Sportsbook Insider

World Series of Poker 2006 betting

2006-06-20T05:37:00.000-04:00

We've recently updated our World Series of Poker betting and we've added a couple more categories. We're now betting on the top former champion and also the top female finisher in the WSOP main event.

BetUSA.com top former champion betting

Phil Hellmuth 8-1
Chris Ferguson 10-1
Erik Seidel 10-1
Dan Harrington 10-1
Carlos Mortenson 10-1
Johnny Chan 10-1
Scotty Nguyen 10-1
Huckleberry Seed 14-1
Greg Raymer 14-1
Doyle Brunson 14-1
Joe Hachem 16-1
Russ Hamilton 25-1
Tom McEvoy 25-1
Amarillo Slim Preston 25-1
Jim Bechtel 25-1
Berry Johnstone 25-1
Chris Moneymaker 33-1
Noel Furlong 33-1
Bobby Baldwin 33-1
Robert Varkonyi 33-1
Brad Daugherty 33-1
Hamid Dastmalchi 40-1
Hal Fowler 40-1
Mansour Matloubi 40-1

BetUSA.com Top women finisher at the World Series of Poker main event

Jennifer Harman 14-1
Annie Duke 20-1
Kathy Liebert 20-1
Clonie Gowen 33-1
Melissa Hayden 33-1
Kristy Gazes 33-1
Kattrina Jett 33-1
Jennifer Tilley 33-1
Joanne (JJ) Lui 33-1
Isabelle (No Mercy) Mercier 33-1
Evelyn Ng 33-1
Cecilia Reyes 33-1
Cindy Violette 33-1
Lonnie Heimowitz 33-1
Jennie Kang 33-1
Anahit Galajian 33-1
Nani Dollison 33-1
Liz Liu 33-1
Patty Gallagher 33-1
Jerri Thomas 33-1
Ester Rossi 40-1
Connie Kim 40-1
Linda Johnson 40-1
Susie Isaacs 40-1
Kathy Kolberg 40-1
Barbara Enright 40-1
Olga Varkonyi 40-1
Erica Schoenberg 40-1
Vanessa Rousso 40-1
Victoria Coren 40-1
Sue (Hussy) Jones 40-1
Xuyen (Bad Girl) Pham 40-1
Wendeen Elios 40-1
Mimi Tran 40-1
Maria Stern 40-1
Maureen Feduniak 40-1
Marsha Waggoner 40-1
Barbara Laux 40-1
Phyllis Myers 40-1
Pok H Kim 40-1
Renlee Wexler 40-1
Cecilia Nordenstam 40-1
Anh Le 40-1
Marie Gabert 40-1
Jane Studley 40-1
Sarah Casey 40-1
Tiffany Williamson 50-1
Sarah Bilney 50-1
Helen Chamberlain 50-1
Shannon Elizabeth 50-1

A long break

2006-06-20T05:30:00.000-04:00

There's nothing like a long break from blogging...to annoy people who come to your page and find you haven't updated since December.

It has been a busy time at BetUSA.com. January is mad with playoffs and then the Super Bowl in early Feb, followed by a short break for March Madness. Only now, when the Stanley Cup and NBA Championships come to an end do we have any sort of break. Of course there is always baseball betting but it really doesn't attract the same level of action as football or hoops, so it's really a question of grinding our way through the summer and getting ready for the NFL.

Here's the 2007 Super Bowl betting:

Indianapolis Colts 6-1
New England Patriots 8-1
Seattle Seahawks 10-1
Pittsburgh Steelers 12-1
Dallas Cowboys 12-1
Denver Broncos 12-1
Carolina Panthers 13-1
Washington Redskins 15-1
Cincinnati Bengals 15-1
San Diego Chargers 16-1
New York Giants 16-1
Chicago Bears 16-1
Philadelphia Eagles 18-1
Kansas City Chiefs 20-1
Miami Dolphins 22-1
Baltimore Ravens 25-1
Atlanta Falcons 30-1
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 30-1
Jacksonville Jaguars 30-1
Minnesota Vikings 30-1
Arizona Cardinals 45-1
Detroit Lions 45-1
New Orleans Saints 50-1
St Louis Rams 60-1
Oakland Raiders 100-1
Tennessee Titans 100-1
Houston Texans 100-1
Green Bay Packers 100-1
New York Jets 100-1
Buffalo Bills 100-1
Cleveland Browns 100-1
San Francisco 49ers 150-1

At the odds, I think I would bet Dallas. But it's a long way off and I find I tend not to bet until week 2 or 3 of the season, so I can get a real handle on who is playing well.

Five Diamonds betting odds

2005-12-05T10:46:00.000-05:00

We've just posted our betting odds on the Five Diamonds at the Bellagio. Unsurprisingly, Phil Ivey is the favorite after his masterful performance in Monte Carlo last month.

Here's the list of more than 350 betting options:

