Sports betting in Kansas is the rage (hear that, Missouri?)... Check out our first bets

It’s 11:59 a.m. Thursday, and I’m on the verge of attempting to break state law — by about, I don’t know, maybe 50 feet.

After pulling into the parking lot of The Peanut on the Missouri side of State Line Road, and that’s an important detail here, I duck down and open the two newest apps on my iPhone — BetMGM and DraftKings Sportsbook.

In 60 seconds, the other side of the street will have legalized sports wagering, the state of Kansas permitting me to use these very same apps to place a couple of bets. But first, I want to try it on the Missouri side, partially for curiosity and partially because I really like to exaggerate things to prove a point.

The clock hits noon.

The BetMGM app, in keeping spirit with the soft launch Thursday, begins the grand celebration of Kansas sports wagering with a technical error, failing to actually go live at noon. And that feels about right for this experiment.

DraftKings, it is.

Another error, but this one comes courtesy of the state of Missouri:

Your device’s location data indicates you are not in a permitted area.

Guess these things are pretty accurate. I start the car, maneuver to the other side of State Line Road, and all of 17 seconds later, I’m planted in front of Minsky’s Pizza in Leawood. In real time, look: It’s Missouri tax dollars literally leaving the state by, ahem, driving across the street.

Missouri could have accelerated at the same pace as Kansas, of course, but as Kansas completed the fastest implementation of any state in the country, Missouri is embarrassingly stuck in neutral until at least January (when the state legislative session re-opens), watching its money go to Kansas.

Or Iowa. Or Illinois.

The frustration is not that politicians disagree over its legality (which is fine!) but rather who should profit and how much. As of today, Kansas is the state profiting ... off Missourians. Certainly this will be the final kick in the rear-end it needs.

But I digress. Outside Minsky’s, I refresh the DraftKings app, and bam — we’re live.

I already know the wager I’m trying to find, and the app is quite user friendly, so I scroll to it easily — NFL, player totals, receiving touchdowns. A list of players populates in alphabetical order, and I land on T.

Tyreek Hill. Over/under: 8.5

Under.

Cash: $50.

Submit.

We’re officially off and running. Can you feel the rush?

Kansas has approved six gambling apps to receive bets. They are each offering different sign-up promotions, which I’m sure will change, but I’m taking advantage of $200 in free bets for this exercise. Which I will split evenly among four initial wagers.

Before I divulge the final three, a necessary note of caution: I trend more amateur than expert in the world of sports betting. I’ve long been interested in betting lines and prop bets, though that’s mostly because it’s long been evident Vegas oddsmakers have a pretty good idea of what they’re doing, and therefore we can glean a lot of information from the lines they set.

My sports betting history tends to be placing a few bucks on games I’m already watching, often just with friends, because it makes things a little more interesting.

As of Thursday, things have become a lot more interesting. Which is why, if you plan to make this a regular occurrence, I’d suggest doing your share of research. Read multiple sources. We hope The Star will be one.

You can find plenty of sports betting-exclusive services, most of which are profitable enough to charge you money for them. But, hell, our Kellis Robinett did a lengthy and convincing write-up on college bets this weekend, basically outing himself as a criminal who has done this sort of thing before it became legal Thursday.

One more note, and then the bets: This is new ground for us at The Star. It’s new ground for me, too, to be writing about actual bets I’ve placed. That’s exciting, but for me personally, it also means drawing some figurative lines.

While you will see me make plenty of Chiefs picks in future installments — we’ve been predicting game outcomes for years; that’s nothing new — you won’t see me placing any real dollars on any of the local teams. And so when this column includes four bets I placed using the DraftKings’ sign-up bonus, that’s the reason it won’t include Chiefs, Royals, Sporting KC, KC Current, Mizzou, Kansas or K-State wagers. I can’t add a rooting interest to my coverage.

Anyway, on to the bets. A cool feature, I noticed after returning home to Missouri, is that while you can’t place a bet unless you’re actually in Kansas, you could still scroll the app to see all of the bets offered. So you’ll know whether it’s worth the drive across the state line, and you’ll save some time when you’re sitting in the parking lot of, say, a Minsky’s Pizza.

1. Tyreek Hill, under 8.5 receiving touchdowns in 2022

As aforementioned, I opened with this one. This is not total touchdowns. It’s just receiving TDs. A year ago, when Hill broke the Chiefs’ franchise record for catches (111), just nine of those included touchdowns. And Hill played in all 17 games.

He’s joining a team in Miami that scored a full eight points per game fewer than the Chiefs did last year, meaning there are fewer touchdowns to go around. And other than his addition, I don’t see a lot of reason for that gap to narrow much.

Even if Hill is the same player, he won’t have the same production. The under for receptions (80.5) and yards (1,025.5) were also considerations, but the touchdowns jumped at me most.

2. Week 1: Baltimore (-7) vs. N.Y. Jets

Two things at play here: I like Baltimore, particularly its recent history in season openers, and I really have no confidence in quarterback Joe Flacco, the anticipated starting quarterback for the Jets in Week 1.

While the Ravens lost 33-27 to the Raiders in their 2021 opener, they destroyed Cleveland 38-6 in the 2020 opener, beat Miami 59-10 a year earlier and throttled the Bills 47-3 the year before that. Three blowouts and a one-possession loss against an eventual playoff team.

The Jets are not an eventual playoff team, and the Ravens should be in line for some improvement after getting stung by injuries in 2021. Of note: Flacco has not won a game since 2019, and he just turned 37 in January. He’s 0-5 with the Jets.

3. Serena Williams to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals (+250)

The $50 bet here would net $125 profit (plus the $50 returned).

Serena Williams doesn’t need to win the U.S. Open for this bet to cash — she just needs to reach the quarterfinals in what she has hinted will be her final tournament.

Late Wednesday, she beat second-seeded Anett Kontaveit in three sets. The route to the quarterfinals is easier by comparison. She faces Ajla Tomljanovic on Friday. Tomljanovic is 46th in the world.

If she moves on, Williams would meet the winner of a match between Liudmila Samsonova (No. 35) and Aleksandra Krunic (No. 96) with the trip to the quarterfinals on the line. The best player of all time with a little extra motivation on her side and a payout of 2.5-to-1 to beat two unranked opponents? Yes, please.

4. Philadelphia Eagles, over 9.5 regular season wins

It’s not that I’m infatuated with the Eagles, though they do appear to be improved, particularly in the last few days. Their schedule is just cake.

Statistically, they have the second-easiest slate in the NFL for 2022, according to Sharp Football Analysis. (The Chiefs have by far the most difficult.) When calculating the game-by-game, I have the Eagles at 11-6. They need to just get to 10 for this to cash.

DraftKings has weekly lines posted through Week 15 already, and the Eagles are favored in 10 of their initial 14 games, and two others are pick ‘ems.