BetMGM Bonus Code TOPACTION: $1K First Bet on the House Offered for Stanley Cup Finals

It's Game 1 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and the Vegas Golden Knights Saturday. The Panthers continue their string of unexpected dominance as +110 underdogs against a Western Conference power house in the Golden Knights. However you feel this could go, there's up to $1,000 bet value available using BetMGM bonus code TOPACTION.

We'll explain in more depth below, but this is a first bet on the house that if loses will return whatever amount you wagered in bonus bets. You can use this bonus offer on any Saturday event, too. It's just not live in New York or Washington D.C.

Puck drop is at 8 p.m. ET on TNT, so let's take a look at how you can use this offer to score profit on Game 1 Saturday.

BetMGM Promo Code Guide: SCF Game 1

Making Your First Bet

Most people like to “lock in a profit” with a “sure thing” but the math says otherwise. It sounds strange, but the best strategy is to use bonus bets and first bet offers on plus-money wagers because you’re getting more expected value.

Alright, let's use a Game 1 scenario. Ryan Dadoun suggested betting the under of 5.5 goals in his Game 1 preview:

Vegas is being treated as a mild favorite on the moneyline, and given where Florida was entering the playoffs, the relatively minor gap being offered by oddsmakers shows the Panthers have earned some respect during their run.

Rather than pick a winner for Game 1, I’m most interested in taking the under of 5.5 goals. Between the nerves of two teams entering the Stanley Cup Final and the fact that these squads don’t have a lot of history, I expect there to be a feeling out process in this game, during which players will act conservatively. Combine that with the hot netminders, and this should be a low-scoring affair.

At -105 odds, let's say we deposit and bet $1,000 of our own cash on the under. Don't worry, it seems like a bold wager, but it's getting the best value out of the offer in the case we lose.

This is because if that happens, we get $1,000 back in bonus bets. If the game stays under 5.5 goals, we get the $1,952.38 payout.

Applying Bonus Bets

OK, now it’s time to use the bonus bets. It’s like a credit — you keep the winnings if your bet wins, but not the bonus bet amount itself.

So in the case we lost our Game 1 bet, we have $1,000 to use on anything moving forward. Say we take $100 in bonus bets and place it on Sergei Bobrovsky to win the Conn Smythe Trophy at the end of the series. Bobrovsky is currently the odds favorite at +200 to win. Dadoun also suggested this futures pick in Action's Stanley Cup Final series bets:

Sergei Bobrovsky wasn’t anything special during the regular season, but the two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender has carried Florida during the playoffs with his 11-2 record, 2.21 GAA and .935 save percentage in 14 outings. He’s gotten only better as the postseason has progressed, holding Toronto to just 10 goals over five contests in the second round and Carolina to six tallies over the Panthers’ four-game Eastern Conference Final sweep.

The Maple Leafs also ranked ninth offensively during the regular season (3.39 goals per game), which is an improvement over the Golden Knights (3.26), so if Bobrovsky could contain Toronto, then Vegas has its work cut out for it.

The biggest X-factor is if the long layoff (the goaltender last played May 24) will serve to cool him off. Bobrovsky did have a six-game gap between the Toronto and Carolina series, though, and still proceeded to stop 63 of 65 shots in a quadruple-overtime victory, so the last time he had too much time off, it didn’t disrupt his rhythm.

All that leads me to see Bobrovsky as the best bet available for the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Cup finals in general.

• Now if Bobrovsky wins the Conn Smythe at the end of the series, we net $200 ($20 x 2) but we don’t keep the bonus. In this case, we’ll have $55 cash and $250 in bonus bets left.
• But if someone else wins the hardware, we have $900 left in bonus bets if we didn't use them already.

Read up on Action's NHL hub for all Stanley Cup betting coverage and keep an eye on the public betting page to see how each matchup looks.

BetMGM Offers by State

Both offers are live in most states, but because you're getting $200 in bonus bets in Mass. and Ohio and $100 everywhere else, we recommend using TOPACTION in most states. That offer can lock in a profit for more than $200, but most users won't want to go through that process.

Signing Up at BetMGM

1. You must be 21+ years old to register and bet.
2. You must be located in a BetMGM state when placing your first wager. You don’t have to live in Ohio to wager; you have to be in the state at the time of activation and making a bet. Check out our travel betting guide for more details. You can withdraw money once you’ve already left the state (so if you were in Ohio on Monday and bet on the Super Bowl, you could withdraw in your home state next Monday).
3. You must have access to a valid deposit method. Credit cards, bank account transfers, and PayPal are the most popular, though some credit cards will flag gambling and not allow you to deposit.

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