Phil Ivey 30-1
Daniel Negreanu 50-1
Howard The Professor 50-1
Layne Flack 50-1
Phil Hellmuth 70-1
Gus Hansen 70-1
Paul Phillips 100-1
Men The Master Nguyen 100-1
John World Hennigan 100-1
Johnny Chan 100-1
John Juanda 100-1
Huckleberry Seed 100-1
Erik Seidel 100-1
Dave Devilfish Ulliott 100-1
Chris Jesus Ferguson 100-1
Carlos Mortenson 100-1
Barry Greenstein 100-1
Mike The Mouth Matusow 150-1
Mel Judah 150-1
Kathy Liebert 150-1
Minneapolis Jim Meehan 150-1
Jean-Robert Bellande 150-1
Josh Arieh 150-1
Julian Gardner 150-1
Jennifer Harman 150-1
Humberto Brenes 150-1
Minh Ly 150-1
Michael Mizrachi 150-1
Prahlad Friedman 150-1
Young Phan 150-1
Toto Leonides 150-1
Ted Forest 150-1
Tony Ma 150-1
Tony Cosineau 150-1
Surindar Sunar 150-1
Scott Fischman 150-1
Phil Gordon 150-1
Paul Darden 150-1
Hassan Habib 150-1
Gavin Griffin 150-1
Antonio Esfandiari 150-1
Annie Duke 150-1
Amir Vahedi 150-1
Alex Brenes 150-1
Allen Cunningham 150-1
Alan Goehring 150-1
Dan Harrington 150-1
TJ Cloutier 150-1
Scotty Nguyen 150-1
Chris Bigler 150-1
Chip Jett 150-1
Chris Grigorian 150-1
Greg Fossilman Raymer 150-1
Gabe Thaler 150-1
Freddy Deeb 150-1
Erick Lindgren 150-1
David The Dragon Pham 150-1
Doyle Texas Dolly Brunson 150-1
David Singer 150-1
Dave El Blondie Colclough 150-1
David Chui 150-1
Mickey Appleman 200-1
Mel Weiner 200-1
Mark Seif 200-1
Nikolaos Frangos 200-1
oneil Longson 200-1
Padraig Parkinson 200-1
Peter Costa 200-1
Martin De Knijff 200-1
Mike Carson 200-1
Lee Nelson 200-1
Lee Watkinson 200-1
Lee Salem 200-1
Kenna James 200-1
Keith Lehr Jet 200-1
James Van Allstyne 200-1
John Kabbaj 200-1
John Phan 200-1
Phillip Marmostein 200-1
Phil Unabomber Laak 200-1
Paul Wolfe 200-1
Willie Tann 200-1
Temperance Hutter 200-1
Thomas Thunder Keller 200-1
Captain Tom Franklin 200-1
Tuan Le 200-1
Tony Guoga Tony G 200-1
Tony D 200-1
Tony The Lizard Bloom 200-1
Thor Hansen 200-1
Stan Goldstein 200-1
Scott Gray 200-1
Richard Tatlovitch 200-1
Rob Hollink 200-1
Robert Williamson 200-1
Raja Kattamuri 200-1
Pascal Perrault 200-1
Yosh Nakano 200-1
Andrew Black 200-1
Dennis Waterman 200-1
Dan Heimiller 200-1
David Williams 200-1
Action Dan Alspach 200-1
Danny Nguyen 200-1
Daniel Larsson 200-1
Dustin Neverwin Woolf 200-1
Chau Giang 200-1
Syracuse Chrs Tsiprailidis 200-1
Cindy Violette 200-1
Brent Carter 200-1
Blair Rodman 200-1
Billy Duarte 200-1
Bill Gazes 200-1
An Tran 200-1
Andy Bloch 200-1
David Plastik 200-1
David Levi 200-1
Diego Cordovez 200-1
John Esposito 200-1
John Bonnetti 200-1
Johan Storakers 200-1
Joe The Elegance Beevers 200-1
Jesse Jones 200-1
Jeff Shulman 200-1
Joseph Hachem 200-1
Miami John Cernutto 200-1
Jason Lester 200-1
Hoyt Corkins 200-1
David Benyamine 200-1
David Oppenheim 200-1
Erik Sagstrom 200-1
Farzad Bonyadi 200-1
Frankie ODell 200-1
Gavin Smith 200-1
Harry Demetriou 200-1
Mike Wattel 250-1
Max Pescatori 250-1
Mike Laing 250-1
Mark Gregorich 250-1
Mickey Mouse Mills 250-1
Leo Boxall 250-1
Lee Markholt 250-1
Lawrence Gosney 250-1
Meng La 250-1
Mikael Thuritz 250-1
Minh Nguyen 250-1
Paul Leckey 250-1
Peter Gunnarson 250-1
Paul Kroh 250-1
Paul McKinney 250-1
Per Werner Svensson 250-1
Matty Lefkowitz 250-1
Melissa Hayden 250-1
Michael Gracz 250-1
Louis Asmo 250-1
Kevin Cantwell 250-1
Kevin Song 250-1
Jan Svajik 250-1
Jan Boubli 250-1
Jason Viriyayuthakorn 250-1
John Pires 250-1
Jani Sointula 250-1
John Myung 250-1
John DAgostino 250-1
John Tex Barch 250-1
Jani Salonen 250-1
Jay Heimowitz 250-1
Kirrill Gerasimov 250-1
Kristy Gazes 250-1
Ken Lennard 250-1
Kattrina Jett 250-1
Karl Limbert 250-1
Juha Hellpi 250-1
Joanne JJ Lui 250-1
Jim Bechtel 250-1
Jimmy Tran 250-1
Paul Alterman 250-1
Warren Karp 250-1
Tim Phan 250-1
Tomer Benvenisti 250-1
Tom Jacobs 250-1
Torstein Iverson 250-1
Tommy Hang 250-1
Sherkhan Fahood 250-1
Sam Farha 250-1
Stan Schrier 250-1
Tony Popejoy 250-1
Tom McEvoy 250-1
Vince Burgio 250-1
Vinnie Vinh 250-1
VS Senthil 250-1
Todd Brunson 250-1
Terrence Chan 250-1
Tino Lechich 250-1
Tommy Venus 250-1
Ty Bain 250-1
Steve Lucky Lui 250-1
Sam Grizzle 250-1
Steve Zolotow 250-1
Ross Boatman 250-1
Randy Holland 250-1
Ralph Perry 250-1
Neil Bad Beat Channing 250-1
Noah Boeken 250-1
Noli Francisco 250-1
Nick Gibson 250-1
Nani Dollison 250-1
Roy The Boy Brindley 250-1
Russell Rosenbloom 250-1
Sigi Stockinger 250-1
Ron Stanley 250-1
Robert Mizrachi 250-1
Richard Brodie 250-1
Robert Bo Toft 250-1
Randy The Dreamcrusher Jensen 250-1
Rumit Somaiya 250-1
Russ Hamilton 250-1
Peter Roche 250-1
David Grey 250-1
Carlo Citrone 250-1
Casey Kastle 250-1
Carl McElvey 250-1
Chad Layne 250-1
Barny Boatman 250-1
Brandon Schaefer 250-1
Brian Nadell 250-1
Bengt Sonnert 250-1
Chris Hinchcliffe 250-1
Chris Karagulleyan 250-1
Clonie Gowen 250-1
Can Kim Hua 250-1
Cuong Huynh 250-1
Conor Tate 250-1
Cliff Josephy 250-1
Chris Bjorin 250-1
Christer Johanson 250-1
Cecilia Reyes 250-1
Berry Johnston 250-1
Brett Jungblutt 250-1
Bob Stupak 250-1
Andre Boyer 250-1
Alexander Stevic 250-1
Avner Levy 250-1
Alan Smurfit 250-1
Andy Miller 250-1
Aiden Bennett 250-1
Ali Sarkeshik 250-1
Adam Schoenfeld 250-1
Aaron Kanter 250-1
Ayhan Alsancak 250-1
Brian Haverson 250-1
Bruno Fitoussi 250-1
Bobby Hoff 250-1
Billy Baxter 250-1
Ben Roberts 250-1
Barry Shulman 250-1
Anthony Reategui 250-1
Abe Mosseri 250-1
Airy Phanhyaseng 250-1
Dewey Tomko 250-1
James Grimes 250-1
Burnley John Falconer 250-1
John Duthie 250-1
Jennifer Tilley 250-1
John Hoang 250-1
Ian McDonald 250-1
Ian Woodley 250-1
Ivan Donaghy 250-1
Isabelle No Mercy Mercier 250-1
Jay Martins 250-1
Jess Yawitz 250-1
John Murphy 250-1
Julian Thew 250-1
Jeff Lisandro 250-1
John Spadevecchia 250-1
Jim Lester 250-1
Joe Awada 250-1
John Stolzman 250-1
JC Tran 250-1
Iwan Jones 250-1
Ivo Donev 250-1
Hung La 250-1
Evelyn Ng 250-1
Eric Brenes 250-1
Eli Elezra 250-1
Ed Moncada 250-1
Davood Mehrmand 250-1
David Chip Reese 250-1
David Minto 250-1
Dutch Boyd 250-1
Eli Balas 250-1
Frank Henderson 250-1
Haralabos Voulgaris 250-1
Hans Tuna Lund 250-1
Hilbert Shirey 250-1
Harley Hall 250-1
Greg Hopkins 250-1
Gareth Jones 250-1
Galen Kester 250-1
Glen Banks 250-1
Donnacha ODea 250-1

NFL Week 13 review

2005-12-05T05:02:00.000-05:00

Week 13 was unlucky for the sportsbooks. Bettors are having a dream NFL season and this week was even better than usual for them. That’s saying something because the favorites have been winning at an amazing clip all season.

As usual, the Colts were BetUSA.com’s worst result and they never really looked as though a point spread of 15 would bother them. Bettors continue to bet them at very short prices for the Super Bowl as they simply think they look better class than anyone else and it is hard to disagree with that assessment at the moment.

All the favorites covered in the later games which is the disaster scenario for us and with 12 of the 15 chalks coming in, it was the worst weekend we have had in over a year. 14 of the 15 games were won by the money line favorites too, The weather related under bets on the totals also did well for the bettors, so all in all it was a week for us to forget.

