Las Vegas casino-resort guaranteeing $10 million in prize money
By OTS Staff
Football season is back in a big way at Circa Sports.
The Las Vegas sportsbook is running a pair of contests for the upcoming NFL season, with a guaranteed prize pool of $10 million. Now that is a prize worthy of the world’s largest sportsbook.
The record-setting Circa Millions III and Circa Survivor contests also feature no rake, which means 100 percent of the prize pool goes to the winners, as well as any extra entry fees.
Let’s look at the logistics of each contest in a little more detail.
Circa Millions III
🏈 Circa Millions III is essentially one big point-spread pool. Each week, contestants need to make five NFL picks against the spread. For each correct pick, you get one point in the contest standings.
🏈 The contest costs $1,000 to enter. Players can have up to three entries, max.
🏈 $1,000,000 goes to the contestant in first place at the end of the season. Spots 2-through-50 also receive payouts, while $100,000 goes to the player who finishes last overall.
🏈 There are also quarterly prizes (every four-five weeks) handed out to the top three players and last-place player in every quarter.
For those unfamiliar, point spreads are a bet on the margin of victory within a game. Let’s look at a Week 1 game as an example.
Cowboys +7
Buccaneers -7
For this game, the point spread is seven points, and the Buccaneers are the favored team.
If you take the Cowboys, they can either win the game or lose by less than seven points to win your selection. If you take the Buccaneers, they must win the game by over seven points to win your selection.
In this instance, if the Buccaneers won the game by exactly seven points, that would be a “push”. A push results in 0.5 points in the Circa Millions III standings for both sides of a game.
Circa Survivor
🏈 Circa Survivor has nothing to do with point spreads. Every week, contestants will simply have to pick a team to win. If the team you pick wins, you survive and move ahead to the next week. If your team loses, you are out of the contest.
🏈 The main caveat is that once you pick a team, you cannot use them again for the rest of the season. For example, if you take the Packers to win in Week 1, you cannot pick them again during a different week.
🏈 The contest also costs $1,000 to enter. Players can have up to six entries, max.
🏈 $6,000,000 guaranteed will go to the winner of the contest. Contestants will split the prize pool in the event of a tie(s).
🏈 Contestants will also have to survive the holidays, as Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Week will be their own weeks in this contest. Plan ahead for those picks!
🏈 There is also a bonus prize being offered. Any contestant that goes 20-0, and saves the Chiefs or Buccaneers until the last week, will get $1,000,000 guaranteed.
Circa is also allowing contestants to take part in both contests even if they live outside of Nevada. Jeffrey Benson, Sportsbook Operations Manager at Circa, noted that “over 50 percent of contestants in the contests are actually out-of-state contestants”.
As long as you are in Las Vegas for the initial registration, you can set up a Nevada-based proxy and submit your picks from your home state every week. Likewise, players within Nevada can make their picks in-person or through the Circa | Sports app.
The inclusive nature of these contests help make Circa Survivor the world’s largest legal football survivor pool.
A Fun Season Ahead
Benson explained that the Circa team is wholly excited about their offerings this season. “For us, I think contests are a big part of the Las Vegas-based sports betting industry. By offering these contests, getting people excited about football, about our sportsbook, our properties … that’s certainly a large part of why we offer this.”
The property also recently received the prestigious honor of becoming the first downtown Las Vegas casino to earn the AAA Four Diamond Award. To reach this standard requires a steadfast approach to hospitality, service, design, and amenities.
Circa Sports dedicates themselves to providing memorable guest experiences, and these contests are a key feature.
“Given that we were new operators, we certainly wanted to come up with a couple of cool contests and different approaches to thing. We also wanted to give back to the players.”
“Our model and our main approach is what can we do to benefit the players and help grow that ecosystem. That’s why we did no-rake contests and things of that nature.”
“Ultimately, with fans being back in stadiums and Las Vegas a little more open, we’re hoping to have an even better 2021 NFL season at Circa.”
Registration for both contests ends at 2 P.M. on Sept. 11, so get your entries in!
Stop by Circa Resort & Casino, Golden Gate Hotel & Casino, the D Las Vegas, Tuscany Suites & Casino, or The Pass at Water Street to sign up, then submit your picks throughout the season in person at their sportsbook kiosks or from anywhere in Nevada via the Circa | Sports app. Play from out of state by registering a Nevada-based proxy when you sign up.
