The Westgate SuperContest alias “Biffs Almanac” picked winners this season as if he had the magazine from the movie “Back to the Future Part II” filled with 50 years of future sports results.

Henderson resident Bryan Boren, who owned the entry, went 33-12 against the spread (73.3 percent) in the first nine weeks of the NFL handicapping contest and finished 61-28-2 (68.5 percent) to top a field of 751 entries and win $231,630.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “To stamp this in the history books is just super cool for me. The money’s obviously the best part, but the validation means a lot.

“My personal action is pretty small, so this has made me a profitable sports bettor in life.”

Boren, a Buffalo, New York, native who works in software sales, also cashed in three of the 11 in-season contests for $90,000, bringing his total winnings to $321,630 from his $1,500 entry.

“What’s really cool about the Westgate SuperContest is there are a lot of in-contest contests,” said Boren, 46. “I thought even if I’m really (screwing) this up, if I can go on a good three-week stretch or six-week stretch, I can get this $1,500 entry back.”

He won the first six-week contest (21-9) and first nine-week contest after going 5-0 in Week 9. The Raiders (+3) were one of his winning picks that week, when they went for the win in overtime and failed to convert a two-point conversion in a 30-29 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

“It was a very intense week for me,” said Boren, normally a $20 or $50 bettor. “I had never been in a position before to win this kind of money doing this. That was my first big pot ever in my history of sports betting.”

Entrants make five weekly picks ATS in the contest (a point for a win, half-point for a push). Boren took a five-point lead into Week 18 and clinched the title Sunday when the Minnesota Vikings (-7½) covered in a 16-3 win over the Green Bay Packers.

“What’s interesting about that is purple was my mother’s favorite color, and the Vikings were my dad’s team, so it was kind of fitting to seal it with them,” he said. “I immediately went online and ordered a Vikings hat.”

Boren watches sports betting podcasts and shows and keeps track of injuries, but his main focus is on the point spread.

“I’m not a big fan of analytics,” he said. “There are some stats I look at here and there, but really it’s just tied to that number and how that number moves, and why it moves is really what I’m trying to decipher.”

SuperContest Gold

Barry Witlin, using the contest alias “Integrity Alert,” went 56-33-1 ATS to win the $5,000-entry SuperContest Gold and top a field of 67 entries to claim the $335,000 winner-take-all prize.

Witlin, 72, a lawyer who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, also had three entries that tied for fifth place in the SuperContest for a total of more than $50,000 and three entries that tied for 30th in the Circa Sports Million contest for more than $50,000.

“The funny part about that is we started out the worst we’ve ever started,” said Witlin, who teamed up with one other person. “The first week we were 1-4. The second week we were 2-3, so we were 3-7 after two weeks, then we came back.

“It’s such a long grind. It’s a lot of sweating. You have to understand it’s a marathon, not a sprint. You’re going to have bad weeks.”

Witlin, a Chicago native, was introduced to betting by his grandmother’s brother.

“He was a bookmaker in Chicago back in the Al Capone days in the ’30s and ’40s, and he lived with us during the summers,” he said. “One of our other relatives ran a pool hall back in the ’50s and ’60s in Chicago, which was basically a place people could go wager.

“I’d always heard about it in the family, and as time went on, I became intrigued by it.”

Witlin took a one-point lead into the final week of the Gold contest and went 4-1 to clinch the title. He took four favorites in Week 18, but recommends taking more underdogs overall.

“I don’t think you can do great taking favorites more than taking underdogs,” he said. “The lines are too tight and too good.”

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.

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