Where Serious Sports Fans Stay and Play During Game Week in Las Vegas
Byline: Jacob Milner
Key Takeaways
- Las Vegas sportsbooks are ideal spots to watch big games with massive screens and comfortable seating.
- Experience non-stop betting action in Las Vegas sports bars during game week, where the best spots combine food, drinks and gambling.
- Beyond the bets, Las Vegas sportsbooks offer luxury experiences too.
The drama of the closing seconds. The screams of the crowd. The exultation when you realize one missed free throw or an extra goal has earned you some serious coin. It's hard to beat the excitement of watching and betting on a big game in a Las Vegas sportsbook or sports bar. And today, you'll find plenty of places to make it happen.
Up and down the Las Vegas Strip, casino resorts offer sports bars, sportsbooks, premium betting lounges and other luxury attractions where you can put on your game face. It can be tough to choose the right spot, but we've got the playbook to help.
Lay of the Land
The Center Strip is home to game week's most sought-after properties, positioned right in the middle of the action.
Caesars Palace is widely regarded as the most iconic sportsbook on Las Vegas Boulevard, long celebrated as one of the most popular places to watch a big game. Its recent renovation only amplified that reputation, with a vibrant sportsbook now featuring a massive 143-foot HD LED video wall capable of carrying a single game or up to 16 at once.
Caesars Entertainment installed a full-length bar along the back of the sportsbook. It also boasts 140 seats, each with a commanding view of the screen, with many available for premium reservations that include a food-and-drink minimum.
Other notable Center Strip sportsbooks include The LINQ, featuring a wall of beer taps and comfortable couch seating, and Paris Las Vegas, with a tucked away sportsbook evoking Parisian Metro station vibes.
Every sportsbook along the Strip showcases towering walls of screens displaying odds and betting lines that list all possible wagers in real time.
If sportsbooks aren’t your thing, several casino resorts have recently added sports bars and lounges. While these venues have TVs, the focus is food and drinks.
A local favorite, Blondie’s Sports Bar at Planet Hollywood serves as a Las Vegas outpost of a New York institution. During college sports seasons, fans descend on Horseshoe Las Vegas to cheer on their team. The atmosphere is often high-energy, resembling an indoor tailgate party with gambling.
Sports bars like those at Harrah’s Las Vegas and Flamingo Las Vegas also are worth exploring, with daily Happy Hour specials and TVs galore.
Betting Options
If you want to bet on games in a Las Vegas sportsbook, you usually have two choices: place a bet with a ticket writer or at a self-serve kiosk on the casino floor.
Sportsbooks have issued paper tickets since they debuted in the mid-1970s, but a growing number of casino resorts are now offering wireless betting.
This new approach is available as a smartphone app. For phones to be able to connect to the Internet and place wagers remotely, casino resorts must have reliable wireless connections. Reliable Wi-Fi also ensures no lag during live sports streaming. Guests can select specific bets right from their fingertips, with the app placing them instantly. Typically, mobile apps go beyond traditional odds and totals on games, some will now allow you to bet on individual plays as they happen, for instance, whether a player will sink a free throw or a team will score on a possession. This is known as “in-game betting.”
The advantage of betting apps, thanks to phone geolocators, is that you can literally bet from anywhere in the state of Nevada. Keep in mind that while mobile betting is legal in 28 states, not all states have embraced it yet.
Major Las Vegas casino companies have their own mobile apps. For example, Caesars Sportsbook allows wagers as low as $0.10 and as high as $1,000,000. Win or lose, every wager earns users reward credits through the industry-leading Caesars Rewards loyalty program.
Where to Refuel
Experiencing a big game or big game week in Las Vegas can really make a guest hungry. Thankfully, one of the amenities that guests will find at just about every casino resort in Las Vegas is on-site restaurants.
One benefit of top-quality on-site restaurants is that you and other guests don’t have to leave the resort to eat. Another bonus: Just about anything can be ordered to go in a sportsbook, or through the Caesars Eats app, so you can continue to soak up the action without interruption.
Different properties are renowned for different post-game dining options. At Caesars Palace, for instance, Brasserie B Parisian Steakhouse by Bobby Flay is located just off the casino floor near the sportsbook, serving burgers and other handheld delectables. For those who’d prefer whiskey and cigars, the Montecristo Cigar Bar is a swanky, ultra-premium lounge that provides a relaxing change from the hubbub of the sportsbook.
At The LINQ, there’s an outpost of Yardhouse, a chain restaurant that is basically a brewery and sports bar mashup. And at Horseshoe, Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Sports Kitchen features wall-to-wall TVs and a menu packed with delicious eats.
There’s no right or wrong way to mix food and sports in Las Vegas except to say that portability is a key. The last thing you want while sitting in the sportsbook is to eat soup or a messy sandwich. It’s also smart to order items that can sit for a minute or two, in case you’re so riveted by a game that you don’t get around to eating right away.
FAQs
What’s the easiest way to place bets during a sports weekend in Las Vegas?
There are two main ways to place sports bets during a big game or game week in Las Vegas: in a casino sportsbook or online through a mobile app.
How do I choose the right place to watch big games in Las Vegas without dealing with overwhelming crowds?
One way to escape the masses is to treat yourself to VIP seating. Most sportsbooks and sports bars have designated (and spacious) seating areas for fans who are willing to pay a premium and agree to a food-and-beverage minimum.
How can I create a more elevated sports-watching experience, not just a bar crawl?
The key to an elevated sports-watching experience in Las Vegas is luxury. At some properties, this means booking in advance to obtain a special seat in a special spot of a property’s sportsbook. At others, the notion of “elevated” is quite literal, watching sports on TV while witnessing the Las Vegas skyline from atop the High Roller observation wheel.
