Sportsbooks expecting boon from increased soccer action this summer

LAS VEGAS — This time, John Murray will watch Liverpool play in person for the second time and hope there’s no pepper-spray residue in the air nor mayhem on the grounds outside the stadium.

The executive director of race and sports at the Westgate SuperBook will see his beloved Reds play Wolves at Anfield in Liverpool on May 19, the final Premier League match day.

Which is also the last Liverpool game for 56-year-old Jurgen Klopp, its manager since 2015. Murray scrambled for a ticket recently after Klopp had announced his retirement, bad timing that cost him nearly four figures.

Singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” with nearly 61,000 others inside Anfield?

Priceless.

Plus, Liverpool (21-2-8, 71 points) is battling Arsenal (22-4-5, 71) and Manchester City (21-3-7, 70) for the Premier League trophy.

“Klopp’s last game, so for sure that’ll blow the [2022] Champions League final away,” Murray says. “I don’t want to exaggerate, but it’ll pretty much be a once-in-a-lifetime type of sporting event.”

For Murray, it’s a springboard to a scintillating summer of soccer. The Champions League finale is June 1 in London. Euro 2024 begins June 14, culminating July 14 in Berlin.

With the pandemic bumping Euro 2020 to 2021 and the funkiness of Qatar 2022 shifting the World Cup to December, Vegas shops will welcome the sport’s return to normalcy and a typical summer business boom.

Moreover, Copa America 2024, featuring 10 South American sides and six from this region, begins June 20 and crowns a champion July 14 in Florida.

The U.S. and Mexico are in the Copa, which plays two group-stage matches and a quarterfinal inside Allegiant Stadium in Vegas. I won’t be surprised if Murray attends all three games.

Plus, the Paris Olympics stage men’s and women’s tournaments July 24 through Aug. 10.

“We’ll get a pick-me-up for Euro, and possibly just as important Copa America,” Murray says. “Euro games in the morning and Copa matches in prime time. Soccer will be huge for us this summer.”

Supporting Liverpool

Murray, 41, fell for Liverpool in 2001, on a European adventure with his Washington, D.C., Gonzaga College High rugby squad.

The Eagles won one of four matches, but Murray tasted Carlsberg beer from the tap, nectar from the Danish pilsner gods, for the first time. And Carlsberg was in the middle of an 18-year run as Liverpool’s kit sponsor.

Lifetime bond sealed.

On May 23, 2007, a Wednesday, Murray, just hired by the SuperBook to write tickets, went through orientation, keeping him from watching Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat to AC Milan in the Champions League finale in Athens.

Eleven years later, he was in McMullan’s Pub in Vegas to see Sergio Ramos knock out Reds star striker Mohamed Salah, keying Real Madrid’s 3-1 title triumph in Kiev.

In 2019, inside a San Diego pub with friends, he watched Liverpool win its sixth CL trophy by beating Tottenham 2-0 in Madrid. Murray hopes no photos exist from those celebrations. Some of those pals will travel with him to Europe next month. They go straight to Rome, then Switzerland, the Netherlands and England. Murray zips to Liverpool as they, being Chelsea fans, remain in London.

He had planned to visit Anfield in 2020, before the pandemic shuttered the world. He made amends by going to Saint-Denis, France, in 2022 to see Liverpool play Real Madrid in the Stade de France.

Chaos reigned. Officials closed ticket windows, bottle-necking Liverpool fans into dangerous situations. Police used pepper spray. The match started 36 minutes late.

“I wanted to get there early just to make sure our tickets were real,” Murray says. “Being inside, we didn’t know what was happening outside. Afterward, there was tear-gas in the air, and they were dispersing the crowd. Pretty crazy. Liverpool dominated the first half but didn’t score, and I had a sinking feeling. [Karim] Benzema scored [for Real], and that’s the Champions League.”

Big soccer menu

In MLS, Chicago is 25-113-47 on the road since 2013; betting on that opponent in its own home plus a half-goal produces an 86.5 winning percentage (160-25). The Fire play at the New York Red Bulls on Saturday.

However, at the SuperBook, whose soccer menus trump any in Vegas, MLS barely moves the needle. Unlike Liga MX. Murray says, “Mexico is really good for us.”

For Euro, England and France are the SuperBook favorites at +350 (risk $100 to win $350). Since he follows the Premier League so closely, Murray can’t comprehend how England isn’t a regular Euro victor.

But the Three Lions have never won the competition that began in 1960. In Euro 2020 (played in ’21), England lost to Italy on penalty kicks at Wembley. It did win the World Cup once, in 1966, as host.

“How could they ever lose a match?” Murray says. “With midfielders like Phil Foden and Declan Rice, how does England not win? They never do, but I’ll always pick England.”

We make a pizza wager; he takes England, I pick +800 Portugal. For the Champions League, the SuperBook prospers if anybody but 14-time champion Real Madrid wins.

And in a unique irony, the SuperBook only takes a Europa League hit if Liverpool, which is in the quarters, wins the stepchild event to the Champions League.

“We have big liability, lose quite a bit, if Liverpool wins the Europa League,” Murray says.