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


by Doc's Sports - 12/12/2017

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady

The extended college football bowl betting season gets underway this Saturday with the first five matchups on the schedule along with a number of NFL games in Week 15 that will go a long towards shaping the postseason picture at the pay-for-play level. Luckily, we have Doc's Sports expert handicapper Raphael Esparza onboard to help bettors make sense of some of the biggest trending topics of the week.

Once known as the Vegas Sports Informer during a long and successful career in the Las Vegas sportsbook industry, Raphael also worked his way through the ranks to become one of the best sports handicappers in the nation. Since retiring in 2013 from the prestigious position as the Director of the Race and Sports Book for MGM Grand's Aria, he continues to split his time between Las Vegas and the Big Easy in New Orleans running a successful and diverse sports investment service. The following is this week's Q&A with one of Doc's most interesting handicappers.

Doc's Sports: It was another mixed bag of sports betting action in the NFL last week for the Las Vegas sportsbooks based on Sunday's results. While you probably do not have the final numbers for Week 14, can you gauge what kind of impact New England's stunning straight up loss to Miami on Monday night as a heavy road favorite had on the overall betting results between the betting public and the books?

RE: Without having any firm numbers in place, I would have to estimate that New England's loss combined with the total staying "under" turned a small loss for the books into a small gain in Week 14. There was quite a bit of carry over parlay action from Sunday on the Patriots and the over in this game heading into Monday night.

Doc's Sports: Staying with the Patriots heading into this Sunday's huge AFC showdown in Pittsburgh, does Monday night's loss add some early betting value to the Steelers as slight 2.5-point home underdogs on most opening lines?

RE: I am still a bit leery about jumping on that Steelers' bandwagon after squeaking out their last three wins by a combined seven points. From what I can tell, the early money is still going New England's way despite the flat performance on Monday night. Overall, this should be an exciting game given just how explosive Pittsburgh's offense has been lately.

Doc's Sports: The extended college bowl season starts things up this Saturday with the first five games. Can you give us you betting thoughts for one or two of the matchups on this opening day postseason slate that may have caught your early eye?

RE: I would look for some higher-scoring games in this opening round of matchups with a top play on the "over" in the Camellia Bowl between Middle Tennessee and Arkansas State at 62 points. Looking ahead to next Tuesday's Boca Raton Bowl at Florida Atlantic as a 22.5-point home favorite, I think there is quite a bit of value in the Akron Zips as heavy underdogs after this game opened at 19.5 points .

Doc's Sports : The New York Yankees' resent blockbuster trade with Miami for power hitter Giancarlo Stanton will probably make this team the top favorite to win next season's MLB World Series given just how popular New York already is with the betting public. From a professional betting standpoint, would you take the bait on that futures bet this early in the offseason to try and maximize the value?

RE: It is a big acquisition for the Yankees to add to their already potent batting lineup, but to me pitching still wins world titles and I would give that edge to Boston in the same division. Without having the luxury of knowing what some of the other top American League contenders will do this offseason, it would be way too premature to anoint New York as the favorite to even win the AL Pennant.

Doc's Sports: We all know what a huge movie buff you are, especially when it comes to the ongoing Star Wars series. We would have to assume that you are going with the "over" on the total weekend tickets sales for the premier of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" starting this Thursday, but are we right in that assumption?

RE : Covering this prop in an earlier Star Wars article for Doc's, I did go with the "over" on a projected worldwide first weekend revenue of $555 million. The last Star Wars movie premier weekend for Force Awakening brought in $530 million globally, and everything that I have read so far has heavily-touted The Last Jedi as being even better.

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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