NFL week 13 preview

2005-12-05T04:59:00.000-05:00

Can it get any better for NFL favorite bettors?

Week 12 saw 12 of the 16 favorites cover leading to some mammoth paydays for bettors who like to parlay the chalks. In a season where the favorites have been winning at an extraordinary clip – and costing sportsbooks a lot of money – we’re all hoping that week 13 will not be an unlucky week for BetUSA.com.

This time of year is one where bettors and sportsbooks need to be very careful. Four teams have nothing to play for (Packers, Jets, Texans, 49ers) while seven more are more than 7,500-1 for Super Bowl glory, meaning that realistically they should be thinking about winning in February 2007, rather than in Detroit in just over two months’ time.

Should you simply oppose those teams with nothing to play for? History tell us that is the way bettors think but all too often, the teams with nothing to gain come out and surprise those teams who desperately need to win to keep their playoff hopes alive.

So where’s the action so far this week at BetUSA.com?

Unsurprisingly, the Colts are again going to the team that makes or breaks our week. All season both square and sharp bettors have sided with the Colts and the linesmakers have really struggled to find the right number for them. We opened up -15 and were swiftly hit to -15.5 and it won’t be long before we go to -16 because 93% of the action is against the Titans.

The Seahawks are also incredibly popular for the Monday Night Football contest against the Eagles. Opening at -3.5, the line swiftly moved to -4 and 94% of our pointspread bettors are with Seattle. Even three months ago it would have been hard to imagine that last year’s Super Bowl runners up would be dogs at home against the Seahawks but such are the swings in football, we can’t give the Eagles away at the moment.

Understandably, everyone wants to oppose the 49ers and so Arizona -3 has been a very attractive bet to the public, with 89% of the cash down on the Cardinals, despite their 3-8 record. Other popular teams this week include the Jags -3 at the Browns (86% of bets so far) and Miami -3 when they host the Bills (83% of action). When people starting supporting Miami you have to wonder what the world is coming to as they have been one of the least popular teams for the last two seasons. I guess Buffalo’s last two losses have been so nasty that bettors have simply given up on them.

Sunday Night Football is always a big decision for BetUSA.com and we will be hoping San Diego fail to show any sort of Super Bowl credentials against the Raiders. The sharps have already been in for SD -10.5 and the line is now 11.5, which is not a big move but I can see it going higher if the favorites do well in the early games.

With bettors having plenty of money in their pockets from a superb November, the last five weeks of the NFL season looks like being an interesting time for all involved!

NFL week 12 roundup

2005-11-29T11:48:00.000-05:00

I'm not in a good mood right now, so this will be a short post.

14 favorites won, one lost and one pushed.

That adds up to a very bad week for sportsbooks. It was definitely bad for BetUSA.com.

In fact, I don't think we've had as bad a NFL season in about 6 years. We had a horrible November last year but the rest of the season was pretty good. But this year it has been pretty much bad every week.

More later when I've cheered up a bit...

NFL week 12 preview

2005-11-29T11:47:00.000-05:00

Perhaps it is the effect of the holiday season. Or perhaps I have been watching different games from BetUSA.com’s customers. Otherwise I can’t think of an explanation for some of the betting patterns this week.

Most popular team so far this week has been Carolina, who a staggering 94% of our bettors have supported -4 for the Panthers’ trip to the Bills. Yes, that’s the same Panthers team that managed just three points against the Bears. I guess the Bills did get comprehensively stuffed by the Chargers but we’ll be hoping they aren’t turkeys this weekend because it looks like this game will be a big decision for us.

Unsurprisingly the money has been flowing in for the Colts for their Monday Night Football matchup with the Steelers. This was possibly the hardest line to set as the Colts are such an explosive team and bettors want to get with them at almost any price. That’s hardly surprising either because – rarely for such a public team – they have an excellent record against the spread. Personally I think the Colts are good value at -8 and I expect the line to move up a little by Monday but there are some of my colleagues who think this is the sort of contest where their unbeaten record is likely to come to an end.

Other popular teams this week include the Chargers – the choice of 92% of bettors at -3 on their trip to Washington – and Oakland, who host the 3-7 Dolphins and are wanted by 89% of BetUSA.com’s early bettors at -7. St Louis are popular too – or rather people are looking to oppose the Texans and will take any team against them these days. When a team is 1-9 then the public will always look to get with their opponents and I can see the Rams being more like -5 than the current -3.5 at kick off.

Bettors so far seem to like the road teams, with good money for both Atlanta and Denver on Thanksgiving Day and 10 of the 16 games where the road team is preferred. This is an unusual situation and one of the theories of NFL betting is that you should be very wary of taking a road favorite. That said, the chalks have been doing so well this season that it is hardly surprising that bettors have decided to ignore the conventional wisdom and are instead sticking to the tactics that have made them rich all season. From BetUSA.com’s point of view it has certainly not been a vintage season and we’ll be hope for a few surprises this weekend!

NFL week 11 preview

2005-11-18T12:18:00.000-05:00

Who’d have thunk it? Last season’s Super Bowl runners up play the New York Giants this week and get a 7.5 point start.

Obviously the reasons are there for all to see. No T.O, McNabb injured and an Eagles team that is 4-5 and has put together three losses on the spin, including last week’s Monday Night heartbreaker against Dallas. Stand-in QB Mike McMahon has a lot on his plate against a Giants team that really feel they can win the NFC East and go on to a Super Bowl appearance, It is not an impossible dream either – their division now looks one of the stronger ones in the NFC while the whole conference is remarkably sub-standard by comparison with the AFC, so much so that the NFC are now 9.5 dogs for the Super Bowl.

The bettors want to be with the Giants too. At -7.5 the action has been 81% on the 6-3 Giants and 71% on them on the money line. We have also seen plenty of money for them to win the division too, with the giants listed as 11-5 second favorites, behind the 10-11 Cowboys.

However the Giants are by no means the most popular team with bettors. Jacksonville, who are asked to cover 4.5 points at the Titans, are the choice of 94% of point spread bettors, while Seattle, who have to cover 12.5 points on their trip to the 49ers, are wanted by 88% of BetUSA.com clients.

The Colts has been the big public team this year and there’s no change this week with floods of money for them -5.5 at the Bengals, one of four team in the NFL tied for the second best record with a 7-2 season to date. 84% of the cash so far has been on the Colts.

With bye weeks now out of the way and 16 games on the board this weekend, bettors have plenty of choice about how to get their money down.

Pittsburgh are popular to overcome a 3.5 point start at Baltimore and I think that the bettors have got this right. The Ravens have been dreadful this season and seem to be going backwards and I can see why only 11% of the money has been for them.

Any team that performances well on Monday Night Football is likely to be popular with bettors the following week and Dallas are certainly that this week. Even with a -8 point spread to cover against Detroit (who at 4-5 are not exactly the worst team out there), 85% of bettors are on the Cowboys. Personally I think the line has gone too high and I would be happy to sit on the 7 – but bettors definitely only want to go one way and we do have to shade our lines with the money. If I were having one bet this week, at the moment I would take the Lions with the 8 point start.

The Vikings vs Packers Monday Night game should be exciting but we will definitely be cheering the Vikings in this game. It is very early days but so far almost all the money – 90% - has been for Green Bay and they have moved from -4 to -5. I thought this game was very close and our initial line was 3 before we shaded it to take into account the Packers’ status as a public team and the cold snap in Wisconsin, which is usually worth a point to the home team.

Tipping casino dealers

2005-11-18T06:09:00.000-05:00

There's an interesting article in today's Chicago Sun Times about why you should tip dealers in a casino.

