What about Super Bowl talk? The saying goes “any given Sunday,” but sportsbooks aren’t fully bullish on Denver’s odds to bring home the Lombardi Trophy this year.

DraftKings Sportsbook has the most optimistic odds at +12,000 — meaning a $100 bet would win $12,000 — for the Broncos to win Super Bowl LVIII. Denver has the 18th-best odds among the 30 NFL teams.

Caesars Sportsbook is next among the five betting sites surveyed at +12,500, followed by BetMGM (+15,000), Fanduel Sportsbook (+17,000) and SI Sportsbook (+25,000). Denver is ranked between 18th and 27th among the sites.

It’s a big drop-off from the team’s initial odds prior to the start of the season, ranging from +3,300 to +4,500.

The defending champion Chiefs (+450 to +500) are either tied or have sole possession as the favorites, followed by the 49ers (+480 to +500) and the Eagles (+500 to +575).

The Broncos will look to extend their winning streak when they host the Vikings (6-4) on Sunday Night Football. Kick-off is scheduled for 6:20 p.m. MT.

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Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets have +475 odds — meaning a $100 bet would win $475 — to win the title next season, according to both BetMGM and DraftKings Sportsbook, as of Monday afternoon, an improvement from their +500 odds following the end of last season. But with the news of Portland trading star guard Damian Lillard to Milwaukee, the Bucks are now the favorites at +400 and +390, respectively.

Denver also improved on Caesars Sportsbook, moving from +475 to +425, while Milwaukee improved to +375.

On Fanduel Sportsbook, however, Denver fell from +460 to +500, while both Bucks (+375) and Celtics (+425) moved past them.

The Miami Heat, last season’s runner-up, have fallen off and range from +2,200 to +3,000.

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Oddsmakers are tempering their expectations, putting Denver around the middle of the pack entering Week 1 of the 2023 NFL season. The Broncos have odds ranging from +3,300 — meaning a $100 bet would win $3,300 — to +4,500 to win Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, according to the five sportsbooks surveyed. The team ranks between the 13th- to 18th-best odds among the sites.

SI Sportsbook has the best odds for Denver at +3,300. Caesars Sportsbook puts the Broncos at +4,000. Meanwhile, BetMGM, DraftKings Sportsbook and Fanduel Sportsbook have them at +4,500.

The Chiefs are favorites on all five sites with odds ranging from +650 to +700. The Eagles are tied with Kansas City on DraftKings at +650, and are second on the sites at +700 to +800.

Denver kicks off its 2023 campaign at 2:25 p.m. MT Sunday, hosting the Raiders at Empower Field at Mile High.

In the World According to Prime, the future’s so bright for the Buffs, he’s got to wear shades. Indoors. During the middle of the day. If there are unrealistic expectations for a team that finished with a record of 1-11 last season, it’s only because Sanders has whipped CU fans into a frenzy.

“We’re going to win. We’re going to win. We’re going to win,” Sanders declared Friday. “I don’t know how to say it. I wish I could say it in several different languages, but we’re going to win.”

That solid-gold whistle dangling from Coach Prime’s neck? It’s a fine piece of jewelry befitting a brash coach who tackled what appears to be a dead-end job at the University of Colorado, losers of 68% of its games since 2006, with the full intention of making everybody in this woebegone football program filthy rich.

“Everybody’s chasing a bag,” Sanders said.

Coach Prime is writing a new definition of team unity: When the Buffs win, everybody gets rich. Playing for the glory of the alma mater is dead. It’s all about the Benjamins. Rather than run from this uncomfortable truth, the new CU coach embraces it. Greed is good. Ain’t that America?

“That’s life, man,” Sanders said. “We all want to be comfortable, right? You know the only thing that separates me from many people, or the affluent from people, is having the option. I have the option to go to the car lot and get what I want to get. I have the option to go to a shopping plaza and get what I want.”

In college football, the revolution will be written on a black and gold hoodie.

And it can be found front-and-center at the entrance to a fan gear store that sits pretty next to Folsom Field. What are all the cool kids going to be wearing at CU’s home stadium this autumn? A hoodie that features a school logo with the iconic Buffalo plastered across the chest. Immediately below the logo, in block letters too huge to ignore are the words: COACH PRIME.

