Monday, December 12, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Sun

Besides the opportunity to witness an attractive final-round match between Bryan Leonard and Nick Bogdanovich in the Leroy's Money Talks contest, there's another good reason to stop by the Riviera race and sports book Friday night.

Especially if you consider yourself a college bowl game expert.

Two people from Friday's crowd will be selected in a random drawing to appear on the following week's Leroy's Sports Hour radio show and pick seven bowl games against the point spread.

The winner of the two-person competition will collect a $500 prize.

The idea is to spotlight a couple of bettors who might fancy themselves skilled football handicappers yet usually don't receive any attention from the media, Leroy's spokesman Jimmy Vaccaro said.

"We're looking for people who haven't been on the radio before," said Vaccaro, who hosts the program (8 p.m., KDWN 720-AM) with veteran Las Vegas sports bettor Arne Lang.

Bowl season gets under way Dec. 20 with the New Orleans Bowl in Lafayette, La., and concludes Jan. 4 with the Rose Bowl matchup between the top two teams in the nation, Southern Cal and Texas.

The winner of the championship clash between Leonard, a local professional handicapper, and Bogdanovich, who formerly ran several major Las Vegas sports books, will earn $40,000. The runner-up will collect $10,000.

Although the season-long invitational featured handicappers picking college and NFL games against the point spread, this week only pro games are on the card. That could require Leonard to switch gears a little, as 18 of his 21 selections came in college games.

Leonard has posted a strong record of 12-9 (57 percent) against the spread, winning nearly 17 units ($1,680), as the contest is based on wagers from a hypothetical bankroll.

Bogdanovich went 11-8-1 (58 percent) in his three regularly scheduled appearances, and also won a tiebreaker. Pending Sunday's late game, he was ahead more than 22 units ($2,260) in those three appearances.

Leroy's sports books will also offer a college bowl game contest that will be open to the public and carry a $5 entry fee.

The contest, which is scheduled to open Thursday with entries accepted through Dec. 29, entails picking the winners of 15 bowl games against the spread as well as the over/under in the Rose Bowl -- and weighting each pick from No. 1 (strongest play) to No. 16 (weakest).

Entries are graded according to a system by which the top pick is worth 16 points, the second-strongest pick is worth 15 points, and so on, down to the weakest pick worth 1 point.

The contest covers the bowl games from Dec. 30 through Jan. 4 and is expected to carry a $5,000 first prize.

A perfect card would yield a score of 136 points. Leroy's officials conducted a series of "dummy" contests while preparing to launch the new contest, Vaccaro said, and determined the median score is likely to be about 78 points.

The scoring system and the technology used in the grading could also be applied to other sports betting contests, Vaccaro said, including one based on the early rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament in March.

Money has been coming in on top-ranked USC and the "over" in the Rose Bowl, which will determine college football's national champion. The Trojans, who were 6-point favorites against Texas on early Las Vegas lines just a few weeks ago, have been bet up to a solid 7. The over/under, as low as 66 points recently, has been bet up to as high as 71 1/2 in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas handicapper Patrick Bartucci (patricksfreepress.com) recommended a wager on USC and the over. Besides favoring the Trojans in the game's fundamental matchups, Bartucci pointed out an intangible factor that could bode well for USC: When quarterback Matt Leinart made his decision to return to school for a final season rather than turn pro, one of his reasons was to win another national title. So it's likely he has mentally had this game "circled" all year long and will be in perhaps the best form of his career.