Circa or Westgate?

Murphy’s Best

EOG Dedicated
Which NFL handicapping contest do you prefer & why? I will be signing up for one (maybe both) & would live to hear your thoughts about both contests. Looking for things to consider since this is my 1st time entering. Thanks!
 

mrbowling300

EOG Dedicated
I think the Westgate has lost its prestige, and is sort of living in the past. Circa, in my opinion, is much more innovative especially paying all 100% of the entries (vs. Westgate taking out 8%). Plus Circa's entry is only $1,000. I think Circa's quarterly prizes are better, and they offer much more than Westgate. I do not know if Westgate changed anything.

I've done Westgate before, and it is such a crap shoot to get in the money. I may do Circa's survival football contest. I do plan running season 2 of the EOG Football Handicapping contest this fall, so look for that.

Would be interested to know your thoughts as well, Murphy's Best.
 
Circa is better for those reasons and their guarantees which at least for last year led to an overlay. I don't know if you'll see an overlay this year though. Westgate's has history behind it plus sounds like they will do other contests outside Nevada this season where they operate which might get it more brand awareness. Haven't heard Circa mention if they will do a similar type contest here in CO.
 

ComptrBob

EOG Master
I've followed the Westgate/Hilton SC entries and results for years. For years and years it hovered around 250 to 350 entrants. Then it had a big boom thanks to longer signup, more publicity, having the WSOP (poker) explode, and allowing proxies for anyone to enter just by making a spring or summer trip to Vegas. This gave the Westgate lots of "dead money", entrants which almost no chance of winning. It also seemed to cater to touts who wanted to take a shot at getting great publicity with a high finish. They even implemented a fraudulent practice of changing a tout's handle from a vanilla description to an identifying one only after a Week 1 "success" until I detected it and called them out. With aggressive competition now, the Westgate SC has obviously peaked as of year before last. The Westgate Gold SC remains a good value for the big player ($5000 per entry).

Definitely, Circa took advantage of the Westgate weaknesses especially the 8% rake. Doing just one Circa entry @ $1000 is less investment than the Westgate minimum of $1500, but you can do up to 3 Circa entries. It is by far (best EV) the superior NFL contest. The Circa had a slightly higher overall ATS record (perhaps less dead money) and pays fewer places, but still has more value due to no takeout and other features, The Circa NFL Survivor Contest is a real hoot for the contest player.

Good luck, no matter what your choice.
 

Murphy’s Best

EOG Dedicated
Thank you as I love hearing you seasoned veterans on the 2 contests. I will definitely do the Circa contest as well as the Circa Survivor. I may also do an entry at Westgate too. The 1K entry for Circa is a plus!

PS... I will also do Mr Bowling’s contest
 

mrbowling300

EOG Dedicated
I believe one can do up to 5 circa survival entries. I'm need to figure out what I'm going to do when I get to LV in May. I admit i'm dead money in the handicapping contests, but maybe the survival anything can happen. We shall see.
 

sharky99

EOG Dedicated
We were involved with a meeting at Circa recently for football proxies that have a decent amount of teams on how to make improvements ...etc.. moving forward. I have also received communication from one of the head managers at Westgate telling me don't sleep on us as we are making some significant changes/improvements to our contest.

We are waiting for the NFL schedule to be released in May for the 2 major contests to present their 2021 Las Vegas Football Contest information for this upcoming year. I would expect contest signups to begin in the next 30-45 days is my opinion.
 

sharky99

EOG Dedicated
Sharky is the best proxy if anyone is looking for a contest proxy. Highly efficient and a great guy.

Thanks that's very kind of you to say AZ, regardless who people choose to deal with I'm happy to answer questions so people have good experiences.
There should be a spike in entries this year and who knows we may have a new contest pop up or the William Hill College Contest might be back after taking a year off.
 

sharky99

EOG Dedicated
I believe one can do up to 5 circa survival entries. I'm need to figure out what I'm going to do when I get to LV in May. I admit i'm dead money in the handicapping contests, but maybe the survival anything can happen. We shall see.

Look forward to supporting and entering your contest again Mr.B. Depending on when you go in May, I'm not confident the contests will be ready for you yet.
 

MrTop

EOG Master
westgate is thinking bigger. More states the better. They smell the north east and California money
 

winkyduck

TYVM Morgan William!!!
We were involved with a meeting at Circa recently for football proxies that have a decent amount of teams on how to make improvements ...etc.. moving forward. I have also received communication from one of the head managers at Westgate telling me don't sleep on us as we are making some significant changes/improvements to our contest.

We are waiting for the NFL schedule to be released in May for the 2 major contests to present their 2021 Las Vegas Football Contest information for this upcoming year. I would expect contest signups to begin in the next 30-45 days is my opinion.

