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gambling Archive

NEVADA SPORTS BOOKS TOOK IN $83 MIL ON SUPER BOWL

By
theOCD
Published: 10 February 2010 3:08 PM ESTPosted in: NFL, gambling

The Nevada sports books took in a reported total close to $83 million in wagers on the Super Bowl this year. It was the 14th time in the last 15 years where the sports books cleared a profit. This year they won $6.7 million or about 8.3%.

The state record for Super Bowl wagers is still $94.5 million which happened in 2006. Last year, the “handle” came in at only $81.5 million. Jimmy Vaccaro, director of operations for Lucky’s sports books, said that he had thought the handle would be around $86 million this year.

The sports books lost a bit of money due to last minute moneyline bets on the Saints. But they had big wins on early Colts money and “tie lose” parlays. Many gamblers lost money on “tie lose” parlays such as when Reggie Bush managed to hit the line set for his total receptions which was four.

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PHIL IVEY HAS $2 MILLION ON THE COLTS TO WIN

By
theOCD
Published: 05 February 2010 1:49 PM ESTPosted in: NFL, gambling

The last time we talked about Phil Ivey and the sportsbooks it was because he’d made the final table in the World Series of Poker. Ivey had 20:1 odds to make the final table, which he did, and made bettors a lot of money. This time around, Ivey is making news for putting a couple million dollars on the Colts.

Matt Youmans reports that Phil Ivey is rumored to have placed a $2 million moneyline bet on the Colts with Billy Walters. Indianapolis currently sits at about -200 to win the game which means Ivey and Walters stand to win about 2/3 of a million dollars on the wager. Apparently Walters is a legendary sports bettor who was a member of The Computer Group.

MGM Mirage sports book director Jay Rood told Youmans, “We took a seven-figure bet on the Colts money line.” It is also reported that a sports gambler from South Florida named Adam Meyer has been approved for a $1 million bet at the M Resort.

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POKER STUD PHIL IVEY HAMMERS SPORTSBOOKS

By
theOCD
Published: 06 November 2009 6:09 PM ESTPosted in: Spotlight, gambling

World Series of Poker

Phil Ivey is good at poker. That’s bad for the people that have to sit as his table. It’s even worse for the sportsbooks.

Ivey made it all the way to the final table at the World Series of Poker Main Event. Unfortunately for the sportsbooks, he was favored to get there all along. Even with the “best” odds at winning, Ivey was a 150-1 shot to win the tournament. Those were the best odds any player was given — so a $100 bet on Ivey pays out $15,000. Before the event, Ivey was listed as a co-favorite along with three other poker pros. The pain doesn’t end there for bookies. They also allowed people to wager on who’d make the final table. Ivey’s odds were 20-1 — so a $100 bet pays out $2000. If you bet on Ivey, you could already cash that betting slip.

Currently, there are nine men left in the tournament. If you wanted to bet on the winner now, Darvin Moon (58,930,000 chips) at +250 and Eric Buchman (34,800,000 chips) at +350 are the favorites. Even though Ivey has the 7th largest chip stack out of nine players, he’s listed as the third-most likely player to win at +450. But if you want to make a bet on Ivey, don’t bet on him to win. BetUS is taking bets on “Which Player Will Eliminate Phil Ivey” and “Phil Ivey Not Eliminated” pays out +550.

Ivey is truly an amazing player and has a decent chance to win. Even if he doesn’t, I’m sure he won’t be too sad. The 9th place finisher is set to receive $1,263,602. And if you saw the excellent ESPN video on Ivey’s life, he’s not exactly hurting for money right now.

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JIM BROWN GOT SERVED BY 9-YEAR-OLD ANDRE AGASSI

By
theOCD
Published: 30 October 2009 1:18 PM EDTPosted in: NFL, tennis

jimbrown1

Jim Brown is arguably the best all-around athlete of all time. Brown was one of the best high school lacrosse players ever, averaged 38 points per game on his basketball team, and then went on to set NFL records in rushing. The guy is a certified freak and could probably take you down in any sport. Unless you’re Andre Agassi.

Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner reports that Jim Brown encountered a 9-year-old Agassi back in 1979. Brown was in Vegas at a tennis club when his playing partner bailed. The former NFL star was looking to make a wager and that’s when Mike Agassi suggested that he play his young son. Apparently, Mike Agassi initially offered to bet his HOUSE but then Brown lowered the terms to a mere $10,000.

Brown was even warned by the owner of the club not to play the future tennis star. But after a short interrogation session, Brown decided he’d take the kid on after playing two practice sets. Little Andre dusted Brown 6-3 and 6-3 so Brown offered to bet $500 on the next set. Agassi dropped Brown 6-2 and took the prize.

