LAS VEGAS — When he attended Grosse Pointe South High in Michigan, Derek Stevens moved swiftly as a Lansdowne Railcar restaurant valet.
Owners had added two vintage railcars, for cocktails and dining, to the 100-year-old paddle-wheeled steamer Lansdowne for her 1983 opening.
Docked on the Detroit River at Hart Plaza, Stevens parked cars for customers. Afterward, he’d zip vehicles back to them.
“I was a street hustler,” Stevens laughs, “always trying to deliver a car faster than the next guy so I could get a $2 tip instead of one.”
Pistons, Red Wings and Tigers players patronized the Lansdowne.
“Pretty swanky. I got to be a fanboy, star-struck by a lot of these players, enamored with the sports component. When you love sports and you love math, and you’re competitive . . .”
The future Vegas hotel-casino mogul’s dreams didn’t yet include the desert.
“Had someone explained a point spread to me, a little light bulb might have gone off in my mind — oh, my God, this is beautiful!”
In the Land of Lincoln, the beauty for sports bettors is that they’ll soon be able to patronize a proper book, Stevens’s Circa Sports, that will offer a vast menu, fair prices and spreads, and won’t shame success.
Its operations at American Place Casino in Waukegan are finished, and it will be the state’s eighth legal online sportsbook.
“We’re fired up about Illinois being our fourth state. It’ll be a great market for us, and I think we’ll be a great addition to the state. We’d like to open as soon as possible, particularly with football season looming.”
THE ANTI-EURO MODEL
Vegas trips with friends and for conferences would illuminate a big light bulb and lure Stevens west. In 2008, he and younger brother/silent partner George began acquiring downtown properties.
They razed Las Vegas Club and two other buildings, and in that void constructed the 435-foot-tall Circa, whose Stadium Swim features six pools — one two degrees warmer than the next — and a 143-foot-diagonal screen.
First, though, Stevens had hard hats place a cornerstone, with a time capsule in a cavity in the edifice’s southeast nook beneath the main corner entrance at Fremont and First.
Perhaps it hadn’t been so fortuitous, since Circa opened during the pandemic. Since then, the bronze high-rise has been a beacon.
The Circa Sports anti-Euro model attracts punters of all levels.
“We are not trying to limit professional bettors,” Stevens says, “and we are not trying to limit bettors who win here, either in the short or long term. It’s a core principle of Circa Sports.”
Stevens, 55, elaborates on that approach and what Illinois is getting.
“When we have bettors who win consistently, month in and month out, or year in and year out, that helps us build a very strong number that we feel comfortable hanging.
“That risk is on us, so it gives us confidence because we know we’ve got the sharpest bettors in the world betting with us. We feed off it, so we’re able to take larger wagers.”
Circa Sports has impressed Roxy Roxborough, who told me in 2021 he never thought he’d see “another Jackie Gaughan,” referring to another Vegas pillar. “I am glad Derek is here when I can enjoy his efforts.”
HALL OF AN IDEA
Next week is big for Circa, which plays host to BetBash 3 and will cap that event by unveiling the Sports Gambling Hall of Fame, in a Circa sportsbook nook, and celebrating its inaugural class with a black-tie dinner.
A sharp 16-member board tapped Roxborough, Gaughan, Billy Baxter, Billy Walters, Jack Franzi, Bob Martin, Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, Scotty Schettler, Jimmy Vaccaro and Charles McNeil for induction.
Friday’s panels include an interview with Walters, conducted by fellow bettor and BetBash founder Gadoon Kyrollos, known as Spanky in sports-gambling circles.
On the final day of last year’s BetBash, Stevens met with Spanky to discuss 2023, which spawned the hall idea and more meetings.
“When Spanky put that on his bullet-point list, we jumped on it,” Stevens says. “We said, ‘Let’s have some fun with that.’ We love working with Spanky.
“This will be a spectacular BetBash. It’s the ‘Who’s Who’ of sports-betting conferences. So many topics. It’ll be great for pros and people who want to learn more about the industry, and it’ll be a helluva lot of fun.”
Stevens is all about fun. He had advertised prominently with the Golden Knights for their first five seasons, and they approached him about having a Circa Sports logo stitched onto the right side of their sweaters for 2022-23.
“We joked that we’ll get a bang for our buck because they’ll win the Stanley Cup, and then it happens!” Stevens says. “Pretty awesome.”
During the NFL season, the Michigander mingles with guests and will sit beside participants in his two contests. Last year, entries fell $1 million shy — which came out of his pocket — of covering $12 million in prizes.
He responded by bumping this season’s prize money to $14 million.
He relishes the drama.
“We sweat it together. It’s a lot of fun to see this raw emotion and the way peoples’ minds work. Like, ‘If this covers I’d get $200,000, and I’d want to hedge.’ Awesome energy.”
Stevens agrees that he resembles his many guests. Joe Six-Packs. Don’t be surprised,
Illinois bettors, to find him in American Place, fetching the next round.
“Yeah, I like six-packs!”