The cost to look as hip as Sanders? $84.99.

Old school fuddy-duddies in the college game are offended by how Sanders looks, how he talks, how he messes with tradition and how he goes about the business of building a team.

“I. Don’t. Care,” Sanders said. “Look at me. What about me would make you think that I care about your opinion of me. Your opinion of me is not the opinion I have of myself. You ain’t make me, so you can’t break me. You didn’t build me, so you can’t kill me.”

The case can be made that CU was the worst major college football team in the nation a year ago. The Buffs could not compete. They were annihilated by an average score of 45-15.

Sanders ransacked that lousy roster and brought in playmakers, notably two-way star Travis Hunter and quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who just happens to be the Son of Prime.

Here’s what I wonder: The Buffs have flash. Football, however, is often a battle won in the trenches. Does Colorado possess the muscle in the offensive line to fight bullies ranked in the Top 25?

There were only a few brief seconds of doubt during a 20-minute sermon Sanders delivered Friday. So I took note when Coach Prime gave this caveat to the big season he anticipates from his son under center.

“The main thing, really? We’ve just got to protect the kid,” Sanders said. “If we can keep him upright …”

When he stands before his team in a meeting, Sanders is framed by the giant words: “I BELIEVE!”

While I can buy the idea that these Buffs could go over the betting line of 3.5 victories established for them by Las Vegas wise guys, it’s nearly unfathomable to think CU could be bowl-bound in Sanders’ first season.

A 55-year-old coach who has never led a team to victory against an FBS opponent scoffs at the idea his inexperience on the sideline might be a detriment to the Buffs.

“I’m not new to this, I’m true to this,” said Sanders, who led Jackson State to a 27-6 record in three seasons before the Buffs took a gamble on him. “I’ve been doing this for a minute. I know you think I haven’t been at this level for a minute, but I’ve been in football for the last how many years? A long time.”

The room glows like the sun and twinkles like the stars as soon Neon Deion walks in. He can sell. He can preach. He can vibe. He can do it all as well or better than any ball coach in the country.

It’s far less than a stretch to say the Buffs would not be heading to the Big 12 Conference, with Sanders leading the funeral parade to the Pac-12’s grave, if he had not been hired in December.

But can Coach Prime beat Nebraska, much less Oregon or Southern Cal?

We’re fixing to find out.

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The complaint, filed Tuesday and first reported on by the Des Moines Register, says a FanDuel account associated with Uwazurike’s personal phone recorded 32 bets on three Broncos games in September and two in December. Uwazurike was inactive for four of the five games outlined in the complaint — Denver’s first three of the season and a Dec. 11 home game against Kansas City — but he is alleged to have bet on a Dec. 18 game against Arizona in which he played.

Uwazurike, who late last month was suspended for at least a year for violating the NFL’s gambling policy, also wagered on two games he played in while at Iowa State, the complaint says.

Uwazurike has a preliminary court hearing in Iowa on the morning of Aug. 16, according to court records.

Overall, the FanDuel account linked to Uwazurike made 801 online sports wagers totaling more than $21,000, according to the complaint, which outlines the way he used somebody else’s name in order to skirt rules put in place by FanDuel, the NCAA and the NFL related to gambling.

The investigation into Uwazurike began in early 2023 and was conducted by agents from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. According to court records, a seizure of Uwazurike’s phone was authorized May 14, shortly before he participated in organized Broncos team activities and a mandatory minicamp through late May and the first half of June.

Uwazurike was suspended July 24 and can apply for reinstatement to the NFL no earlier than July 24, 2024.

He was drafted by the Broncos in the fourth round of the 2022 draft and played in eight games overall during his rookie season.

In total, 11 NFL players have been suspended for gambling policy violations in the past two years, including Uwazurike and nine others this offseason.

Uwazurike and his agents did not respond to requests for comment at the time of his suspension.

Broncos first-year head coach Sean Payton said Wednesday that the franchise had cooperated with authorities throughout the investigation into Uwazurike and that the details in the criminal complaint did not come as a surprise.

