Nearing the halfway point of the season, Harry Gagnon has a solid shot at winning the Golden Nugget’s Ultimate Football Challenge, the only contest in Las Vegas allowing entrants to submit any combination of seven pro and college picks on a weekly basis. Gagnon’s ‘Cuseboy entry may have gone a disappointing 3-4 in Week 7, but he still finds himself only three points out of first place with 10 weeks to go in the season.
“Cousin Sal” Iacono also went 3-4 in Week 7 and currently sits at 26-22-1, five points behind Gagnon (31-17-1), who is tied for 13th. The overall leader Blue Dream is 34-14-1, and the top 20 of 282 contestants will get paid out at the end of the year.
In addition, the Szokoli brothers put together impressive performances for Team Odds Shark in the Ultimate Football Challenge with a combined record of 9-4-1. Darren (aka The Parlay Kid) went 5-1-1 with college Sportsbooks on Utah State (-21), Western Kentucky (-9) and Michigan (+9) while seeing the Los Angeles Rams (-3) and New Orleans Saints (+3) cover the spread easily in the NFL as well. Brian’s TheBrotherBri entry got covers from Oregon (-3), Florida (-5), the Indianapolis Colts (-1) and Baltimore Ravens (+3). Brian improved to 24-24-1 this season with Darren moving to 23-25-1.
In the NFL-only SuperContest and Circa Sports Million, Team Odds Shark saw its struggles continue. Jon Anik and Paulo Antunes had been the team’s best entrants in the SuperContest through the first six weeks, but each went 1-4 in Week 7. Anthony Riccobono and Frank Schwab were both slightly better with 2-3 marks.
Odds Shark’s own Joe Osborne went 2-2-1 in the Circa Sports Million, and he is 19-15-1 overall to lead Team Odds Shark and tie for 419th out of more than 1,800 entries. Joe Fortenbaugh had a winning week for the team at 3-2, and he is 16-19 overall now.
Clay Travis had a rough Week 7 in the Sportsbook College Pick’em contest with a 2-5 mark. Travis fell to 22-27 overall, 12 points behind the co-leaders who are tied at 34-15.
