Northwestern grad Steve Fenic has professional affinity for numbers that has made him a big winner

LAS VEGAS — Fezzik massaged his numbers for Sunday’s NFL conference championship games and determined that Rams +3 would be an advantageous wager. However, it has been stuck at Seahawks -2½. That half-point is critical, so he’ll pass.

In the AFC, he envisions the Patriots and Broncos doing their utter best to control the football.

He favors under the total of 42, which has inched up to 42½ at many shops. Plus, he says the first-half under of 20½ “likely is a very good bet, since both teams know the path to victory is securing the ball.”

Fezzik, of course, is best known as Fez in the sports-betting business. In reality, his name is Steve Fenic, a 62-year-old native of Dayton, Ohio, who is widely known in this zany industry.

“That’s a scoop,” he says. “I never use my real name.”

The stage

He went by Fenic when he mowed down much of his grade-school chess competition in tournaments in and around Dayton, once finishing second in the Ohio state tournament.

And that’s what he was called as he earned a degree in industrial engineering at Northwestern, which led to a rewarding actuary career. His expertise with numbers would lead him to Las Vegas, and he adopted the alias in an attempt to “stay under the radar.”

“A stage name,” Fenic says. “As an early advantage player, I did not want my real name out there, such that books or casinos would bar me.”

Continued use of the pseudonym became more difficult, though, after Fenic won the Main Event of the NFL SuperContest at the SuperBook, then a Hilton property, in 2008 and 2009. Those were respective windfalls of $220,000 and $210,000.

He won more than $400,000 via an investor share of the 2023 Circa Survivor contest. This season, he earned $70,000 by finishing ninth in Circa Millions and nearly $58,000 by winning the second half of the SuperContest.

A stellar résumé, but Fenic is a cautious handicapper.

“Just because I have had good success in contests,” he says, “does not mean I can pick winners on any game.”

Plus, he confides a secret to me.

“The controversy is that I really don’t like anything in most games; every other guy seems to have a strong opinion, or play, on EVERY game.”

The scramble

I began noting the Texans’ magnificent defense halfway through the season, so I invested in the team to win it all, at +900, returning to the trough when I found 13-1 odds.

By allowing fewer than 20 first downs per game to so many opponents, the Texans rated among some of the game’s all-time best defenses. I reckoned that, if the Ravens could cap the 2000 season by winning a Lombardi Trophy with an elite defense and Trent Dilfer at quarterback, certainly the Texans could do the same with an elite defense and CJ Stroud at quarterback.

Dilfer started those final 12 games for the Ravens. In the last eight, he failed to throw for 200 yards, connecting for eight touchdowns with seven interceptions.

Going into last weekend, Stroud had thrown for at least 200 yards in 11 of 15 games with 20 TDs and eight interceptions.

Unfortunately for the Texans, both receiver Nico Collins and tight end Dalton Schultz were injured and missed the tilt with the Patriots, whose 28-16 victory was buoyed by five Texans turnovers.

Fortunately, I had scrambled Jan. 15 to hedge-invest in a +650 (or risk $100 to win $650) title ticket on the Patriots, guaranteeing I’d exit Texans-Patriots with a live ducat.

At Circa Sports, I also nabbed 12-1 odds on the Pats to beat the Seahawks in Super Bowl LX, and +900 on the Seahawks over the Pats. On Wednesday, as a safety valve, I also grabbed a 13-1 Broncos title ticket.

I prize points-per-play margins at TeamRankings, which I use to advance teams in the brackets. Ultimately, they show the -Patriots beating the Seahawks on Super Sunday.

Regarding playoff officiating drama, I turn to great pal Tomas, a retired barrister who becomes more of a football aficionado every year, as a neutral voice of reason.

“They are only human,” he says. “The -mistakes go both ways and even out.”

A titan

Fenic can regularly be heard, as Fezzik, on many media outlets, and he’s a regular during football season on Bernie Fratto’s national weekend overnight talk show on Fox Sports Radio. It airs 1 to 5 a.m. Sunday mornings.

Fratto relocated to Las Vegas in 2010 and soon met Fezzik.

“Instant chemistry,” Fratto says. “He’s the lone two-time winner of the prestigious SuperContest. And as a former actuary, his talent with numbers and probabilities is unparalleled.

“He’s also disciplined, and he avoids the group-think echo chamber.”

Fratto, by the way, likes the Broncos plus the 4½ points against the Patriots.

Few so prominent in the business would own up to not preferring any angle in most games. Fenic, though, has taken some bold positions, such as heavy favorites on the moneyline who then lost outright, that have drawn social-media ridicule.

“He’s candid, but that’s a plus in my book because he’s affable, too,” Fratto says. “People don’t take shots at bottom-feeders, only titans.

“Fezzik has taken his share of shots and strays. But, again, he actually IS somebody.”