John G Brokopp, their gaming columnist, argues that in the US it is culturally accepted that you should tip people for their good service and that, if you are winning, you should toke the dealer.

I don't play blackjack any more, unless I've had a substantial amount of Jack Daniels and lost my ability to think rationally, but when I did play I used to be a generous tipper. I remember once turning $200 at Binions (downtown Las Vegas) into $7,000 in 13 hours of extremely well fuelled play (about 10 years ago when Binions was a place you went to gamble and Jack Binion was still in charge). I was betting $50 a hand for dealers and tipping the drinks waitresses $25 a time. I found when I came to pay my room bill for the 10 days I had been there I was comped the whole stay. So, it shows that it can pay to tip.

Anyway, back to the article. Brokopp says: "Dealers rely heavily on tips to beef up their weekly take-home pay. Some people resent this, arguing that casino operators have a lot of nerve placing that financial burden upon the backs of players in light of the huge profits their businesses generate each month." I admit to having some symapthy with this view and I know a lot of poker players who simply refuse to tip. At the World Series of Poker this year one of the dealers told me they got better hourly tip rates on the $2-$4 no limit tables than they did on the $200-$400 game. The reason is that at the higher level the players are in business and any edge they give away cuts into their bottom line.

But back to the reason for this post. I'm amazed that no online casino software developer hasn't added in the option to tip the dealer on their site. I have a sneaking suspicion that if they did, a surprising number of people would toke their online dealer. Perhaps all the tokes could go into some sort of jackpot pool to reward someone whose 20 was cracked be a dealer turning his 6 into 21 three times in a row.

I had a meeting with a software developer earlier this week who is working on an online blackjack game where you can choose to be the dealer or the player. If you choose to be the dealer, you pay a percentage of your winnings to the casino for the privelege. I guess I should have suggested to him that this was a perfect situation where players really might want to tip the dealer. The software was pretty impressive and we'll be looking to add it to BetUSA.com once it has been properly tested, debugged and shown to be hacker proof.

Celebrity endorsements

2005-11-17T04:11:00.000-05:00

There was an interesting article in the New York Times yesterday about celebrities endorsing sportsbooks.

It mainly focussed on Jesse Ventura but also mentioned Tom Arnold, Brooke Burke and Jim Kelly.

Ventura apparently told the reporter (Matt Richtel) that he was not aware that federal law prohibits Internet gambling operations; his management company, he said, told him that the deal would not be a problem.

And that is the nub of the problem. Does US law prohibit online sports gambling? No-one really knows. The US have consistently lost cases at the World Trade Organisation for their restrictions of trade placed on Antiguan licensed sportsbooks (of which we, BetUSA.com, are one). And interestingly the Justice Department refused to comment to the New York Times about whether online sports gambling is illegal, which suggests they accept that it is an area of extreme uncertainty.

Of course some people disagree and think these celebrities are leaving themselves open to prosecution. "There's a good chance they are criminally liable for the crime itself," said I. Nelson Rose, a professor at Whittier Law School in California and the author of "The Law of Internet Gaming." For celebrities who draw attention from law enforcement officials, he said, "the downside danger is enormous."

Most sportsbook operators I know would like a legal ruling on their activities and would like to see online betting made legal and taxed. Although the general public like to think that all of us sitting in Costa Rica, Antigua, Curacao or wherever are part of organised crime and using the profits of gambling to fund illegal drug trade, the truth is nothing like that. Almost every serious operator here is audited by a major accountancy firm and is looking for a stock market float at the moment. No one would object to paying tax on their operations to the US government, as long as it online gambling was treated sensibly, like any other trade.

NFL week 10 review

2005-11-15T08:40:00.000-05:00

Although the chalk (favorites) had another good week with only five of the 14 dogs winning we still managed to win small. This was mainly down to the Colts’ failure to cover against Houston. With three minutes to play it looked like we were in trouble but the Colts decided to show some mercy to the Texans and that was perfect for BetUSA.com too. Indy are just a huge public team this season and the money is down on them every week, whatever the point spread.

Carolina’s 20 fourth quarter points was a particularly bad result for us, as was New England’s return to form. Bettors don’t seem to have abandoned the Pats yet. Seattle are also a big public team this year and they were a popular choice -6 against St Louis. As seems to happen too regularly, the Sunday Night game saw the favorite cover and the total go over. That’s always a bad combination for us and we did give most of our profits back on that game. The Monday Night game was bad too as even though Dallas was the +3 'dog, as bettors prefered them to the Eagles. It was a very exciting game and the sort of contest that reminds you why you watch a lot of very bad NFL games in the hope of seeing something like this.

We were happy to see both Green Bay and Minnesota win straight up, especially as the Vikings’ victory and Washington’s loss really opens up the NFC East. At the odds, you have to like the Cowboys to win it.

On the outright betting we shortened the Colts and Seahawks again but it really is hard to see past the Colts who now have the best regular season record since the 2003 Chiefs. The Eagles are now 60-1 shots to win the Super Bowl but no-one seems to want to bet them, even at those big odds.

NFL week 10 preview

2005-11-11T11:47:00.000-05:00

William G Nevin, head of sports at BetUSA.com, previews week 10 of the NFL

How do you set the line when the best team in the NFL meets the worst team in the NFL? At what point does the public simply say ‘the number is too high’.

That’s the problem the linesmakers at BetUSA.com faced this week. The Colts are undoubtedly the best side in the country at the moment; unbeaten in 8 games and coming off a thorough destruction of last year’s Super Bowl champions, the Patriots. They also have the added incentive of becoming the first 9-0 team since the Chiefs in 2003. Their opponents are the Texans, with a 1-7 record and few signs that they can play competitively for a whole game. The best you can say about them is that, on their best day, they defend the rush reasonably well.

Around the office last week there was a long debate about whether three touchdowns was a possible number. When the Texans played acceptably well against the Jaguars last week, it was generally agreed that three TDs was too much. So you then start to ask whether it is two TDs and a field goal (17) or two TDs and two field goals (2) that the Colts need to cover. In the end, after some lengthy discussions, we opened up at 17.5 on the basis that the likely flow of money would be all to the Colts. When a team is doing that well, the public will always want to bet one way and so we shaded it slightly higher than we would otherwise. Of course of the first 50 bets we booked on the game, 48 were on the Colts and we realized the line was too low and it is now up to 18.5. I personally can see it going as high as 20 – which really is high – as the average bettor is going to say that if the Colts can beat the Pats by 19 then they can annihilate the Texans. So far 87% of the bets we have taken at 18.5 have been for the Colts.

That game will be one of the bigger ones of the week but Monday Night Football is likely to draw a lot of action too with the Cowboys visiting the Eagles. To me this is the classic action game, with last year’s Super Bowl losers who are in definite decline meeting a Cowboys side that have suddenly become serious divisional contenders. The Eagles have dominated the NFC East for so long but with the Terrell Owens saga and their league-worst rushing attack, this is going to be a really interesting matchup. The Cowboys are on offer +3 and I personally think that’s a great bet. Then again I am biased as I have bet them at 80-1 for the Super Bowl.

Bettors had a fantastic week last week and made a lot of money, so it looks likely we will be seeing record amounts wagered at BetUSA.com this Sunday. So far this week the best bet teams are, in order:

Carolina (90%) -9 vs Jets
Washington (89%) – 1 at Tampa Bay
New England (85%) – 3 at Miami
Kansas City (80%) +2.5 at Buffalo

Of these, the one I most understand is the money for the Redskins. The Bucs looked truly awful last week and it is no surprise the public want to get against them. I am surprised there is not more money opposing the Ravens too they were shocking last week but in fact the early money has seen them bet from -7.5 to -6, which is action we are more than happy to book.

