Owner and CEO of Circa Sports Derek Stevens knows a thing or two about operating casinos.

Stevens is the owner of three different casinos along Fremont Street — Circa, Golden Gate
Gate
Hotel and Casino and the D Las Vegas Casino and Hotel — which is the second-most famous street in Las Vegas outside of The Strip. That’s not even mentioning the neighboring Downtown Las Vegas Events Center just steps away from Stevens’ casinos.

Stevens’ casinos all stand out in some shape or form. The Golden Gate Casino — which is the oldest operating casino in Vegas — initially opened in 1906. Meanwhile, the D Las Vegas is the third-tallest inside city limits. However, the golden child of Stevens’ casinos is none other than Circa.

Circa — which opened in October of 2020 during the thick of COVID — boasts a number of noteworthy traits. For one, it’s the tallest building within city limits and features 35 floors. Secondly, it’s the only (and first) adults-only resort, requiring patrons to be at least 21 years of age. Yes, it’s true — you won’t get into the casino without showing your ID and proof that you’re of age.

“What it is, we’re willing to give up a certain component of our business,” explains Stephens in a one-on-one interview on why Circa is a 21-and-up establishment. “We’re willing to give up hotel rooms that include families that have people under 21. We’re willing to give that up in return to having what we consider to be a higher level of customer service. When you think about that efficiency that gets created by IDing someone at our doors, what that does is, once you step into Circa, you don’t have to show your ID”

The Detroit, Michigan native details that his objective was not only to create a true adults-only atmosphere — what Las Vegas is intended for — but also to expedite the process of serving customers in a timely manner. Stevens explains how much time is saved when it pertains to customers being served upon ordering drinks, considering they’ve already had their ID’s checked at the front door rather than pulling them out of their purse or wallet.

“Think about a group, eight bachelorettes that have to come in and order a drink and we have a bartender that has to ID them all,” says Stephens. “On average — we did studies on this — it takes 30 seconds to ID a young female. You have to get it out of the bag, the bartender has to look at it and hold it up, make sure it’s real, then visually look at someone. Now we go over to the next one. If you have a group of people and they all order eight Long Island Iced Teas, you’re four minutes into the transaction. It’s going to take him six minutes to make the drinks. Then you have two guys back there that just want to buy two Budweisers and they’re waiting 10 minutes to get that. It’s a cascading effect of bad hospitality.”

Thirdly — and most importantly — Circa is notable due to its sports operation, Circa Sports, featuring the largest operating sportsbook in the world. And to top it all off, Circa also has Stadium Swim, a 143-foot screen. to showcase the day’s games on multiple screens.

In other words, Circa is to sports betting what the city of Indianapolis is to the Indy 500. It’s the epicenter and pinnacle of sports betting in a time when sports gambling is legal in 38 states and where sports leagues openly embrace it, with betting companies advertising during commercial breaks, sports analysts asked during the pre-game whether or not they would take the line, and betting odds openly displayed at the bottom of the sports ticker on just about every network.

With Circa Sports being the flagship identity of the hotel and casino, there’s another notable theme — the annual Circa Millions and Circa Survivor tournaments, which are based on the results of NFL games throughout the regular season. These two tournaments have been held for several years, with Circa Millions entering its sixth year and Survivor launching the year after. Furthermore, these contests are branded as “record-breaking” due to their large rake payouts.

Both tournaments serve different purposes in order to win, although they both feature the same $1K entry fee. Millions is more complicated than Survivor because players have to make five picks against the spread each week. One point is awarded for each correct selection and one-half point awarded for each push. There’s $6 million in total guaranteed prizes, with first place walking away with $1 million at the end of the season.

“It’s a traditional football handicapping contest where you pick five games against the spread each week 18 weeks in the football season,” explains Stephens. “You end up with 90 selections. We pay the top 100 as far as the record goes over the course of the year, plus a whole bunch of quarterly prizes. In total, there’s 126 different ways to win in the Circa millions. This year we’re guaranteeing $6 million — like I said, 126 ways to win — that’s a contest where I think you have a greater chance of collecting a big check at the end of the year.”

Meanwhile, Survivor is simple, because chances are you’ve played this before in your company pool — choose a different winning team every week, while only having a chance to select them once all season. The last person standing wins $10 million guaranteed.

As of this writing just prior to the end of August, Circa Millions has 3,425 total entries (for a total money overlay of 2,575,000) and Survivor has 8,045 total entries (for a total money overlay of 1,955,000). However, those numbers will grow just prior to the start of the NFL season. Although Nevada state regulations require bettors to do so at one of the sportsbooks in Nevada, you can do so from out of the area through proxies that will put in the picks for you.

While speaking in his third-floor office during “Circa Sports Contest Weekend” — which took place between August 22 through 25 — Stevens explains why bettors should be enticed to participate in Circa Millions.

“Last year, there were a little over 5200 people who played in Circa Millions,” says Stevens. “We didn’t hit the $6 million, but what we do is guarantee a certain amount. We guaranteed $6 million — just like we’re doing this year. When you don’t hit that number, it’s called an overlay. We don’t like overlays because that means we have to cover the gap. Basically we put an extra $800K into the pot. It was a very good investment, positive expected value for the participants last year.”

The sell for Survivor is a lot easier — it’s the largest legal football betting contest in history. Stevens says the original guarantee for Circa Survivor last year was $3 million before being boosted to $8 million and eventually at $9.2 million.

“What’s cool about this is that it’s the largest legal football contest in history,” says Stevens. “I want to emphasize — legal is critical. It’s one thing when you have a house pool and you have a bunch of guys put in $100 and you have 30 guys worth $3K. You might have a bunch of rich guys putting in $1K, you now have $30K. That’s all well and good. But the reason why legal is important is because the money we’re talking about is no joke. I mean, you better know who your treasurer is.”

Vegas is quickly becoming the epicenter of sports. The Super Bowl was held in Vegas for the first time earlier this year, a notion that was probably considered impossible just a decade prior before sports gambling became legalized in the majority of states. Furthermore, the Oakland Athletics will move to Las Vegas and an NBA expansion team has been teased in the area. The cost of an NBA team in Las Vegas could approach $7 billion — which would be the most expensive United States sports franchise in history.

It’s clear that Vegas is continuing to grow at a rapid pace when it relates to not only sports, but business itself. It’s something that doesn’t go unnoticed by Stevens, who originally started visiting “Sin City” in the late 80’s.

“There’s a lot of investment just in downtown Las Vegas alone,” says Stevens. “It’s going to be a whole lot of housing, a whole lot of new businesses. It is terrific to see this investment in Vegas. I think everyone’s preparing for the inevitability of MLB and the NBA coming. We’re seeing more and more special events, LSU versus USC in Allegiant Stadium. Sports tourism is massive and I think it’s a real leading and driving factor within the growth of Vegas.”

Considering the growth of Vegas, Circa Sports figures to play a major role of the continued acceleration in the popularity of sports gambling.