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


by Doc's Sports - 11/14/2017

Philip Rivers Los Angeles Chargers

The football season across all ranks took some interesting twists and turns as result of the outcome in a number of games on last weekend's schedule. In this week's discussion with Doc's expert handicapper Raphael Esparza , we will get caught up on his take concerning a few highly-interesting developments in the world of football from a betting standpoint.

During a long and successful career in the Las Vegas sportsbook industry which culminated as Director of the Race and Sports Book for MGM Grand's Aria until his retirement in 2013, Raphael also rose through the ranks to become one of the best sports handicappers in the nation as the Vegas Sports Informer. These days he is still banging out some big-unit winners while splitting 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: Last week's betting results in the NFL ended up a mixed bag with some lopsided blowouts by a few high-profile favorites coupled with some big upsets both straight up and against the spread. In light of these results, how did things playout with the Las Vegas books against the betting public in Week 10?

RE: The books in town took it on the chin with the results of both Sunday night's and Monday night's game, which undoubtedly cut into some of the big gains they raked in on teams such as Green Bay, Atlanta and the Los Angeles Chargers earlier on Sunday. Overall, I would still give Week 10 in the NFL to the books with a slight gain against the betting public.

Doc's Sports: The top of the college ranks was turned upside down again with two of the top four teams in the current College Football Playoff rankings going down in defeat. Ahead of the release of this week's updated CFP rankings, what would your new list for the top four teams in the nation look like?

RE: I always had Alabama at No. 1 so nothing has changed at the top of my list. I would bump Oklahoma up to No. 2 followed by Miami at No. 3 and Clemson at No. 4. Wisconsin would be fifth on my list right now. The Badgers continue to get a bad rap for their strength of schedule, but if they can close things out undefeated, you almost have to find a spot on this list for Wisconsin.

Doc's Sports: The CFL is down to its final four teams heading into this Sunday's Division Finals. The Calgary Stampeders dominated the league for most of the regular season, but they dropped their last three games on its way to the West Division title. They opened as five-point home favorites against Edmonton for this Sunday's matchup; what is your take on the Stampeders' chances to get back to the Grey Cup Championship?

RE: Calgary had the week off, which should help matters somewhat, but this team is still banged up on both sides of the ball, especially when it comes to the number of linemen still listed on the current injury report. I am going to hold off on making an outright pick, but Edmonton would be looking pretty good if this line moves in the Eskimos' favor as we get closer to kickoff.

Doc's Sports : We know that you are not the biggest NASCAR fan in the world, but we were hoping you could weigh in on this Sunday's Cup Series Championship at Homestead-Miami in a winner-take-all battle between the top four drivers in the current point standings?

RE: I would have to go with Martin Truex Jr. given everything he has accomplished this season with the most victories and the most runs inside the top five. Kyle Busch should attract quite a bit of attention given his Las Vegas ties and Kevin Harvick is another fan favorite, so this can only add value to Truex when it comes to betting this race.

Doc's Sports: With so much betting action in play at Doc's this week, did we miss anything else that is currently on your betting radar over the next five or six days?

RE : UFC Fight Night is down under in Australia with an interesting fight card on Saturday, but I am more excited to see what kind of worldwide numbers the premier of the new Justice League movie brings in this weekend at the box office with the 'over/under' set at $245 million. The new Thor movie premiered the first weekend in November, and it blew away the $255 million prop bet line by taking in $380 million.

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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