Early Super Bowl XL line

2005-11-08T11:47:00.000-05:00

We've had betting odds on Super Bowl XL (or Superbowl XL as most people seem to prefer to spell it) up for a while now (seven months, I think) but the lines is now the most lopsided I think I have ever seen it this far out from the playoffs.

The AFC are now listed as -9.5 favorites, which just goes to show how bad most people rate the NFC. On the moneyline you can bet the NFC at +300 and the AFC at -350.

I guess if you look at the outright odds on the Super Bowl, it makes a lot of sense:

Indianapolis Colts 7-5 (AFC)
Pittsburgh Steelers 9-1 (AFC)
Denver Broncos 15-1 (AFC)
Seattle Seahawks 15-1 (NFC)
Atlanta Falcons 15-1 (NFC)
Carolina Panthers 15-1 (NFC)
New York Giants 17-1 (NFC)
Cincinnati Bengals 20-1 (AFC)
San Diego Chargers 20-1 (AFC)
Dallas Cowboys 22-1 (NFC

If the most likely scenario is that it is a Colts vs Seahawks or Colts vs Falcons matchup, then you have to guess that if the Colts carry on playing the way they are now then the line would be around 13.5 or 14.

Basically, if you think the Colts are going to record a 16-0, 15-1 or 14-2 seasopn and then make the Super Bowl, you want to eat some of that 9.5 now because if they do the line is only going higher. If you think the Colts can somehow contrive to lose in the playoffs, the NFC +9.5 is a good value bet. Remember that the Patriots - who had won two out of the three previous Super Bowls and were in amazing form - were only 7 point favorites over the Eagles last year.

NFL week 9 roundup

2005-11-08T07:08:00.000-05:00

It was an absolutely disastrous week. It was a set of results to make any linesmaker weep and there were quite a few of them drowning their sorrows in the bars of San Jose, Costa Rica late on Sunday and Monday night. I know, I was one of them.

Put simply, too many favourites covered the pointspread. In the 14 games, ten favourites covered, three didn’t and one game (Chicago vs New Orleans) was a push.

That’s a nasty lopsided look to any week but crucially, every game that kicked off at 4pm or later was won by the favorite. That’s really bad news for the sportsbooks because what happens is this: all the $20 or $50 bettors who have won on the 1pm games decide to reinvest their winnings on the later games. A lot of them will increase their bets and parlay the favourites in the later games and the Sunday and Monday Night Football games. That happened this week and most bettors had a dream week.

The key games every week are the Sunday and Monday Night games. If both favourites cover then the sportsbooks are going to have needed to have some serious upsets earlier to get away without a bad losing weekend. When the Monday Night game has two teams like the Colts and the Patriots, there is always going to be a lot of action. These are the two biggest public (ie teams the general public like to bet on) teams of the last two years and that generates cashflow. Unfortunately the vast majority of the cash last night – 78% - was on the Colts and they absolutely annihilated the Pats. I have to say they do look like really strong Super Bowl contenders now and while some may think the 3-2 odds seem short given that there is a still a lot of play to go before February, it is hard to see which other teams are going to have the weapons to harm the Colts.

Bizarrely, although we didn’t lose nearly as much on it as most of the games this week, I am still most upset about the Oakland vs Kansas City game. The line on this game opened with the Chiefs -4.5 but we say lots of money for the Raiders at those odds and so the line went down to -3.5. The game went right down to the wire and with 5 seconds left the Chiefs were trailing 23-20 and sitting on the Oakland one yard line. Dick Vermeil had to decide whether to take the easy field goal or go for a TD. Unfortunately for us he chose not to take the game into overtime, Larry Johnson scored and the Chiefs got the extra point to win 27-23. So all those who bet the Chiefs -3.5 (most people!) won and all those who took the Raiders +4.5 won also. I hate getting middled at the best of times but when it is in the final 5 seconds of a game, it hurts.

On the Super Bowl betting, even with the Bengals’ 7-2 record, I can’t see them going anywhere in the playoffs. The Ravens were really awful this weekend and I think the Bengals have been flattered by an easy schedule so far. I think we can now forget about the Eagles as a challenging force, while Seattle are clearly getting their act together at the right time and anyone looking to add to their portfolio might well be tempted by them at 16-1. My own personal betting portfolio has Dallas at 80-1 and 60-1, so next week’s Cowboys vs Eagles Monday Night Football is a crucial match for me.

NFL week 9 preview

2005-11-04T05:49:00.000-05:00

Normally there are one or two games each week in which bettors are totally in love with one side and can’t have the other. On games like these we might see 80% of the point spread action in one direction.

This week there are no fewer than five games where more than 90% of the action on the point spread is on one team. That’s going to mean some massive swings for BetUSA.com on Sunday.

So far this season there have been 15 games where bettors have such strong opinions that more than 80% of the money has been on one side. Only four of these games have seen the money go on the home favorite. In the other 11 cases, bettors have gone for a team on the road to get the job done against the point spread. The home bettors have got it right 50% of the time while the road bettors have been less lucky – they have got it right just three times while getting it wrong eight times. In fact, the more they like the team on the road, the less likely they have been to win; in the six games where the money has been skewed 85% or more to the road team, the home team has won against the spread five out of six times.

Of course this is a small sample size and you can’t base your betting action on just eight weeks’ worth of statistics. But it might be worth thinking about it when planning your betting this weekend.

The big skews this week are on the following games:

San Diego (94%) -6.5 at NY Jets
Chicago (90%) -3 at New Orleans
Carolina (91%) -1.5 at Tampa Bay
New York Giants (96%) -11 at San Francisco
Seattle (97%) -4 at Arizona

Of these, the play I would make is the 49ers +11. I usually feel that a team that shuts out their opponents the previous week are flattered by the result and it is often more of a reflection of their opponents having a terrible week than the strength of their defense. The 49ers are also the least liked team by the public this season, which means you are always getting the point spread shaded to you when you bet them.

From the company’s point of view, Indy at the Pats is going to be the most important game of the week. When you have a team that is 7-0 playing on Monday Night Football, you know you have to pray for them not to cover and we know the money is only going to come in one direction. The line has already moved from Indy -3 to -4 and I suspect it goes higher as the money is 84% for Indy at the moment.

20,000-1 parlays

2005-11-03T08:10:00.000-05:00

I don't know whether this story is true but apparently seven players have hit 15 team parlays at the Stardust casino, Las Vegas in the past couple of weeks. The parlay cards pay off at 20,000-1 for a correct 15 team parlay. According to reports, Las Vegas native Jim Buford hit four identical 15-team parlay cards at $5 each for a payoff of $400,000 before 25% taxes.

Stardust book director Bob Scucci has supposedly decided that he has had enough of these parlay cards and from now on he will only offer a maximum of 10 team parlay cards.

He's probably right to do that. If the teams on the parlay card are -110, a 15 team correct parlay should only pay 16.425-1. If you assume that the odds on the teams winning against the parlay card are exactly 50% then the odds are something over 32,000-1, which probably explains why they put up 20,000-1. However on a parlay card you can often get a shade off the line, so you're getting better value than the standard -110 line.

Sounds to me like the Stardust have simply been hoping that the average Vegas player is so square that even if they do win, they'll blow it back on the craps of blackjack table by the end of the week.

However from the player's point of view, paying 25% tax on the winnings is pretty tough when you could have had the same bet offshore and not had the US government take their enormous share of it. Perhaps Mr Buford is one of those shrewd bettors will a large collection of losing tickets that he can offset the winnings against - if not, perhaps he should become one?

