Case Keefer

Assistant Sports Editor

Case Keefer has spent more than a decade covering his passions at Greenspun Media Group. He's written about and supervised coverage of everything relating to the local sports scene, with an emphasis on betting and football, for the Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Weekly. He's also an avid music fan, constantly listening to new records and attending concerts, and writing about them whenever he can for Las Vegas Weekly.

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Blog Post Archive

High School Football State Championship picks: Monday, Nov. 26, 2012; Las Vegas Sun reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer make their picks for every prep football game in Las Vegas.
College football by the odds: Vegas picks and preview of week 13: Thursday, Nov. 22, 2012; Bragging rights and bowl eligibilities define the last full week of the college football regular season.
Every game of note over Thanksgiving weekend features either a rivalry or a team desperate to make a final push to get to .500 and possibly make the postseason.
High School Football Picks: State semifinals: Monday, Nov. 19, 2012; Las Vegas Sun reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer make their picks for every prep football game in Las Vegas.
College football by the odds: Vegas picks and preview of week 12: Friday, Nov. 16, 2012; Sports books caused more forced retirements than a bankrupt mega-corporation last weekend.
A large group of disgruntled gamblers no doubt stomped out of a casino and onto Las Vegas Boulevard swearing they would never bet on sports again after the events of last Saturday’s college football slate. Bad beats struck quick and frequently, turning what looked like the surest tickets into nothing more than recyclable material.
High School Football Picks: Week 13: Monday, Nov. 12, 2012; Las Vegas Sun reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer make their picks for every prep football game in Las Vegas.
College football by the odds: Vegas picks and preview of week 11: Friday, Nov. 9, 2012; Bowl season starts in exactly five weeks.
Anyone else ready for it to get here already? Diving into a game or two every day sounds more desirable than cramming for 50 or more per week.
Woman turns $5 into $100,000 by winning a 15-team parlay: Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012; One local sports book followed the worst-ever NFL Sunday by taking a six-figure hit on a single $5 bet Monday night.
The New Orleans Saints 28-13 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles as 3-point favorites on Monday Night Football made one bettor at Red Rock Resort $100,000.
High School Football Picks: Week 12: Monday, Nov. 5, 2012; Las Vegas Sun reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer make their picks for every prep football game in Las Vegas.
College football by the odds: Vegas picks and preview of week 10: Friday, Nov. 2, 2012; College football is steeped in tradition that few other sports can match.
Keeping up with the sheer number of quirks and practices spanning the nation’s football programs would be treacherous. Some are old; some are new. Some are fun; some are dangerous. Some are important; some are foolish.
High School Football Picks: Week 11: Monday, Oct. 29, 2012; Las Vegas Sun reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer make their picks for every prep football game in Las Vegas.
College football by the odds: Vegas picks and preview of week 9: Friday, Oct. 26, 2012; Let’s hope for some better games this week.
Talking Points’ two featured contests of week 8 turned out as unfulfilling as Geno Smith’s Heisman candidacy. Florida and Kansas State had all but finished South Carolina and West Virginia, respectively, before halftime.
Las Vegas' preseason favorite Detroit Tigers on verge of World Series title: Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012; The Detroit Tigers will begin their final series of the year in precisely the same situation they started the season six months ago — as favorites to become baseball’s world champions.
High School Football Picks: Week 10: Monday, Oct. 22, 2012; Las Vegas Sun reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer make their picks for every prep football game in Las Vegas.
College football by the odds: Vegas picks and perspective of week 8: Friday, Oct. 19, 2012; The following is how this blog entry is typically produced.
I study every college football game during the week, taking a longer look at the marquee matchups in order to write about them in this space. Most of the other games mentioned feature numbers I feel strongly enough about to use in the “six pack of plays” at the bottom of the page.
High School Football Picks: Week 9: Monday, Oct. 15, 2012; Las Vegas Sun reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer make their picks for every prep football game in Las Vegas.
College football by the odds: Vegas picks and preview of week 7: Friday, Oct. 12, 2012; Seats at local sports books should fill up a little earlier this Saturday.
The football-scheduling Gods can take credit. For what feels like the first time this season, the day’s most significant college football games are adequately spread out.
High School Football Picks: Week 8: Monday, Oct. 8, 2012; Las Vegas Sun reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer make their picks for every prep football game in Las Vegas.
College football by the odds: Week 6 Vegas outlook and picks: Friday, Oct. 5, 2012; The lines are getting tougher and the games are getting bigger.