“It’s a legal matter,” Payton said. “We’ve been up to speed all along and we’ll just leave it at that. So, there’s been no surprises, nothing that’s new to us, and we’ve cooperated and we’ll continue to cooperate every step that’s required.”

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The Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission voted 3-1 to take no action on proposed rules for exchange wagering, a form of online sports betting that bypasses oddsmakers at traditional sportsbooks and allows gamblers to wager against each other.

If the plan had been approved, Colorado would have become the first state to establish specific rules for exchange wagering and would have become just the second state in the nation to host it.

However, the majority of the commissioners were concerned that the new rules would create a tax loophole for some who play the exchange. The commissioners agreed to delay a decision and give the Colorado Division of Gaming time to revise its proposal.

Richard Nathan, the commission’s chairman, said he worried the possible loophole would go against the state legislature’s intent that gambling operators pay a 10% tax on their profits.

“I believe that there should be an elevation of scrutiny,” Nathan said.

Commissioners also questioned how much oversight the new online gambling platforms would need and whether the state’s regulators have enough capacity to provide it.

Under exchange wagering, gamblers can set their own odds on a game in hopes that another gambler takes them up on the bet. Odds are not set by in-house mathematicians and analysts, so gamblers are playing against each other and not the house.

Exchange wagering attracts more sophisticated gamblers and people who are looking to treat sports betting as if it were a financial investment.

The exchange wagering operator makes money by keeping a commission from the bets, which is typically 2% or 2.5%. The operator would pay the 10% state gambling tax on those commissions and would be responsible for following all of the state’s gambling laws, such as contributing to responsible gaming funds and preventing money laundering.

So far, New Jersey is the only state where people can place sports bets on an online exchange, but that state did not create specific rules for it.

Exchange wagering is often compared to a stock exchange because people can buy and sell shares of their bets.

A similar form of online sports wagering was introduced in 2015 in Nevada, but it failed after one gambling company ran afoul of the Securities Exchange Commission. That style of play also struggled to gain interest from casual sports bettors.

It was the possibility of outside investors who want to sink large sums of money into the exchanges that gave pause to Colorado’s gaming commissioners.

“There aren’t any rules in place in the nation, or probably the world yet, so we need to proceed carefully,” Commissioner Justin Davis said. “I know the division has done a lot of research to make that happen. But we’ve had a lot of issues raised. I think it’s important to proceed carefully.”

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The Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission will consider new rules at its monthly meeting that would govern exchange wagering, a form of online sports betting. Exchange wagering, for now, is only offered in New Jersey, and Colorado would become the second state in the country where exchanges operate.

If the rules are approved by the gaming commission, the first exchange wagering companies could be in business in the state before the Denver Broncos’ home opener on Sept. 10, said Brett Buckingham, the Colorado Department of Revenue’s agent in charge of sports betting and fantasy sports.

Under exchange wagering, gamblers can set their own odds on a game in hopes that another gambler takes them up on the bet. Odds are not set by in-house mathematicians and analysts, so gamblers are playing against each other and not the house, Buckingham said.

The exchange wagering operator makes money by keeping a commission from the bets, which is typically 2% or 2.5%, Buckingham said.

“The exchange itself, which we are still going to consider as an internet sports betting operator, really is kind of a clearinghouse for it,” he said. “They’re like the NASDAQ for it.”

Exchange wagering is often compared to the stock market because the people who place bets can sell shares to other gamblers. So a bettor who put $1,000 on the Denver Nuggets to win the NBA Finals could offer a chance to others who want to buy into the offer, and other gamblers can buy in and out of various positions as the odds fluctuate.

“Exchanges allow customers to enter their own odds, which informs the odds other players see,” said Alex Kane, the chief executive officer of Sporttrade, an exchange wagering platform hoping to enter the Colorado market. “On an exchange, anyone can partake in helping set the pricing.”

Gamblers also are allowed to back out of their bets before a sporting event takes place.

The company that runs the exchange accepts the money placed on the bets, holds it until the event is over and then pays winners, Kane said.

