving people into the property and so that they and so stay for dinner, go to a show, gamble in the casino.

Jimmy Vaccaro, longtime Vegas bookmaker: Casinos don't make any coin from contests, but back and so you came in to choice upwards your ticket and so you lot brought it dorsum in -- which means we got you ii more times during the calendar week.

Johnny Avello, Director of Sportsbook Operations, DraftKings: The SuperBook opened in 1986. There was nothing like it. And then they launched the contest. Art [Manteris] launched it. That was his babe.

Jay Rood, Vice President of Race and Sports, MGM Resorts: You didn't know about information technology unless yous were in the business organisation. Even then, you lot could walk up to 10 people in the book and ix of them wouldn't know well-nigh it.

Chris Andrews, Sportsbook Director, South Point Casino: Non everyone has $1,500 to throw around. Anyone who entered it was a relatively serious handicapper.

Bob Scucci, Vice President of Race and Sports, Boyd Gaming: In the early '90s, our Stardust Invitational handicapping tournament was going on at the aforementioned time. Most of the radio shows compared the selections of our handicappers -- we only had xvi -- confronting the consensus plays at the SuperContest. A lot of our guys were in the SuperContest also.

Art Manteris, Vice President of Race and Sports Operations, Las Vegas Hilton (1986-2001): Nosotros tried to add different features. If you picked over 67 percent winners, you'd get a bonus whether you lot won the contest or not. Nosotros also had a split competition for the last four weeks of the flavour to re-entice folks who were out of the running.

Tuley: I started following it in 1999. At that time information technology was Las Vegas locals, professional bettors and then some players from around the country who knew people from Vegas and heard about the contest.

The SuperContest requires contestants to submit weekly entries in person. However, a proxy is allowed to manually submit picks each calendar week, as long as the contestant signs upwardly in person before the season. What started as favors for friends quickly became a cottage industry in which proxies can accuse about $300 per entry for the season.

Toni Law, contest proxy, Football
Contest.com: The starting time year, nosotros were doing information technology for a handicapper out of Detroit. I would come up down here, grab the line on Tuesdays, fax them to him and so he would send me all the picks. I'd come back down to the SuperBook on Thursdays and Fridays to enter them.

Matty Simo, competition proxy, Football game
Contest.com: It sounds a little crazy and shady that I am going to fly out to Vegas and meet with some guy who is going to handle my picks for the season.

Chuck Esposito, Sportsbook Manager, the Hilton (1987-2000): We had a plexi board in the back of the SuperBook that would have all the games listed. Nosotros'd use a marker to put an 10 next to the squad for each play they had. Guests would gather and expect for us to manually listing all the teams that were popular. They would come upwardly with a piece of newspaper, write everything downwards and run over to the counter to play the nearly pop teams listed on the SuperContest lath.

Rosemary Rocco, teller and manager at the Hilton: Oh my goodness, you tin can't believe how nosotros used to post the results. When yous walked into the sportsbook from the parking lot, we had a big board out. Every entry name had to be sent out to a printer for the lath, and as the standings inverse, I had to rearrange everybody'due south names. Have one sticker off, put another on. I fabricated this makeshift ruler so information technology was easier for me to pick their selections for the week. It took three of united states. Nosotros did the board manually twice a week. It took about 98 percentage of my day, and that was with a couple hundred entries.

The SuperContest was still primarily a local contest with a few hundred entries when Jay Kornegay and his squad moved to the Las Vegas Hilton (now the Westgate) to run the sportsbook in 2004. They made some adjustments to the contest but kept the basics the same: v NFL picks every week, $i,500 entry fee.

Jay Kornegay, Executive Vice President of Race and Sports Operations, SuperBook: We expanded the payout pools as the contest grew. We surpassed 500 entries in 2005, and we were celebrating.

Manteris: In that location were a number of disputes that arose from people missing the deadline to submit picks. Those contest rules are your contract with all participants. If it says the selections have to be in by i o'clock on Friday afternoon, then you tin can't plow them in at ane:05. There is no gray area.

Ed Salmons, Vice President of Take chances Direction, SuperBook: The excuses are ever hospital-related. It's e'er the hospital.