Over a month ago I sent Derek/Mike a letter at Circa with some thoughts on ways to tinker with the Survivor contest. Never heard back from them. Que sera sera
 

skinny

EOG Addicted
The very early Hilton Supercontest run by Art Manteris had a takeout, but it was dropped. The current Westgate SC 8% takeout was instituted in 2016.
The castaways actually started this contest in the mid 70's. When they closed in 1988 to make room for the mirage, the Hilton took over the contest.
Manteris changed the format from 7 games to 5 and upped the entry fee from 1000 to 1500.
 

railbird

EOG Master
The castaways actually started this contest in the mid 70's. When they closed in 1988 to make room for the mirage, the Hilton took over the contest.
Manteris changed the format from 7 games to 5 and upped the entry fee from 1000 to 1500.
i like 7 games better
 

sharky99

EOG Dedicated
Good to see you were willing to try again. I don't like seeing good time and effort go to waste especially since they were encouraging feedback for their contests going forward. Happy to see he got back to you Winky.
 

winkyduck

TYVM Morgan William!!!
Good to see you were willing to try again. I don't like seeing good time and effort go to waste especially since they were encouraging feedback for their contests going forward. Happy to see he got back to you Winky.

He did say some ideas I had they could not do since the software won't allow it.
 

winkyduck

TYVM Morgan William!!!
What were your suggestions?

So contestants have to pick T-giving week games as its own week

**IF the opening Thursday Night game does NOT involve a team also playing on T-giving make people pick that game. It might not eliminate many but it burns that team for later on. In this case - Tampa

**The Raiders have to play a Thursday game, too. IF they, or their opponent, don't play on any other Thursday Night make the Raiders game its own "week" since they are the "home team" for the city.

**Starting with 5 weeks left if the number of players left is more than the number of weeks multiplied by 100 contestant have to pick TWO games a week - labeled Pick 1 and Pic 2. He said they cannot do this


I also suggested having a Survivor contest where you pick a team to LOSE every week. I know Vegas hates using the word "lose/losing" but in this case they could run a contest saying something like: "The only contest where losing is good" or something like that. I used the Jags last season as an example. They won in Week 1. They had 15 games left after that. You could have picked against the Jags in 13 of the next 16 weeks of the season (2 games against Texans/Titans so you could only pick 1 of the 2 - and the BYE). How hard is that. BUT - pick a LOSER and now you can only take the Jags ONCE! Not 13 times. Eventually you have to pick teams like the 49ers, Cowboys, Bills, Steelers........this is where the field gets thinned. Maybe in future years was the reply.
 

Woodrow Wilson

EOG Dedicated
Which NFL handicapping contest do you prefer & why? I will be signing up for one (maybe both) & would live to hear your thoughts about both contests. Looking for things to consider since this is my 1st time entering. Thanks!

I'll be in both Circa contests again this year. WG Gold possibly if it remains no rake. WG SC only if they greatly reduce or eliminate the rake.
 

winkyduck

TYVM Morgan William!!!
Hopefully, they move the deadline to Thursday and eliminate the potential rush of late, free rolling entries, if Dallas wins at Tampa Bay.

Couldn't disagree more. If Dallass beats Tampa and it KOs people I see no reason why those same people shouldn't be allowed to enter again. Helps increase the pool size and money and they are DEAD MEAT anyway if they were stupid enough to take the Cowgirls in this game
 

mrbowling300

EOG Dedicated
Heard Mike Palm say today that Circa's accepting contest entries starting over memorial day weekend.

They are trying to figure out how deep they will pay the handicapping contest, as well as how to structure the survival contest....they were waiting for the schedule to come out. Mike Palm said they are considering something interesting week 18, but wouldn't divulge what it is. He did say the Thanksgiving games will stand on their own week, and he believes they will have in excess of 5,000 entries this year.
 

Woodrow Wilson

EOG Dedicated
Couldn't disagree more. If Dallass beats Tampa and it KOs people I see no reason why those same people shouldn't be allowed to enter again. Helps increase the pool size and money and they are DEAD MEAT anyway if they were stupid enough to take the Cowgirls in this game

If already maxed out entries, they won't be permitted to "enter again" without using another person.
 

Woodrow Wilson

EOG Dedicated
Unless Stevens is planning to give away entries to house players, Circa Survivor is setting up to have a sizeable overlay. Especially if TB wins next Thursday.

1,970 is the latest # i've seen and they need 6,000.

Westgate had barely covered the mini contest guarantees, so who knows what's going to be available for the actual season winners. Both are getting a bit carried with the mini-contests.

Circa Millions III has about 2/3 of the guarantee entered, so an overlay is unlikely.
 
Can't see there being much of an overlay, with the holiday coming up and the hype it will create for NFL season they should get thousands of entries before then. Should get close to 6k before deadline.
 

Sportsrmylife

EOG Master
Westgate w have less competition and more mini contests.

Westgate expect around 2100 entries this year.

Circa will have 4000+
 
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