NFL Week 8 review

2005-11-01T10:16:00.000-05:00

You won’t find sportsbook managers admitting they have had a good weekend very often but it is hard for us – and our industry colleagues – to pretend that this weekend was anything but great.

It was simply very difficult to predict some of the results this weekend and bettors who did well deserve some serious respect.

The highlight was the 49ers beating the Bucs, along with the Patriots failing to cover at home in the Sunday Night Football game. That was followed shortly after by Pittsburgh’s one point victory over the Ravens in Monday Night Football – had they not scored the field goal it would have been the real icing on the cake.

The early games on Sunday weren’t particularly good with the Bengals’ failure to cover against Green Bay and the Rams victory over the Jags good for the book but the Raiders win and the Giants defeat of the Redskins were bad. In fact that game was especially poor as we refund on games which end as a shutout and had to give back some $21,000 to our players who bet the Redskins on the money line.

But sometimes the order of the results just falls right and many of the players who recycled their winnings from the first set of games found they could not have predicted the results of the later games. The 49ers grinding out a win was certainly almost impossible to call and 84% of moneyline bettors and 73% of pointspread bettors were relying on the Bucs.

A few players who like heavy dogs and playing against public money did well – we had one client who hit a seven team parlay for a $13,000 win – but it was generally a case of bettors giving back a chunk of their accumulated winnings from previous weeks.

In terms of who impressed me, I still like Dallas and we are definitely keeping them on the right side of us. A few books still have them listed at 33-1, which I think is way too generous as the NFC East looks pretty open and the conference is not that strong. It is hard to look past the Colts in the AFC but I guess the Broncos could be interesting at 13-1 if the Colts’ suddenly lost their form.

In truth, a weekend like that balances out what was general a good October for bettors. We lost on three of the five NFL weekends in the month and the fourth one was about even between us and the bettors. It’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out in November.

WSOP 2006 schedule

2005-10-31T05:38:00.000-05:00

Harrah's recently published their schedule for the 2006 World Series of Poker.

The main event runs from 28 July to 10 August. That's two weeks. For one tournament! Personally, I think that's a really bad idea. Is the average player going to be able to take two weeks off work? Harrah's will not doubt argue that most players will be eliminated on day 1 - there are four day 1s in the 2006 tourney - but unless they do the draw weeks in advance, any player is realistically going to have to block out a week from their schedule to play in the WSOP.

I don't know whether this is new but Harrah's are going to take out up to 9% of the prize pool to cover their expenses in the smaller tournaments. In the main event they are taking 6%, so essentially you are playing a $9,400+$600 event.

To me, it all smacks of greed and there's a point where poker players won't put up with it.

NFL Week 6 review

2005-10-18T08:37:00.000-04:00

I’m getting a bit bored of saying it was a bad week for the sportsbooks but for the third Sunday in a row the bettors got it right. At the time of the season when we are meant to be making our profits for the year, we seem to be handing our cash to the gamblers instead.

It all started well for us with the Panthers and Falcons failing to cover, albeit we would have much preferred for both of them to lose their games as well. The Dolphins’ usually poor performance was good for us too as bettors wanted them at +4.5 over the Bucs. But the Bengals and Bears were bad results for us; the whole world has now woken up to the fact the Vikes stink this season.

But the real damage was on Sunday Night Football. Almost every cent we took was for the Seahawks. Bettors also liked the over. When you have a team as bad as the Texans and a QB as pressurised as David Carr, it is hard to see where they will get any win this season, let alone against the Seahawks. It was carnage for BetUSA.com and the second most expensive game all season.

On the outright betting, I think Dallas is starting to look an interesting proposition for the Super Bowl. The NFC looks weak this year and the NFC East now looks genuinely winnable as the Eagles are showing a fraction of the form they showed for the last two seasons.

NFL Week 5 review

2005-10-11T10:41:00.000-04:00

It was another good week for NFL bettors. From the books’ point of view there simply weren’t enough surprises and all the big public teams won, apart from the Eagles.

The Colts were by far our worst result. When the best team in the NFL plays the worst team it is hard to set a line that is high enough to get anywhere near balanced action. We opened at -14 and it was up to -16.5 at kick off. Even at such an inflated price 90% of the action was on the Colts and from kick off we never had a chance. Thank heavens the 49ers have a bye week coming up – as we’d be sure to be just as one-sided on whoever they were going to be playing.

New England was the second best supported team at -2.5 against Atlanta and the Pats’ 31-28 was a killer for us. The line opened with the Falcons -3 but once it became clear that Michael Vick was not going to be playing, we switched to the Pats -1. That only attracted one-way action and we moved to -2.5 pretty swiftly and that was still getting hammered all the way up to kick off. Plenty of people bought the Falcons for a point to +3.5, so we lost both ways. It was simply a nasty game.

The same thing happened around the Sunday Night game too and you can be sure that when a major game like that is bet around the 3 and it lands on the number, the books are going to be unhappy. BetUSA.com certainly suffered badly and colleagues I have talked to in the industry weren’t any happier.

Other bad results were Green Bay – a public team who after blowing out the Saints are going to be even more popular next week with the $20 bettors – and the Bills, who are not normally well supported by bettors but were probably the choice on the basis that they were playing the Dolphins and betting against them is often a profitable strategy.

The Eagles helped us get a bit back. It was hard to see Dallas playing that well in advance and the only problem was that the ‘under’ was bet heavily.

Otherwise, it was a busy weekend of NFL action but the action was fairly balanced and none of the other games helped or harmed us too much.

Monday Night Football was moderately better for us, although it wasn’t enough to make it a winning weekend by any means. The Chargers were better supported but the over was heavily bet too and while we thought we were looking good at the end of the first quarter, 21 points in the second quarter was not too funny.

NFL Week 4 review

2005-10-04T11:42:00.000-04:00

It was not a good weekend for the sportsbooks. We had a bad Saturday on the college football but the NFL was a disaster.

It wasn’t really about the results – which on the face of it were okay – but about the way they fell. The three 4pm kick offs all went to the favorites and went under and then the Sunday Night Football game was also won by the chalk. That combination of results is always terrible news for the books and we saw so many four team parlays hitting that it was inevitably a bad losing week for BetUSA.com.

The Colts were again the best bet side of the week and they do look the strongest side in the NFL; they deserve to be solid 13-5 favorites to win the Super Bowl. The Patriots losing at home seems to be a big shock to the media but the bettors called this one right and the Chargers were well supported at +4. Cincy were our best result and it was a relief they failed to cover; to me they looked lucky to win the game and they look one of the least convincing 4-0 sides I have ever seen. I simply can’t see them sustaining anywhere near their current record.

The Saints were hugely well supported from ‘pick’em’ to -1.5 in their first game at the Aladome and that was a very poor result for us. I think there was an element of sympathy in the betting but it’s possible our linesmakers simply under-estimated the level of crowd support they would be getting and the Bills’ inability to deal with it.

Nine favourites covered this weekend, which is the best they have done so far this season. I thought the performance of the week came from the Chargers who have now scored 40+ points two weeks in a row. With the AFC West looking very open, we have cut them to 22-1 for the Super Bowl and they look a good long odds speculative bet for glory in early February.

There was nothing much in it on Monday Night Football. The balance of money bet was split very evenly, with 55% on the Packers + 7 and 45% on the Panthers. Unfortunately the over 43 was bet heavily, as was Green Bay at half time, so we ended up losing on that as well. I guess sometimes there are weekends when the book is destined to lose and this certainly was one of those for BetUSA.com.

Now we’re just hoping that the World Series playoffs give us some respite!