The company also is responsible for following all of Colorado’s gambling laws such as withholding taxes and setting up anti-money laundering measures like any traditional sportsbook. The exchanges would only allow bets on sports that are approved for betting in Colorado, Buckingham said.

However, not everyone who watches Colorado’s gambling industry is sure exchange wagering is the right bet for the state.

At a recent stakeholders meeting, Peggy Brown with the Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado said she didn’t completely understand how an exchange works and she didn’t agree with a rush to stand up a new form of betting in the state. Brown she was speaking for herself, not the coalition, during the meeting.

“I think something this big needs a little more consideration,” she said.

It’s unclear how popular exchange wagering would be in Colorado since it is an unfamiliar way to place sports bets, Buckingham said.

An exchange’s app or website looks similar to a traditional sportsbook like FanDuel or DraftKings, he said. And betting rules are the same, with plus/minus point spreads, over/unders and parlays listed as options for wagering.

But experts expect the exchanges to cater more to advanced sports bettors.

“The odds typically are bigger on the exchanges so the payoffs could be bigger,” Buckingham said.

Betting exchanges were created in the United Kingdom around the turn of the millennium. But they have been slow to take off in the United States, in part because it wasn’t until 2018 that the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that determined states could establish their own sports betting laws.

Since then, online sports betting has taken off across the country, including in Colorado, where gamblers have bet more than $12 billion on sports in the three years it has been legal, according to an April 2023 report from the state’s revenue department.

Prophet Exchange became the first exchange in the United States when it launched in August in New Jersey. Kane’s company, Sporttrade, also does business there.

Colorado has earned a reputation as a state willing to try new concepts, and it’s the first state where regulators want to create specific rules for exchanges.

Nevada opened the doors for a similar betting scheme in 2015 called entity wagering. A person could start up a company and then accept money from people who trusted them to place bets with their money — sort of like a stockbroker making investments into a mutual fund.

But the concept never really caught on and the Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating companies, which led to one firm being charged with fraud and with selling unregulated securities. That scared off players and investors.

Colorado’s exchange wagering will be different, though, because the exchange operators would not be placing the bets on behalf of investors.

Startup online gambling companies want to give it a go, in part because it’s hard to break into due to the amount of money needed and how licensing works. If a sportsbook company is licensed in just one or two states, the risk of losing a big chunk of money is much higher. The company wouldn’t have finances coming from gamblers in other states to absorb a big hit.

But an exchange earns off a commission, and the companies that run them don’t have to make huge payouts to winners.

“Colorado is an interesting state for us,” Kane said. “For us, it made a lot of sense because it’s a competitive market and our product would be a compelling product for our customers.”

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The Nuggets have +500 odds — meaning a $100 bet would win $500 — to win the NBA Finals next season, according to both BetMGM and DraftKings Sportsbook. They have the best odds in the league.

Caesars Sportsbook gives them slightly better odds at +475, and they are tied with the Bucks for the best odds by Fanduel Sportsbook at +460.

The Celtics have either the second- or third-best odds at +500 to +575. The Bucks range between +460 to +700, followed by the Suns at +700 to +850. The Miami Heat have odds ranging from +1,800 to +2,500

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Gov. Jared Polis on Friday afternoon signed HB23-1041 into law, which will prohibit wagering on dog races conducted at out-of-state race tracks.

Colorado hasn’t seen a greyhound race since 2008 and in 2014 officially banned the sport.

But betting on dog racing continued here at off-track betting venues, which simulcast races occurring in states where it remained legal. Colorado gamblers placed more than $22.3 million on greyhound racing last year — the fifth-highest mark in the country.

The bipartisan bill closes a loophole that has allowed Coloradans to bet on a sport that the state already had outlawed, bill sponsors said.

“We’ve come full circle,” Rep. Monica Duran, a Jefferson County Democrat and House Majority leader, said Friday. “We’ve finally completed the job.”

Christine A. Dorchak, president of Grey2k USA Worldwide, a nonprofit working to end greyhound racing said the bill signing “marks a victory for everyone in the state who cares about greyhounds.”

