Over the past season, ESPNâs Don La Greca has popularized his own picks during segments on his ESPN broadcasts, including the famous The Michael Kay Show on 98.7 FM ESPN New York. He sits down with us to discuss sports betting and the NHL.
Last week, I took a look at the state of the sports betting and the NHL. Just across the Hudson River from me, Don La Greca, famous as the New York Rangers radio broadcaster, but more widely known as the co-host of The Michael Kay Show on 98.7 FM ESPN New York alongside Michael Kay and Peter Rosenberg (which airs weekdays from 3-7 p.m.) has put together his own betting repertoire.
With the Stanley Cup Playoffs about to begin, this also ushers in the first year that some parts of the country can actually wager their own money on the games and have a little bit of a personal stake in the game. This is nothing new for Vegas, but for places like New Jersey where widespread sports betting was legalized last summer, thereâs going to be a lot of people heading to the sportsbooks betting on money lines, over/under, and whoâs going to win the next face off.
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On his show, La Greca hosts his own NHL segment called âIce Picksâ giving advice and tips to his listeners on who he believes will win the matchup. Fans have taken his suggestions and have begun to bet on them.
Heâs pretty good at it, as well, with a 40-17 record as of our interview. I wish I had that success rate, but with the amount of times I actually bet on the New Jersey Devils this season, I should probably stay away from gambling for a while.
The New York hockey legend was gracious enough to sit down with me and discuss his views on sports betting, the NHL, and betting on the upcoming playoffs:
Starting off with a simple enough question, whatâs the difference between betting on the National Hockey League versus the other professional sports? La Greca explained that the complexity behind betting and odds make the NHL a harder bet to earn a return on as opposed to the other major sports.
âI just donât think thereâs a lot of money in betting on the NHL. The one thing I found is difficult is the money lines are lik, say Edmonton is getting a goal and a half and I love that pick, but itâs like at -280 which means you have to bet $280 to get $100, so it seems like it doesnât when you really want to see where you can make the money those bets are like impossible.
Like, if Ottawa goes to Tampa and beats the Lightning, youâll get a +180, but thereâs almost no chance that thatâs going to happen. So it seems like I make my picks and when I do, I win like 75% percent of the time. But is there a lot of money to be made from my individual pick?
So what Iâm noticing my fans are doing is theyâre parlaying basketball and they need a third or they need a second and they donât know a lot about hockey, so theyâll listen to my ice pick and even though it might not be lucrative as a singular bet, they can parlay it with something else they know and then they make money that way.â
In my article last week, I said that sports gambling was good for the NHL because it would help develop an interest and bring new fans to the game. What remains to be seen if more people being interested means more people buying tickets to see the game live. La Greca had some doubts that more gambling would lead to more ticket revenue, with the specific enemy being his own television set.
âI think there are a lot of things that are driving people away from the arenas to begin with because the television experience is so great. See, my concern is that, especially with hockey, when youâre trying to parlay these picks, you know with the packages I can watch all the games, is it better for me to just be home and watching the game I have a bet on and flipping over to the other game I have a bet on rather than being stuck at the arena and not knowing what the heck is going on? Or do I go to the arena but Iâm spending all the time in the sports book?
Kind of reminds me of when the Devils opened up the Rock. Even when they were drawing well youâd watch it on television and you would see between the blue lines thereâs nobody in your seats because, with those seats, you get free food up in the concourse, and theyâre all sitting there watching, eating free food, drinking, watching the game on television and theyâre not in their seats so I think itâs another aspect of where why would I spend all that money for the sports packages?
I got a 57 inch television set with HD, I got a man cave downstairs that I pay $35,000 for and Iâm going to leave that all behind to go sit in an arena and not knowing what the heckâs going on, looking at my phone, possibly getting hit by a puck or a baseball, you know paying $13 for a beer and paying $35 to park? So I think I think youâre right. The more popular the gambling becomes the more youâre going to want to be somewhere where you can watch everything thatâs going onâŚâ
Interestingly, La Greca continued that this wasnât only a concern the NHL faces, but professional sports as a whole. He even put the NFL on notice.
âSo I think all the sports need to be concerned, especially football with fantasy. Why would I want to sit there and watch one football game, when my quarterbackâs playing in LA and I could be watching it at home? I think itâs a major concern for all the sports.â
La Greca sees the potential that gambling on hockey can have for exposure as a sport overall, but he still thinks the challenges of professional hockey reaching the professional sports watching masses might be too far to overcome.
âThe biggest thing with hockey is most people arenât exposed to it. I think itâs way more popular than it should be compared to the obstacles it has. Think about it â the overwhelming majority of the players arenât from this country, they have names that people have difficulty pronouncingâŚâ
âI would say they probably have the lowest percentage of fans that have played the sport compared to the other sports. Everybodyâs played some form of basketball, some form of baseball, some form of football. But I would venture to say that at least 60 or 70% of people in the building never put on skates before, yet theyâre still interested in the sport.
You can imagine how much more interested theyâd be if they could relate to it and if everybody was American and every high school in the country had a hockey team. When you consider all the disadvantages that it has to the other sports, I think itâs a miracle that it has the interest it has.
If I can relate to a sport rather than playing it but through gambling on it and getting to know it cause I would think, Iâm not a gambler myself, but if I were to be betting a lot of money on it, Iâd want to know about it, Iâd want to study it so that can create a lot more interest in it.â
On his impressive win/loss record with his âIce Picksâ segment, La Greca explained that years of watching the Rangers and studying their opponents have given him a good feel for the league and the teams that are the matchups. With his years of infinite wisdom, heâs more likely to make his picks off his gut and intuition than some scholarly, analytical approach.