NFL Week 3 review

2005-09-28T02:43:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you can look at the results and know whether the book will have done well or badly. This weekend I looked at the results and thought we would have done really well but when the final tally came in, it turned out that it was slightly worse than average.

What went wrong?

In theory, the Eagles, Rams, Colts and Cowboys’ failure to cover should have been a dream result. But in practise the games ‘fell’ all wrong. With nine 1pm games, only two favourites covered so all those playing parlays on the dogs had a great result. In the later games on Sunday, all four of them went over and we have plenty of $50 and $100 four-team parlays on just that result.

So while we did well on the straight up bets, the parlays really hit our bottom line. There were also some bad games too – the Bengals were bet as though defeat was out of the question while the Chargers winning Sunday Night Football so easily was pretty brutal – we lost money on everything – props, totals, first half betting, second half betting – you name it, we lost money on it.

But that’s the business we’re in and sometimes you have to accept that the bettors will have good weeks or weeks when parlays hit that you just didn’t expect to. The summary stats show that 8 dogs won (vs 6 chalk) on the pointspread while 9 games went over (vs 5 under). That sort of week should be bad for the bettors generally and I will be interested to talk to some of our rivals later this week over a few beers to see whether they fared better than BetUSA.com.

Fortunately for us, the Monday Night Game was surprisingly good. Normally when the favorite covers easily we get killed but the Chiefs were all the rage this week and 73% of our bettors went for them on the pointspread. They had been bet off the 3 by Sunday morning, which gives some idea of the weight of money for them. At 2.5 we did balance our books up with a decent amount of money for the Lions but the result was definitely the one we wanted to see.

On the long-term markets for the Super Bowl winner, we were delighted to see Panthers lose as they had been heavily bet. The Vikings are our worse result and we don’t want to see them staging any sudden revivals. The Colts were well bet pre-season and are now our clear 17-5 favorites. They do look easily the strongest of the 3-0 teams but it is still early days and we’ll be happy to take a few more bets as a few injuries can change the picture very quickly.

World Series of Poker 2006 odds

2005-09-27T05:22:00.000-04:00

We released our odds on the winner of the 2006 World Series of Poker today.

It's a bit risky for us in many ways as we don't even know the dates yet and Harrah's (the organisers) haven't announced whether the entry fee is still going to be $10,000. I guess if someone decides it will be a $25k entry fee then we'll be slashing the odds pretty quickly.

I doubt we'll take many bets until the 2005 WSOP starts being shown on ESPN later this fall. I'm interested to see how they edit it this year as I was at the tournament from the start and there was definitely a whole load of players who were showing off entirely to get themselves on television. I guess that's fair enough in some ways but if you've paid $10k of your own cash and you want to concentrate, the last thing you want is somewhat sat next to you who is showboating for the cameras but isn't taking the tournament seriously.

