Mike Palm, VP of Circa Sports, went on VSiN’s “The Football Contest Show” at 5 p.m. PT and gave us our headline.
He pointed out that out of the 2,685 Circa Survivor contestants who navigated the minefield of NFL Week 1 when 56.2 percent of the original 6,133-entry field were one-and-done, 21 entries weren’t submitted for Week 2 and were also eliminated.
For those who don’t know, Circa Survivor is a single-elimination-type contest (also known as Last Man Standing, King of the Hill, etc.) where contestants pick one NFL team a week to win a game straight-up and can’t use the same team twice during the season. The Circa Survivor version cost $1,000 to enter and drew a Las Vegas football record 6,133 entries this year, exceeding the $6 million guarantee by Circa owner Derek Stevens.
Of the entrants who did submit their picks this week, the Broncos were the No. 1 choice by 869 of those. The Broncos are 10-point home favorites vs. the Texans on Sunday, but, again, in this contest they just have to win the game (note: ties count as losses in this contest as some people learned last week when the Colts and Texans played to a 20-20 tie).
The 49ers were the second choice by 481 entrants, followed by the Browns (358), Rams (304), Packers (294) and Bengals (192). No other team was taken by more than 100 contestants.
In Circa Sports Million IV, a traditional NFL handicapping contest where players pick 5 games a week against the contest spread, the Jaguars + 4 vs. the Colts was the No. 1 choice of the 4,691 entrants who also paid $1,000 per entry.
The Top 5 consensus went 3-2 in Week 1 and the rest of the Top 5 is the Bengals -7 at the Dak Prescott-less Cowboys, Saints + 2.5 vs. the Buccaneers, Patriots -2 at the Steelers and Packers -10 vs. the Bears on Sunday Night Football.