The law will take effect Oct. 1, 2024.

The legislation also creates a greyhound welfare and adoption fund, which will provide $75,000 in funding over the next three years before it’s repealed in 2026.

Colorado becomes the fourth state in the past 18 months to outlaw or restrict simulcast and account wagering on greyhound racing, following Kansas, Oregon and Massachusetts.

There are only two active tracks left in the United States — both in West Virginia. Forty-two states have banned dog racing, according to Grey2K, but the sport continues to be run in the United Kingdom and Mexico.

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Not that they weren’t already preparing for the Miami Heat. With an extra week of rest going into their first-ever NBA Finals, the Nuggets had time to observe and study as Miami and Boston wrestled in a seven-game Eastern Conference Finals that finally ended Monday night. A coach was assigned to scout both potential opponents.

But since that series went the distance, only on Tuesday could Denver definitively hone in on the Heat. For defensive matchup specialist Aaron Gordon, that means it’s time to hit the books.

“We have player personnel sheets and booklets, essentially, that we can go through and study players’ tendencies, what their strengths are, where they like to get to. How they’re most effective,” Gordon said. “I just kind of go through that. Treat it like a bible for the next couple of days.”

Miami star Jimmy Butler is his newest foe after a Denver playoff path featuring Karl-Anthony Towns, Kevin Durant and LeBron James, but Nuggets coach Michael Malone understands the looming challenge of Butler isn’t as simple as any individual one-on-one for an entire series.

“It’s on all five guys on the floor,” Malone said.

Welcome to the NBA Finals, Denver. Where every individual performance is remembered, every matchup dissected, every shot selection or strategic decision scrutinized.

And where every storyline is inflated, even blown out of proportion.

The Nuggets are already on top of that.

“I told our team, forget the eight-seed stuff,” Malone said, referencing the underdog Heat’s updated resume. Miami has eliminated Milwaukee and Boston, the NBA’s top two regular-season records.

“You get to the NBA Finals, it’s not about seeding anymore,” Malone said. “And for those who are thinking this is going to be an easy series, I don’t know what to say to you people. I mean, this is going to be the biggest challenge of our lives. It’s the NBA Finals. You’re trying to win the first NBA championship in franchise history. That’s going to be the hardest thing that we’ve ever done. Which is the way it should be.”

The face-value disparities are hard to miss. The Heat started this postseason as a play-in team before mowing through the Eastern Conference. The Nuggets held the best record in the West for almost the entire regular season. They wanted more respect nationally; now they’re about to get it as a heavy betting favorite to win the championship.

When bulletin board material runs thin, just direct all attention toward X’s and O’s.

So what stands out to the Nuggets about Miami? First of all, Butler.

“Jimmy is a difficult cover for different reasons than the guys I’ve guarded in the past, like K.D. and LeBron, KAT. Jimmy does everything,” Gordon said. “He does all the intangible things. He gets out in transition. He gets cuts. He gets offensive rebounds. He gets backdoors. He gets spin-outs. He does a lot of the game within the game, as well as being really skilled. He’s a difficult cover.”

Malone was quick to mention Caleb Martin, who he thought had a good chance to win MVP of the Eastern Conference Finals. “He’s shooting into a very big basket right now,” he said. That’s indicative of the Heat as a team, too. They lead the league in playoff 3-point shooting. Gordon is intent on denying the drive-and-kick.

Then there’s the defense. Malone’s leading “theme” of the series, he said, will be avoiding turnovers. Miami leads the postseason in points off turnovers per game. Erik Spoelstra deploys a zone more than most NBA teams. Nuggets veteran Jeff Green complimented Spoelstra’s culture and tactical knack for mixing up coverages.

“Try to find open spots, just try to make the right reads,” Jeff Green said. “… They do different things within their zone, obviously, so our job is just to be aggressive and make plays.”

Gordon has been an aggressive student so far. Time is ticking toward Game 1 on Thursday (6:30 p.m. MT, ABC), but he has already arrived at one conclusion.

“We’re not looking at the seeding or the story around it,” he said. “This is a very talented basketball team … and all those guys over there got game.”

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