Philadelphians are as loyal as it gets when it comes to their local teams, but loyalty can be put to the test at times when you’re betting on sports. As the old saying goes, “Bet with your head, not your heart.”
That local pride and loyalty was rewarded, however, last month at SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia as Eagles fans bet on the birds in droves. In upsetting the Bears in the wild card round, the Eagles covered a -6.5 point spread. In the next round against the Saints, the Eagles didn’t win the game outright but did cover an 8-point spread. In January, at least, it was smart to put your money where your heart is.
SugarHouse has gone all-in on trying to capture the local flavor as sports betting gets off the ground in the city. While watching the games in front of giant LED screens in plush chairs, you can have a Geno’s cheesesteak brought right to you and you can also get great betting odds on the local teams.
“Our goal was to try and integrate the Philadelphia sports culture into the sportsbook as much as possible when we opened,” SugarHouse Vice President and General Counsel Evan Davis told MetroBet this week. “One of the things we tried to do with the Super Bowl was to come up with some Philadelphia-specific prop bets. One was called the ‘Philly Special 2.’ It was, ‘Will a quarterback catch a touchdown?’ We had that at 20-1. Obviously that didn’t pan out. But overall it’s been phenomenal – the response we have seen. We opened [the sportsbook] toward the tail-end of the NFL regular season in December and we saw a tremendous amount of interest in that – especially when we saw the Eagles enjoy their late-season success.”
SugarHouse is fan-friendly to both experienced and novice sports bettors as their sportsbook features 18 betting kiosks. In other words, if you’re a first time bettor and might be a little intimidated to speak with a teller at first, you can take your time placing that first bet at the machine.
“The kiosks are so easy to use and we also have the best team of people around,” Davis told MetroBet.
The betting attention at SugarHouse is now shifting away from football to not just the daily local lines but also the futures odds of the Phillies and Sixers.
“Right now the Phillies are 12-1 to win the World Series,” Davis said. “The Sixers are 14-1 to win the NBA title but +275 to win the Eastern Conference. So there’s a significant disparity there with the Warriors as overwhelming favorites to win the NBA title at -225.”
