A big congrats to Robert Kowalski, Sportsbook Director at Baldini’s in Sparks, Nevada, for winning Bookies Battle 2022.
With a 150-111-10 record on the season (57.5%), Kowalski finished a comfortable three games in front and cashes the top prize of $3,000. Well done, Robert!
Kyle Wainscott, from Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, Illinois, finished in second place with 147 winners, good for a $1,000 piece of the prize money. Add that to the $500 Wainscott earned for winning the second-quarter mini-contest.
Rex Beyers, US Head of Wagering at PlayUp, took down the $500 prize for the fourth-quarter mini-contest, correctly calling 45 games over the last five weeks of the regular season. While that tied him with Kenny Martin (Caesars Sportsbook – Horseshoe Tunica), Rex won the tiebreaker — his prediction of 43 total points in Sunday night’s Lions-Packers game was closer than Kenny’s 45, as Detroit pulled off the upset in a low-scoring 20-16 affair.
Kowalski, Wainscott, and Beyers are among the 12 contestants who earned spots in the playoff portion of our contest. Playoff berths go to the top 10 regular-season finishers, plus the quarterly contest winners. The winner of the playoff pool collects $2,000.
Here is the Bookies Battle 2022 playoff field:
No. 1 Robert Kowalski (Baldini’s Casino): 150 winners
No. 2 Kyle Wainscott (Rivers Casino – Des Plaines): 147 winners (second-quarter mini-contest winner)
No. 3 Casey Degnon (Westgate Las Vegas): 145 winners (first-quarter mini-contest winner)
No. 3 Michael Hastey (DraftKings at Casino Queen): 145 winners
No. 3 Craig Steppach (GOLD STRIKE): 145 winners
No. 3 Rex Beyers (PlayUp USA): 145 winners (fourth-quarter mini-contest winner)
No. 7 John Lindheimer (Harrah’s Hoosier Park): 144 winners
No. 8 Anthony Nevill (TI): 143 winners
No. 9 Max Schmerin (Rivers Casino Pittsburgh): 142 winners (2021 Bookies Battle champ)
No. 10 Casey Lewless (Margaritaville Bossier City): 141 winners
No. 10 Kalen Carlisle (Wynn): 141 winners
No. 15 Socrates Cherry III (Aliante Casino) (third-quarter mini-contest winner)
Consensus Picks End in Positive Territory
Bookies Battle consensus picks finished on a middling note, going 8-8 in Week 18. For the season, consensus picks were 139-122-10, a narrowly profitable 53.26% clip.
If a $100 bettor blindly followed our pool’s popular plays, they’d be up $480 on the year – if they got down at the right lines, of course. Our contestants have the benefit of picking against NFL lines a few days after they’ve been set.
NFL Wild Card Contest Lines
This isn’t the sexiest lineup of Wild Card Weekend games, as we have a pair of matchups priced with double-digit point spreads, and the status of two superstar QBs — the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson and Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa — is uncertain.
Two games, though, feature spreads on the most key number in NFL betting, and Saturday’s primetime offering is considered a virtual coin flip by the betting market, per early numbers.
Contest Lines for Wild Card Weekend
| SEA Seahawks @ SF 49ers (-10) |
| LA Chargers (-1) @ JAX Jaguars |
| MIA Dolphins @ BUF Bills (-10.5) |
| NY Giants @ MIN Vikings (-3) |
| BAL Ravens @ CIN Bengals (-6.5) |
| DAL Cowboys (-3) @ TB Buccaneers |
Bookmaker Spotlights
Throughout this NFL season, we’ve been chatting with bookmakers from around the country about their views on the sports betting industry. Please click through the links below to check out some of the Q&As.
Bookmaker Spotlight Q&As: Circa’s Jeff Benson | Westgate’s Jeff Sherman | South Point’s Chris Andrews | BetMGM’s Jason Scott | Bally Bet’s Jay Rood | Station’s Jason McCormick | Golden Nugget’s Tony Miller | Baldini’s Robert Kowalski | Westgate’s Casey Degnon | Rivers’ Kyle Wainscott | Aliante’s Socrates Cherry III
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