The Westgate SuperContest aka “Biff’s Almanac” announced winners this season as if he had the magazine from the movie “Back to the Future Part II” filled with 50 years of future sports results.
Henderson resident Bryan Boren, who owned the entry, went 33-12 against the spread (73.3 percent) in the first nine weeks of NFL handicapping and finished 61-28-2 (68.5 percent) to top a field of 751 entries and win $231,630.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “Stamping this in the history books is just super cool to me. The money is obviously the best part, but the validation means a lot.
“My personal action is quite small, so this has made me a profitable sports player in life.”
Boren, a Buffalo, New York, native who works in software sales, also cashed in three of the 11 races during the season for $90,000, bringing his total to $321,630 from his $1,500 entry.
“What’s really cool about the Westgate SuperContest is that there’s a lot of competition in the contest,” said Boren, 46. “I thought that even if I really (screw) this, if I can go on a good three-week stretch or six-week stretch, I can make this $1,500 entry back.”
He won the first six-week contest (21-9) and the first nine-week contest after going 5-0 in Week 9. The Raiders (+3) were one of his winning picks that week, when they went for the win in overtime and failed to convert a two-point conversion in a 30-29 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“It was a very intense week for me,” said Boren, usually a $20 or $50 player. “I had never before been in a position to win this kind of money when I did this. It was my first ever big pot in my sports betting history.”
Contestants make five weekly picks ATS in the contest (one point for a win, half a point for a push). Boren took a five-point lead into Week 18 and clinched the title Sunday as the Minnesota Vikings (-7½) covered a 16-3 victory over the Green Bay Packers.
“What’s interesting about it is purple was my mom’s favorite color, and the Vikings were my dad’s team, so it was kind of fitting to seal it with them,” he said. “I immediately went online and ordered a Vikings hat.”
Boren watches sports betting podcasts and shows and keeps tabs on injuries, but his main focus is on the point spread.
“I’m not a big fan of analytics,” he said. “There are some stats I look at here and there, but really it’s just tied to that number and how that number moves, and why it moves is really what I’m trying to decipher.”
SuperContest Gold
Barry Witlin, who used the contest alias “Integrity Alert,” went 56-33-1 ATS to win the $5,000 entry into SuperContest Gold and top a field of 67 entries to claim the $335,000 winner-take-all prize.
Witlin, 72, an attorney who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., also had three entries that placed fifth in the SuperContest for a total of more than $50,000 and three entries that tied for 30th in the Circa Sports Million contest for more than $50,000.
“The funny thing about it is we started the worst we’ve ever started,” said Witlin, who teamed up with one other person. “The first week we were 1-4. The second week we were 2-3, so we were 3-7 after two weeks, then we came back.
“It’s so long. It’s a lot of sweating. You have to understand it’s a marathon, not a sprint. You’re going to have bad weeks.”
Witlin, a Chicago native, was introduced to betting by his grandmother’s brother.
“He was a bookie in Chicago back in the Al Capone days of the ’30s and ’40s, and he lived with us in the summers,” he said. “One of our other relatives ran a pool hall in the 50s and 60s in Chicago, which was basically a place where people could bet.
“I had always heard about it in the family, and as time went on I became fascinated with it.”
Witlin took a one-point lead into the final week of the gold competition and went 4-1 to win the title. He took four favorites in Week 18, but recommends taking more underdogs overall.
“I don’t think you can do well taking favorites any more than you can take underdogs,” he said. “The lines are too tight and too good.”
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@ theplayerlounge.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.
