Everyone knows the Raiders are coming to Las Vegas. And everyone knows who they’re going to play in 2020, though the dates are still to be determined.
But that hasn’t stopped Station Casinos from putting out lines for all 16 games the team will play next year. Never mind nobody, with the possible exception of head coach Jon Gruden, knows who will play quarterback, who the team will draft come April and who will be injured between now and Week 1 of the 2020 NFL season. But if you’re a Raiders fan, you like to gamble and you have a bit of Nostradamus in you, this might be right in your wheelhouse.
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“We’re excited to have a team here and we thought we can get the jump on things by offering a line on every (Raiders) game,” Station’s Jason McCormick said. “It’s something a little different but you want to fill your (football) menu with as much wagering opportunities as possible.”
There’s a $3,000 limit per game. But this figures to be a popular betting opportunity, especially when fans come to town this weekend for the conference championship gams and certainly for Super Bowl weekend in three weeks.
“A lot of people will be coming in from out of town and they’ll want to bet this,” McCormick said. “I think you’ll see a lot of visiting team fans who are in for the Super Bowl look at the lines and will want to bet on their team against the Raiders.”
The home game against Indianapolis is pick’em while the lowest number the Raiders are favored by is when they host the Los Angeles Chargers, who, like the Raiders, will play in a new stadium this coming season when they move into SoFi Stadium in Inglewood and when they host Tampa Bay. The line in both games was -1. The biggest number the Raiders are favored by is against Miami, where the Raiders are -6.
Conversely, the Raiders are +13.5 underdogs when they travel to Kansas City to face the Chiefs. They are 11-point ‘dogs when they go to Foxborough to play the New England Patriots. In fact, the Raiders are underdogs or pick’em in all but four of the 16 games, and they are underdogs in all eight road contests.
“There are a ton of questions as to how this team will do,” McCormick said of the Raiders, who are coming off a 7-9 season and missed the playoffs. “We also don’t know how the schedule will fall. Will they play at New England in December? Or will the game be in September? That makes a big difference.
“The Chiefs games were the hardest numbers to make because the Raiders got lit up in both games this year.”
McCormick said the numbers were derived at by committee as the sportsbook directors at the Station properties gathered together and settled on the lines for the 16 regular season games as well as the season wins total of 6.5
“A lot of it was based on the results from this year, the number of draft picks the Raiders have, and some statistical data we had available,” McCormick said. We had Indy at pick and -2.5 for the Bills and those were games I thought that should’ve been higher. But the consensus of the guys were that it should be lower, so that’s what we went with.”
McCormick said the 6.5 total was pretty close to the analytical data and the point spreads Station’s team came up with.
“There’s so many unknowns,” he said. “How will the home-field advantage be for the Raiders (at Allegiant Stadium)? Will it be like the first year of the Golden Knights where T-Mobile Arena was a huge home-ice advantage for the Knights? Will NFL teams have the Vegas Flu like some NHL teams did?
“There’s just so many unknowns. But we think the public will enjoy taking at run at this and we want to be first with it.”
Station Casinos
Las Vegas Raiders 2020 Early Lines
AWAY
Raiders +6 at Atlanta
Raiders +3 at Carolina
Raiders +3.5 at Denver
Raiders +13.5 at Kansas City
Raiders +5 at LA Chargers
Raiders +11 at New England
Raiders +2.5 at NY Jets
Raiders +5 at Cleveland
HOME
Denver at Raiders -3
Kansas City -7 at Raiders
LA Chargers at Raiders -1
Buffalo -2.5 at Raiders
Miami at Raiders -6
New Orleans -7 at Raiders
Tampa Bay at Raiders -1
Indianapolis Pick’em at Raiders
ODDS PROVIDED 1.14.20