Rocco: We had some firemen from Chicago in the contest. Every calendar week they took turns coming out to put their picks in. After 9/eleven happened, they all went to help out in New York and couldn't become out here to put their picks in. I had to say there was nothing I could practise. That tore me up. Every time I think about information technology, I wish I could've done something.

In 2010, Steve Fenic, a professional person bettor known as Fezzik, put the contest on the national media's radar when he won for a 2nd yr running. He took home more than $400,000.

Fenic: [My wins] showed, "Hey, in that location is a lot of skill in this."

Chad Millman, Head of Media, Action Network: I did a column about the SuperContest in ESPN The Magazine, nearly how it was a little bit like the Globe Series of Poker for professional person bettors. At the fourth dimension, this guy Fezzik had but won. Around then, Bill Simmons entered the contest. And when Bill talks about something, he'due south got such a huge audience that it just blew upwardly from at that place.

Cousin Sal, TV personality: We weren't losing enough money on our own, so nosotros said, "Hey, why don't we cough up $1,500 a yr but to say we've lost before the season fifty-fifty starts?" Simmons thinks he should get a complimentary entry for life.

Millman: Every year I remind Jay that without me, the SuperContest doesn't be. And he continues to express mirth at me every twelvemonth.

Matt Youmans, professional gambler and VSiN host: Those guys get as well much credit. The majority of the SuperContest's boom is because of social media.

Patrick Everson, Senior Author, Covers.com: If you follow the rise of Twitter over the concluding 10 years and put it on a chart with the rising of the SuperContest, you have arrows that are going to look pretty similar.

Joe Fortenbaugh, radio host and Covers.com writer: I remember it was 2009 or 2010 that I heard about it. My buddies told me, "It's this contest out of Vegas. You pick five NFL games a week, $1,500 buy-in." You hear that and retrieve, "This is and then piece of cake. Why am I not doing this?" The SuperContest sounds and so simple for people who don't even empathize gambling: Only pick 5 games against the spread. That'south it.

Brady Kannon of Sans Souci Team, 2011 winners: A friend asked if I wanted to be on his team. I never idea almost playing in the contest because it was $1,500. These guys asked me well-nigh information technology and I said, "Oh, so it'southward only going to cost me $300." Nosotros were a team of five; it was real simple. Anybody but turned in one pick. Every Friday we'd say, "Who is your pick?" and that was it. When nosotros went downwardly to 4 guys on the team, we decided that each week a guy would exist what we chosen "The Deuce." He'd make two picks. And we would rotate who was The Deuce each week.

Simo: I like to call up we [proxies] played a part in the rise. One time people find out they can use us to put their picks in, they are in.

Tuley: In 2007 or 2008, the Hilton refused to post the plays online because they wanted people to come downward, stay for dinner. They finally realized that half of the people putting in their plays are not in town, so no affair what they do, they aren't getting them to come down every Friday night.

Simo: In 2009, the first year [Toni and I proxied together], there were 328 entries. We were a proxy for eleven and thought we were doing pretty skilful. The next year, there were 345 entries and we had doubled.

Kannon: One of my teammates calls me during the season and says, "What have you washed to me? I'm going to go fat because I sit on the couch all Sunday. I'm going to get a divorce because I'one thousand watching football all day long. I'one thousand going to pull my hair out because this is then nerve-wracking. At the same fourth dimension, I'll probably have a heart set on." He paused and I said, "Isn't information technology great?"

The Boom

Betwixt 2011 and 2013, the number of contestants doubled, from 517 to 1,034, and the SuperContest became truly super, fifty-fifty adding a winner-take-all Gilt edition. This season saw an unprecedented 3,123 entries and a $1.4 million payout for the SuperContest winner.

Tuley: [The rise] was e'er a combination of factors. The perfect storm came together.

Millman: It'due south no longer the professional bettors in Vegas who are considered the sharps and everyone else who doesn't alive in Vegas considered a square. There is an entire universe of people who alive in the heart.

Eric Kahane, Manager of Business Development for Personal Gourmet Foods and 2018 winner: When I was out in that location in August, every time I walked by the plastic display with false wads of greenbacks, I just kept thinking, "I'chiliad going to regret information technology if I don't do this, so where do I sign up?"