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POLITICIANS MAKE MEANINGLESS WORLD SERIES BETS

By
theOCD
Published: 29 October 2009 9:30 AM EDTPosted in: MLB

USA-CATHOLICS/

It’s that time of year: World Series time! That means city and state officials have made meaningless wagers on the championship series. So you know that Mike Bloomberg, who is seeking re-election next week, and David Paterson had to get in on that action.

These weren’t your run of the mill political wagers. This year, nobody put the typical “basket of apples” (or some other random locally-themed item) on the line. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter made “a first-of-its kind wager” that involved community service. If the Yankees win, Nutter will have to help re-paint a school. Conversely, Bloomberg will have to assist in the painting of a mural in Philadelphia if the Yankees lose. It’s an interesting bet but I have to believe that Bloomberg’s re-election played into the unique terms of the bet. It would also be more entertaining if they did something a bit more demeaning such as picking up trash or cleaning toilets.

The New York and Pennsylvania governors also made a bet. Their bet isn’t a run-of-the-mill wager either. In the bet between New York Governor David Paterson and Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell, the losing state will host a contest winner for a vacation. A New York winner would stay at the Park Hyatt in Bellvue, PA while a Pennsylvia winner would stay at the Sheraton New York in midtown Manhattan. You can enter the contest at http://www.iloveny.com.

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GAMBLOR WEAKENED BY HORRIBLE NFL TEAMS

By
theOCD
Published: 27 October 2009 8:00 AM EDTPosted in: NFL, gambling

marge_simpson_gamblor

The only monster here is the gambling monster that has enslaved your mother! I call him Gamblor, and it’s time to snatch your mother from his neon claws! — Homer Simpson

Unfortunately, sports betting is not legal where I live.  Perhaps I could try a site like BetUS but, instead, I just make hypothetical wagers.  Is that believable?  In any case, I’ve been doing pretty well in my bets this year.  But it turns out it might not be my wagering skill that’s winning me money.

Matt Youmans of the Las Vegas Journal-Review did some digging and found out that sports books are suffering from the horrible performances of certain NFL teams.  Jack Kornegay, who runs the Hilton sports book, told Youmans that he “can’t remember an NFL season with this many bad team.”  If you follow the NFL, you know that the Browns, Bucs, Lions, Skins, Rams, Raiders, and Chiefs have a very hard time winning.  The article notes that Tampa, St. Louis, and Cleveland have only covered the spread six out of 21 games.

After Sunday, the favorites in NFL games were a whopping 5-0-1.  The problem with that?  Bookies don’t make money by betting against you.  They make money by accurate setting the margin of victory so that there’s action on equal sides.  A bet on either side of the line has a vig (i.e. the bookie’s take) that’s typically between 10-20% for each game.  Example: you bet $10 on the Patriots but you can only win $9.09 with a 10% vig.  Unfortunately for the sports books, there’s no way to cover their losses with the vig if everybody bets on the favorites and wins.  Kornegay revealed that 90% of straight bets made on the Indianapolis/St. Louis game were placed on the Colts.

It’s likely that we’ll start seeing ridiculous 20-point spreads that are prevalent in college football.  Still, my wagering strategy is unlikely to change.  I prefer to leverage underdogs in parlays and spread the risk by diversifying my bets.  With this approach, I usually lose small and occasionally win big.  Below is a sample of my week 7 wagers.  Yes, I would have won or pushed all but one bet had the Vikings not CHOKED.  Note: does not include my two college football picks of Texas -12.5 @ Mizzou and Oregon State +21 @ USC.  Both won.  No big deal.

WEEK 7 WAGERS

  • ATL W @ DAL, NYJ -6.5 @ OAK
  • SD -6.5 @ KC
  • MIN W @ PIT
  • MIN W @ PIT, SF W @ HOU
  • MIN W @ PIT, SF +3 @ HOU, NYJ -6.5 @ OAK, ARI +7 @ NYG
  • CIN -1.5 vs. CHI, GB -8 @ CLE, SF +3 @ HOU
  • MIN W @ PIT, ARI W @ NYG
  • SD -6 @ KC, NO -7 @ MIA
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GONE TO VEGAS… BE BACK NEXT WEEK

By
theOCD
Published: 15 October 2009 7:04 AM EDTPosted in: Random

vegas-mgmgrand

Unfortunately, we probably won’t be putting up any posts for the next few days. John and I are headed to Vegas to help improve our blogging skills and drinking ability at Blogs With Balls in Las Vegas.

Like an idiot, I scheduled a flight that will make us to miss all of the presentations today. Oh well. The first thing we’ll probably do is go to a screening of one of ESPN’s 30 for 30 movies at ESPN Zone. Hey, there’s free food. Other than that, I’m hoping that I will be up at 9AM Las Vegas time on Saturday to watch Texas play Oklahoma… but that’s going to be tough.

BigLeagueScrew should be back to normal on Monday. Leave any suggestions for fun (legal or otherwise) in Vegas below.  We get the comments by email.

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