The NFL regular season has concluded, resulting in several winners of the Las Vegas football handicapping contest at both Circa Sports and the Westgate.
In total, the winners from the four competitions, comprising two at each sportsbook, won almost $5 million.
Circa Sports Million, Circa Survivor winners emerge
This marked the second year of the Circa Sports Million and the inaugural year of its Survivor contest. The Survivor contest rewarded 35 winning entries.
Circa Sports Million
Each contestant, who had paid a $1,000 entry fee to compete in the Circa Sports Million football handicapping contest, vied for the $1 million grand prize by making five weekly NFL picks against the contest spread.
In total, the Circa Sports Million offered over $3 million in prize money.
This year, the player who goes by the alias DSR90-1 won the $1 million first-place prize for making the most accurate selections during the season. The Circa Sports Million contest also offered quarterly prizes to winners throughout the season, once again.
This year, a new prize was introduced to the contest. The player with the least number of correct picks throughout the season was awarded a “boobie prize” of $100,000. Quite a decent reward for essentially making the worst picks for the season.
Circa Survivor
The Circa Survivor contest, making its debut, mandated players to choose one team each week to win outright. Concerns about point spreads are non-existent in the survivor contest.
The unique aspect of Circa Survivor was that Thanksgiving Day was treated as a separate week. Thus, instead of the usual 17-week season, participants were required to accurately select winners for 18 weeks. This presented a difficulty when the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens, scheduled for Thanksgiving, was canceled.
Survivor Circa received 1,390 entries, with 35 participants selecting winners every week throughout the season. This year, the total prize money to be divided among all 35 players was $2.39 million.
Every survivor entry that reached the end of the NFL season without a single incorrect selection won a humble $68,285.71. There were two participants who survived the season with two contest entries each. These players will each receive a total of $136,571.43.
Westgate SuperContest, SuperContest Gold winners announced
The SuperContest hosted by Westgate (previously known as Hilton) is the longest ongoing football handicapping event in Las Vegas. The inaugural SuperContest was held in 1988, with the SuperContest Gold being introduced in 2017.
The SuperContest, with its $1,500 entry fee, made a return in 2020, alongside its more exclusive counterpart, the SuperContest Gold, a winner-take-all competition with a $5,000 entry fee.
In the traditional Westgate SuperContest, professional poker players David Baker and Mark Gregorich secured the first-place prize of $435,623.20.
The two poker players were not only playing to win but also eyeing the grand prize in the Circa Sports Million. However, they narrowly missed the sweep, ending up tied for the second position in Circa’s handicapping contest.
The pair talked about taking part in both competitions and how they strategically held back a bit to guarantee they secured a prize.
The player known as BRETTFAVRE 444 emerged as the sole winner of SuperContest Gold, taking home the grand prize of $360,000 after a minor administrative fee was subtracted from the entry fees.
Expect both contests to soon announce competitions for next year.