The college football regular season must be approaching its midpoint. A handful of teams, sure enough, will have completed half of their schedule after Saturday with the majority of the pack close behind.
High School Football Picks: Week 7: Monday, Oct. 1, 2012; Las Vegas Sun reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer make their picks for every prep football game in Las Vegas.
College football by the odds: Vegas picks and preview of week five: Friday, Sept. 28, 2012; A betting breakdown of the two biggest games of the week followed by mentions of several others and picks against the spread.
High School Football Picks: Week 6: Monday, Sept. 24, 2012; Las Vegas Sun reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer make their picks for every prep football game in Las Vegas.
College football by the odds: Vegas preview and picks for week four: Friday, Sept. 21, 2012; It’s time for another week of bad beats, backdoor covers and busted parlays.
Or, for the more optimistic, it’s the return of sweet victories, sweat-free covers and stuffed-full wallets. We’ll do our best to help with the latter in this year’s fifth entry of college football by the odds.
High School Football Picks: Week 5: Monday, Sept. 17, 2012; Las Vegas Sun reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer make their picks for every prep football game in Las Vegas.
College football by the odds: Vegas picks, preview and spread info for week three: Friday, Sept. 14, 2012; The beginning of this college football season has marked the revenge of the massive underdogs. A year after the largest favorites covered at an outstanding clip to haunt sports book directors early in the year, the opposite is occurring in 2012. Underdogs of more than 30 points are 10-1 against the spread in the first two weeks.
High School Football Picks: Week 4: Monday, Sept. 10, 2012; Las Vegas Sun reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer make their picks for every prep football game in Las Vegas.
College football by the odds: Betting overview of week two in Las Vegas: Friday, Sept. 7, 2012; A recreational gambler recently claimed he held an advantage over the sports books on college football this early in the season.
High School Football Picks: Week 3: Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012; Las Vegas Sun reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer make their picks for every prep football game in Las Vegas.
College football by the odds: Opening weekend in Vegas: Friday, Aug. 31, 2012; The first weekend of college football works as an appetizer of sorts for gamblers in Las Vegas.
A couple games with immediate national championship implications that draw a large betting handle are sandwiched around a platter of non-conference affairs and a sampling of lesser rivalries. It’s enough to cure football starvation while leaving everyone hungry for more.
College football by the odds: Vegas preview of opening games: Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2012; Enough with the talk of looking forward to the “first football weekend.”
Those are the words of several bettors in reference to the first full slate of college football, on tap for Saturday, or even for Sept. 8-9 when the NFL dives into the season to create the customary one-two punch of gridiron gambling.
High School Football Picks: Week 2: Monday, Aug. 27, 2012; Las Vegas Sun reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer make their picks for every prep football game in Las Vegas.
High School Football Picks: Week 1: Monday, Aug. 20, 2012; Las Vegas Sun reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer make their picks for every prep football game in Las Vegas.
NBA Finals in Vegas: Does Oklahoma City have one last gasp?: Thursday, June 21, 2012; Everything about Game Four of the NBA Finals felt epic.
The way certain moments played out in the Heat’s 104-98 victory over the Thunder to take a 3-1 lead in the series made the contest one that fans will discuss for years.
NBA Finals in Vegas: Odds shifting toward Miami: Tuesday, June 19, 2012; The NBA Finals series price carousel keeps turning violently, throwing the two teams from one side to the other in rapid succession.
In the last four days, the odds to win the NBA Finals have shifted an astounding 435 points. The Miami Heat’s two-game surge has left them as a minus 200 (risking $2 to win $1) favorite to bring the Larry O’Brien Trophy to South Florida for the first time since 2006.
NBA Finals: As easy as betting Heat in the first half and Thunder in the second?: Sunday, June 17, 2012; A simple strategy through two games could have enabled NBA Finals bettors to produce as much green as a vegan farmer.
If anyone decided to bet the Miami Heat in the first half of both games and come back on the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second half, then congratulations to them.
They’re probably spending the weekend doing some high-end shopping on the Strip. Or blowing their profits at the roulette table.
NBA Finals in Vegas: Odds give Thunder more than 70 percent chance to win series: Thursday, June 14, 2012; Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra wasn’t the only one who watched in horror as Kevin Durant scored 17 fourth-quarter points to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 105-94 victory in Game One of the NBA Finals.
Local bookmakers were also displeased by the way Durant made a 13-point Heat lead as forgettable as his franchise’s final season in Seattle. Durant’s 36-point performance ensured Oklahoma City covered the 5.5-point spread and put the game narrowly over the 196 total.
