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Weekly Q&A with Doc's Sports Expert Handicapper Raphael Esparza

by Doc's Sports - 9/15/2015

Philadelphia Eagles running back Ryan Mathews

Football remains at the top of the list for sports bettors right now, but there could be some money to be made betting on this year's Primetime Emmys. In this week's discussion with Doc's Sports expert handicapper Raphael Esparza, we will get him to reveal his top pick for this Sunday's award show.

Formally known as the Vegas Sports Informer during his days working in the Las Vegas sportsbook industry, Raphael once held the prestigious position of Director of the Race and Sports Book for MGM Grand's Aria. Since his retirement from that role in 2013, he has remained busy running one of the top sports investment services in town. The following is this week's conversation.

Doc's Sports: Last NFL season the Las Vegas sportsbooks got the best of it against the betting public for much of the year, but in Monday's recap for Doc's you reported that the books got crushed in Week 1. How much did they bounce back on Monday night with both home dogs winning straight up?

RE: The Eagles' loss to Atlanta was a great equalizer, especially with the game staying under the total. Add in some heavy parlay action with the other Monday night game and the books made quite a bit of their money back on those two results.

Doc's Sports: Both Seattle and Indianapolis opened the new NFL season as two of the top favorites to win their respective conference. Following each team's loss on Sunday as road favorites, which one might be in more trouble in the long run: the Seahawks or the Colts?

RE: I thought Seattle was in trouble before the season even started and there is a strong possibility it loses again this week against Green Bay. Any time your top players get paid on a team that has had as much success as the Seahawks, motivation tends to become a huge factor. Not only that, if the losses start to pile up then the in-fighting in the locker room over who is living up to their big payday and who is not starts to grow.

Doc's Sports: Michigan State pulled off the first really big win of the year in college football with this past Saturday night's 31-28 victory against Oregon to move to No. 4 in the latest AP Top 25. What kind of chance do you give the Spartans running the table all the way to their huge showdown at Ohio State on Nov. 21?

RE: The only two roadblocks that I can see are road games against Michigan on Oct. 17 and at Nebraska on Nov. 7. Last week's win against the Ducks gives the Spartans a ton of momentum, and I could easily see them heading into Columbus a perfect 10-0.

Doc's Sports : Turning to this Saturday's college football slate, can you give us one game that you are looking forward to watching the most?

RE: I think that Georgia Tech at Notre Dame and BYU at UCLA would be near the top of my list, but I am very interested to see how Stanford holds up against USC following that opening-weekloss to Northwestern. One of my top plays was the "over" on the Trojans' win total this season, and I had this game as a question mark when I was going through their schedule.

Doc's Sports: We all know that the Emmys are one of your favorite entertainment events to handicap, so can you give us an early look at one or two upsets as well as your top unit play for this Sunday night's awards show?

RE: As far as upsets, I would probably go with Game of Thrones as a -110 second-favorite on Bovada's Emmys prop list over Mad Men at -125 for Best Drama. My top unit play would have to be Lena Headey for Best Supporting Actress in the Game of Thrones. While there is no such thing as a lock, she would come as close as it gets.

Click here to visit Raphael Esparza's Insider's Page at Doc's Sports for more information on his amazingly-profitable sports handicapping picks. Also, get $60 worth of Esparza's member's picks absolutely free - no obligation, no sales people - you don't even have to enter credit card information. You can use this $60 credit for any sport Esparza handicaps. Click here for $60 worth of free picks from Raphael Esparza .

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