John Murray, Manager of Race and Sports Operations, SuperBook: [We now accept] proxies putting in hundreds of entries, and you can't have them tying upwards your betting windows for an hour. We had to have windows only for the SuperContest because the traffic was besides not bad.

Simo: Toni was working at the Wynn. She quit that completely a couple years ago. Later on nosotros striking one,000 clients, information technology became a full-time chore for both of us. This season was our get-go year doing all online submissions. Nosotros built a website where contestants can submit their picks.

Murray: Now you're talking about chirapsia a field of about 3,200. You need to pick very, very well and be fortunate.

Fenic: I used to find sports betting easy to vanquish with hard work. There were lots of advantage plays for a pro gambler. Now information technology'southward getting harder and harder.

Phil Hellmuth, professional poker player: If yous win, of a sudden yous're a renowned sports bettor. I also believe that if you entered 300 monkeys in a iii,000-player SuperContest field, in that location's a 9 pct gamble that 1 of the monkeys would win.

James Salinas, Metropolis of Denver Parks and Recreation Ambassador and 2015 winner: I didn't have a system. I have been betting football games since I was in middle schoolhouse. I hear a lot of folks say they make their own power rankings, they fix their own line. I don't profess to be that smart. I will let the bookmakers make up one's mind what the number is. It's up to me to determine which side is the correct side.

Damon Graham, sometime Starbucks barista and 2016 winner: When you're looking at numbers, trends, injury reports and info, the more emotion you can take out of it, the better y'all tin do. I'm a Cowboy hater. I went similar 8-two betting Cowboys games. Merely picking them and keeping emotion out of information technology. That taught me: "I don't intendance who you detest, just pick the best teams on the board."

"'Spare no expense. We'll accept a bottle of Dom. No, nosotros'll take a magnum of Dom.' It was a bacchanalia." Christopher Lewert, 2017 SuperContest Gold winner

Kahane: One of the things I've learned is you don't handicap Week ane the same as Week 5 or Week 17. The mindset was to keep focused, think what factors are of import as the schedule moves along.

Brent Musburger, VSiN host and Raiders play-by-play journalist: Last yr the winner striking over 70 percent. You lot got a pay window of 55-56 percent, depending on what juice you lot're paying. That'due south fantastic handicapping.

Christopher Lewert, Manager of Special Accounts for Robb Vices and 2017 SuperContest Gold winner: I'm talking to [my partners] Mike and Andy, and they're like, "It'due south over. We've won. There's no mode nosotros tin can lose now." And then the adrenaline stopped and information technology felt like I'd been hit with a tranquilizer dart. I was only exhausted.

Salinas: It was fun to win, but it was such a relief to exist washed with it.

Kahane: I had a big, celebratory dinner on Sunday night after the games and hit the road around 11:50 p.yard. to LA. My son is 4 and couldn't care less if I win. What he cares about is when he rolls out of bed Monday morning and crawls into my bed, he doesn't desire to become to an empty pillow.

Lewert: We went to Vic and Anthony's in the Golden Nugget. It was one of those nights where nosotros said, "Spare no expense. We'll accept a bottle of Dom. No, we'll take a magnum of Dom." Information technology was a bacchanalia.

With business flourishing, Kornegay'southward team turns its gaze toward the seven states that have legalized sports betting since the Supreme Court's decision last year. How far volition the SuperContest go -- and how many imitators will information technology spawn?

Gill Alexander, VSiN host and professional gambler: The floodgates are going to open. FanDuel, DraftKings and everyone else with a license is going to do their own competition.

Hellmuth: I want the most people possible in the puddle. In that location are parallels to the WSOP. Whenever they have it online, I volition enter every twelvemonth. It's but fun.

Vaccaro: The SuperContest has so much traction that a few years ago, I voted to non fifty-fifty effort to go upwardly confronting it. You're just wasting your money if yous think you're going to outdo the SuperContest.

Millman: I think the Vegas contest is special. It's an original. While nearly every state has some kind of amusement park, people still like to go to Disney Earth.

Youmans: I asked Jay [Kornegay] nearly this: I think they'll make split SuperContests and each state will have its own.

Alexander: Contests are going to exist massive. Non only standard brick-and-mortar casinos. Betting apps will have their own contests too. The dark ages for contests ends this year.

This story appears in ESPN The Mag'south February Place Your Bets Effect. Subscribe today!