NBA Finals in Vegas: Over/under player scoring totals for Game One: Tuesday, June 12, 2012; Owners of the last five scoring titles will take to the floor tonight when the NBA Finals tip off with Game One in Oklahoma City.
NBA Finals in Vegas: Sports books favor Thunder, bettors ignore Heat: Tuesday, June 12, 2012; The Miami Heat’s odds to win the NBA Finals have a lot in common with facebook’s stock prices and O’Shea’s parking garage.
All three have tumbled and crashed to the ground within recent memory. The difference is that Miami’s fall in Las Vegas sports books may have been the most unforeseen.
Vegas sports book favors Patriots, Packers in every game next season: Wednesday, May 9, 2012; Neither the New England Patriots nor the Green Bay Packers finished last season the way they wanted.
The New York Giants eliminated both teams from the NFL playoffs. The Patriots fell to the Giants, 21-17, in Super Bowl XLV. The Packers failed to win a game in the postseason, as the Giants soared past them, 37-20, in the NFC Divisional round.
A Vegas look at the NBA: Hot and cold playoff teams by the money: Wednesday, April 25, 2012; There was a time when the Utah Jazz were an afterthought in the NBA’s Western Conference playoff race.
That time was the majority of the season. Coming off a 39-43 year in which the Jazz traded their only star — point guard Deron Williams to the Nets — practically no one predicted them to advance to the postseason. Those projections only grew stronger by the All-Star break in late February.
A Vegas look at the NBA: Five favorites to win the title: Tuesday, April 17, 2012; Everyone has a friend or two who loves sports but “hates” the NBA.
You know the guy, the one who spends way too much energy complaining about professional hoops. The one who claims he would rather keep his television tuned to E! than TNT on Thursday nights.
A Vegas look at the NBA: This season's best bets: Friday, April 13, 2012; The average sports bettor treats the NBA regular season something like an old piece of furniture sitting in the garage this time of year.
It’s just there. Casual gamblers give the NBA virtually no attention after the NCAA Tournament tips off every March.
Kentucky's win pays off for the public in Las Vegas sports books: Monday, April 2, 2012; Television sets across America were already turned off by the time the 2012 NCAA championship game got interesting in Las Vegas. A game outsiders viewed as anticlimactic was nothing short of excruciating for local bettors and oddsmakers.
NCAA Tournament by the Odds: Vegas pick and props for national championship: Monday, April 2, 2012; Case Keefer makes his pick against the spread for the national championship matchup between Kentucky and Kansas.
NCAA Tournament by the Odds: Vegas rooting for Kansas despite line move: Sunday, April 1, 2012; During Sunday’s press conference ahead of the national championship game in New Orleans, Kansas coach Bill Self mentioned that he hadn’t heard anyone pick his team to beat Kentucky.
He must not have checked with Las Vegas sports books.
Kentucky opens as 6.5-point favorite over Kansas in Las Vegas sports books: Saturday, March 31, 2012; While Kansas fans were still leaping in celebration Saturday night, sports bettors in Las Vegas took to the betting window to make early wagers on Monday’s national championship game.
NCAA Tournament by the Odds: Vegas picks for the Final Four and potential championship game spreads: Friday, March 30, 2012; Case Keefer breaks down the betting line on both Final Four games scheduled for Saturday in New Orleans. Potential spreads for the national championship are also provided.
Las Vegas sports books thrilled with this year's Final Four: Friday, March 30, 2012; Imagine a vacationer swinging on a hammock a few yards away from the ocean on a deserted island. That’s approximately how relaxed Las Vegas sports book directors will feel when watching the two Final Four games scheduled for Saturday in New Orleans.
What if you used odds from Vegas sports books to fill out an NCAA Tournament bracket?: Thursday, March 29, 2012; Fans come up with an endless amount of strategies to fill out their brackets every year before the NCAA Tournament.
Gimmicks for those who don’t follow college basketball closely include picking teams based on their colors or mascot. Another popular, and slightly more advisable, method is copying the exact picks of ESPN analysts such as Jay Bilas or Dick Vitale.
How Las Vegas sports books view the first Major League Baseball series of the year: Tuesday, March 27, 2012; Case Keefer breaks down the betting odds for the two-game series between the Seattle Mariners and Oakland A's and details how oddsmakers see the two teams this season.
Final Four betting odds: Kentucky and Ohio State proving Las Vegas sports books prophetic: Tuesday, March 27, 2012; A day before the NCAA Tournament began two weeks ago, Las Vegas oddsmakers saw Kentucky vs. Ohio State as the most likely national championship matchup.