âMost of itâs my gut because Iâm just a hockey junkie. Iâm watching games, you know, I almost feel like if thereâs a game on I gotta watch it. Iâd rather lose on my gut than being talked into something so I kind of trust my eyes and my heart.â
Even if his wins greatly outnumber his losses, when his listeners put there hard earned money on a team off Donâs advice that results in a loss, they arenât necessarily happy and will take to Twitter to voice their frustration. Thatâs not without saying that the âIce Picksâ segment has had its fair share of success stories, including one fan who sent in a $500 tip because of his winnings.
ââIncarcerated Bobâ, because apparently he was incarcerated, calls the show all the time and heâs the one whoâs said heâs made like $19,000 on my picks this year, thatâs the guy that sent me the $500 tip which I just gave to the board op and the producers because they work hard and they donât get paid nearly as much money.â
Sports leagues have been cautious to embrace any form of gambling because of the type of corrupt it brings along with it. No league, let alone the NHL, wants to be caught in the next Pete Rose scandal. When asked what the NHL should do to prevent its players from partaking in such activities, La Greca was quick to say donât worry about the players but watch the referees.
âI just donât know how lucrative it is for these players who make so much money. Iâd be more worried about the officials who donât make quite as much money than I would be like with the Donaghy stuff in the NBA. Because with minimum salaries now, I just donât know if it would make a lot of sense for the players to do it.â
Tim Donaghy was an NBA referee who was caught using his position of power to bet on games he was officiating. He later plead guilty to federal charges, hurting the accountability of the NBA. LaGreca continued comparing the current climate of NHL salaries with another infamous sport betting episode, the Chicago Black Sox scandal from the early days of Major League Baseball.
âBack to the Black Sox scandal, those guys werenât making any money. They had a cheapskate owner. They felt they had to do this just to make ends meet. I just donât think it would be worth it today with the money that theyâre making. Now the officials, thatâs another thing because they donât make quite as much money.â
La Greca went on to explain that he is skeptical of the effect sports gambling would have on âtankingâ teams, which while the NHL has put safeguards in place to try to dissuade teams from tanking, itâs an open secret many still do.
âYouâve already got allegations of tanking in sports to get the better draft pick. So if you got a team thatâs looking to lose anyway just because of the fact they want a better draft pick, then what would be the big deal of just letting an odd goal go in if itâs going to put some money in their pocket?â
One thing La Greca said he would do if he was Gary Bettman â if he was going to institute a punishment, he better make it severe.
âI donât think it would be lucrative enough for them to risk their careers, but youâd need to have a punishment that puts their careers in jeopardy.â
One of the final subjects of our conversation was the impending Stanley Cup Playoffs and how to bet on them. Although Don already submitted his picks for each round and the eventual cup winner, his advice to gamblers is take it one round at a time. Although not a fan of the current playoff format, he did explain that it makes it easier to plan out your bets as the playoffs progress:
âItâs a little easier now than it was back in the day because you can project out who everyoneâs going to play with the brackets now. Iâm not in love with the playoff format, but itâs better than the old days where everything got messed around because youâd have an eighth seed upset. Tampa knows theyâre either going to play Toronto or Boston, so I guess itâs a little easier if you wanted to kind of extrapolate it out until the end.â
One advantage La Greca gave to the old format was the ability to see major playoff upsets, where the real payouts are.
âTo strategize getting to the Cup Final, this would be easier because, again, youâd know who everyoneâs going to play, youâd narrow it down. What would the odds be? Youâd have to pick an eighth seed to win, like when the Kings won the Stanley Cup as an eighth seedâ
After he brought back those long-repressed memories of my Devils losing in the 2012 cup final, one last question came to mind. In a few weeks when a new champion has been crowned and the cup gets sent for its engravings, weâre going to start to see plenty of âtoo earlyâ power rankings show up, trying to explain who will win the 2020 Stanley Cup before the ink on free agent contracts is even dry.
So when is the best time in an NHL season to finally see who the contenders and pretenders will pan out to be? Specifically, I asked La Greca if he still believes in the old âThanksgiving ruleâ, that teams in an NHL playoff spot by the Thanksgiving holiday statistically have a high 70% chance rate of being in the final playoff standings. This season might have prompted La Greca to push that date back a few months.
âWell, itâs interesting because this is the only one year where only 11 of the 16 that were in the playoffs at Thanksgiving made the playoffs. Youâre starting to see the pendulum swing where you know that because of the extra point because of the competitive balance, it used to be American Thanksgiving. Now I think you almost have to wait until the first of the year. Because youâre a little bit closer to the trading deadline, but you see, every game is a one-goal game.â
Need any more convincing? Look at the St. Louis Blues.
âSt. Louis was the worst team in the NHL on January 2nd, and they ended up making the playoffs and almost winning their division. Thatâs not supposed to happen.â
If you want to hear Don La Greca talk about his personal âIce Picksâ, listen to him daily on The Michael Kay Show broadcasting on ESPN 98.7 New York weekdays from 3:00-7:00 pm Eastern. In addition, Don also hosts an NHL specific podcast called âGame Misconductâ for ESPN Radio. Also a very special thank you Belen Michelis from ESPN 98.7 for making this incredible interview possible.
As for my personal gambling, before the season began I bet the New Jersey Devils to win the Stanley Cup, and instead they won the draft lottery. Maybe Iâll sit this one out, so donât take my advice, take Donâs instead.
Also a very special thank you Belen Michelis from ESPN Communications for making this incredible interview possible.