Full betting odds on 2006 World Series of Poker from BetUSA.com

Phil Ivey 200-1

Daniel Negreanu 250-1

Howard The Professor Lederer 300-1

Marcel Luske 400-1

Phil Hellmuth 400-1

Gus Hansen 400-1

Layne Flack 400-1

Dan Harrington 500-1

Scotty Nguyen 500-1

Ram Crazy Horse Vaswani 500-1

Paul Phillips 500-1

Men The Master Nguyen 500-1

John World Hennigan 500-1

TJ Cloutier 500-1

Johnny Chan 500-1

Huckleberry Seed 500-1

John Juanda 500-1

Barry Greenstein 500-1

Carlos Mortenson 500-1

Chris Jesus Ferguson 500-1

Dave Devilfish Ulliott 500-1

Erik Seidel 500-1

Mike The Mouth Matusow 750-1

Mel Judah 750-1

Lucy Rokach 750-1

Kathy Liebert 750-1

Minneapolis Jim Meehan 750-1

Jean-Robert Bellande 750-1

Josh Arieh 750-1

Julian Gardner 750-1

John Shipley 750-1

Jennifer Harman 750-1

Minh Ly 750-1

Prahlad Friedman 750-1

Toto Leonides 750-1

Ted Forest 750-1

Tony Ma 750-1

Tony Cosineau 750-1

Surindar Sunar 750-1

Scott Fischman 750-1

Phil Gordon 750-1

Paul Maxfield 750-1

Paul Darden 750-1

Young Phan 750-1

Humberto Brenes 750-1

Michael Mizrachi 750-1

Chris Grigorian 750-1

Chip Jett 750-1

Chris Bigler 750-1

Asher Derei 750-1

Antonio Esfandiari 750-1

Annie Duke 750-1

Amir Vahedi 750-1

Alex Brenes 750-1

Allen Cunningham 750-1

Alan Goehring 750-1

David Chui 750-1

Gavin Griffin 750-1

Hassan Habib 750-1

Greg Fossilman Raymer 750-1

Gabe Thaler 750-1

Gary The Choirboy Jones 750-1

Freddy Deeb 750-1

Erick Lindgren 750-1

David The Dragon Pham 750-1

Doyle Texas Dolly Brunson 750-1

David Singer 750-1

Dave El Blondie Colclough 750-1

Martin De Knijff 1000-1

Mickey Appleman 1000-1

Mel Wiener 1000-1

Mark Seif 1000-1

Nikolaos Frangos 1000-1

oneil Longson 1000-1

Padraig Parkinson 1000-1

John Phan 1000-1

Mike Carson 1000-1

Mike Sexton 1000-1

Lee Nelson 1000-1

Lee Watkinson 1000-1

Kenna James 1000-1

Keith Lehr Jet 1000-1

Keith The Camel Hawkins 1000-1

James Van Allstyne 1000-1

John Kabbaj 1000-1

Peter Costa 1000-1

Phillip Marmostein 1000-1

Thomas Thunder Keller 1000-1

Captain Tom Franklin 1000-1

Tuan Le 1000-1

Tony Guoga Tony G 1000-1

Tony D 1000-1

Tony The Lizard Bloom 1000-1

Thor Hansen 1000-1

Stan Goldstein 1000-1

Scott Gray 1000-1

Richard Tatlovitch 1000-1

Rob Hollink 1000-1

Robert Williamson 1000-1

Raja Kattamuri 1000-1

Rory Liffey 1000-1

Pascal Perrault 1000-1

Paul Wolfe 1000-1

Phil Unabomber Laak 1000-1

Yosh Nakano 1000-1

John Esposito 1000-1

Lee Salem 1000-1

Dan Heimiller 1000-1

David Williams 1000-1

Action Dan Alspach 1000-1

Danny Nguyen 1000-1

Daniel Larsson 1000-1

Dustin Neverwin Woolf 1000-1

Chau Giang 1000-1

Syracuse Chris Tsiprailides 1000-1

Cindy Violette 1000-1

Brent Carter 1000-1

Blair Rodman 1000-1

Billy Duarte 1000-1

Bill Gazes 1000-1

An Tran 1000-1

Andy Bloch 1000-1

Andrew Black 1000-1

Alan Betson 1000-1

Dennis Waterman 1000-1

David Plastik 1000-1

Jason Lester 1000-1

Miami John Cernutto 1000-1

Joseph Hachem 1000-1

Jeff Shulman 1000-1

Jesse Jones 1000-1

Joe The Elegance Beevers 1000-1

Johan Storakers 1000-1

John Bonnetti 1000-1

Hoyt Corkins 1000-1

Harry Demetriou 1000-1

David Levi 1000-1

Diego Cordovez 1000-1

David Benyamine 1000-1

David Oppenheim 1000-1

Erik Sagstrom 1000-1

Farzad Bonyadi 1000-1

Frankie ODell 1000-1

Gavin Smith 1000-1

Hilbert Shirey 1500-1

Hung La 1500-1

Haralabos Voulgaris 1500-1

Hans Tuna Lund 1500-1

Iwan Jones 1500-1

Isabelle No Mercy Mercier 1500-1

Ivan Donaghy 1500-1

Ivo Donev 1500-1

Harley Hall 1500-1

Gary Bush 1500-1

Greg Hopkins 1500-1

Evelyn Ng 1500-1

Eric Brenes 1500-1

Ed Moncada 1500-1

Eli Balas 1500-1

Eli Elezra 1500-1

Frank Henderson 1500-1

Gareth Jones 1500-1

Galen Kester 1500-1

Ian Woodley 1500-1

Ian McDonald 1500-1

Jay Heimowitz 1500-1

Jess Yawitz 1500-1

JC Tran 1500-1

John Stolzman 1500-1

Joe Awada 1500-1

Jim Lester 1500-1

John Spadevechia 1500-1

Jeff Lisandro 1500-1

Julian Thew 1500-1

Jay Martins 1500-1

Burnley John Falconer 1500-1

Jim Bechtel 1500-1

Joanne JJ Lui 1500-1

Juha Hellpi 1500-1

Jamie Posner 1500-1

Jennifer Tilley 1500-1

James Vogl 1500-1

Jeff Duval 1500-1

John Duthie 1500-1

John Murphy 1500-1

Adam Schoenfeld 1500-1

Abe Mosseri 1500-1

Anthony Reategui 1500-1

Barny Boatman 1500-1

Barry Shulman 1500-1

Ben Roberts 1500-1

Billy Baxter 1500-1

Bobby Hoff 1500-1

Bruno Fitoussi 1500-1

Ayhan Alsancak 1500-1

Aaron Kanter 1500-1

Amarillo Slim Preston 1500-1

Ali Sarkeshik 1500-1

Aiden Bennett 1500-1

Andy Miller 1500-1

Alan Smurfit 1500-1

Avner Levy 1500-1

Alexander Stevic 1500-1

Andre Boyer 1500-1

Brian Haverson 1500-1

Bob Stupak 1500-1

Brett Jungblutt 1500-1

Chris Karagulleyan 1500-1

Cecilia Reyes 1500-1

Donnacha ODea 1500-1

Dewey Tomko 1500-1

David Grey 1500-1

Dutch Boyd 1500-1

David Minto 1500-1

David Chip Reese 1500-1

Chris Hinchcliffe 1500-1

Carlo Citrone 1500-1

Berry Johnston 1500-1

Bengt Sonnert 1500-1

Brian Nadell 1500-1

Brandon Schaefer 1500-1

Chris Bjorin 1500-1

Christer Johanson 1500-1

Carl McElvey 1500-1

Casey Kastle 1500-1

Davood Mehrmand 1500-1

Paul Leckey 1500-1

Robert Binelli 1500-1

Rumit Somaiya 1500-1

Roland De Wolfe 1500-1

Randy Dreamcrusher Jensen 1500-1

Robert Bo Toft 1500-1

Richard Brodie 1500-1

Robert Mizrachi 1500-1

Richard Gryko 1500-1

Sam Farha 1500-1

Russ Hamilton 1500-1

Russell Rosenbloom 1500-1

Roy The Boy Brindley 1500-1

Paul Alterman 1500-1

Peter Roche 1500-1

Paul Testud 1500-1

Paul x22 Magreil 1500-1

Ron Stanley 1500-1

Robin Keston 1500-1

Ralph Perry 1500-1

Randy Holland 1500-1

Ross Boatman 1500-1

Sherkhan Fahood 1500-1

Sigi Stockinger 1500-1

Simon Aces Trumper 1500-1

Tony Popejoy 1500-1

Tom McEvoy 1500-1

Ty Bain 1500-1

Tristan McDonald 1500-1

Tommy Venus 1500-1

Tino Lechich 1500-1

Vince Burgio 1500-1

Vinnie Vinh 1500-1

VS Senthil Kumar 1500-1

Tim Phan 1500-1

Tomer Benvenisti 1500-1

Tom Jacobs 1500-1

Steve Zolotow 1500-1

Sam Grizzle 1500-1

Steve Lucky Lui 1500-1

Sonny Vinnegar Kid Nijran 1500-1

Stan Schrier 1500-1

Stuart Nash 1500-1

Todd Brunson 1500-1

Terrence Chan 1500-1

Torstein Iverson 1500-1

Warren Karp 1500-1

James Grimes 1500-1

Kirrill Gerasimov 1500-1

Kevin Song 1500-1

Kevin Cantwell 1500-1

Karl Limbert 1500-1

Kattrina Jett 1500-1

Ken Lennard 1500-1

Kristy Gazes 1500-1

Lee Markholt 1500-1

Lawrence Gosney 1500-1

Jani Salonen 1500-1

Jan Svajik 1500-1

Jan Boubli 1500-1

Jimmy Tran 1500-1

Joe Saumarez Smith 1500-1

John Tex Barch 1500-1

John DAgostino 1500-1

John Myung 1500-1

Jani Sointula 1500-1

John Pires 1500-1

JP Kelly 1500-1

Jason Viriyayuthakorn 1500-1

Louis Asmo 1500-1

Leo Boxall 1500-1

Melissa Hayden 1500-1

Neil Bad Beat Channing 1500-1

Nani Dollison 1500-1

Nick Gibson 1500-1

Paul Eskimo Clarke 1500-1

Perry Friedman 1500-1

Pete The Beat Giordano 1500-1

Per Werner Svensson 1500-1

Paul McKinney 1500-1

Paul Kroh 1500-1

Peter Gunnarson 1500-1

Noah Boeken 1500-1

Noli Francisco 1500-1

Matty Lefkowitz 1500-1

Mad Marty Wilson 1500-1

Mark Gregorich 1500-1

Mike Laing 1500-1

Max Pescatori 1500-1

Mike Wattel 1500-1

Meng La 1500-1

Mikael Thuritz 1500-1

Minh Nguyen 1500-1

Michael Gracz 1500-1

Mike May 2000-1

Martin Wendt 2000-1

Mike Sica 2000-1

Mike MacLean 2000-1

Matthew Glantz 2000-1

Michel Abecassis 2000-1

Mike Caro 2000-1

Marcus Golser 2000-1

Nick Frangos 2000-1

Nick Persaud 2000-1

Noel Furlong 2000-1

Pete Vilandros 2000-1

Paul Deng 2000-1

Paul Marbella Kid Zimbler 2000-1

Per Hilderbrand 2000-1

Mimi Tran 2000-1

Mohammid Ibrahim 2000-1

Ken Jacobs 2000-1

Kathy Kolberg 2000-1

Kevin OConnell 2000-1

Lyle Berman 2000-1

Matt Matros 2000-1

Mike Kinney 2000-1

Marsha Waggoner 2000-1

Mads Anderson 2000-1

Maureen Feduniak 2000-1

Max Stern 2000-1

Maria Stern 2000-1

Mickey Wernick 2000-1

Michael Keiner 2000-1

Mike Magee 2000-1

John Gale 2000-1

Patrick Bruel 2000-1

Smokin Steve Vlader 2000-1

Steve Dannenmann 2000-1

Terry Myers 2000-1

Tony Hartmann 2000-1

Tommy Garza 2000-1

Toby Spiderman Maguire 2000-1

Tommy Grimes 2000-1

Tom Werthmann 2000-1

Victor Ramdin 2000-1

Walter Chambers 2000-1

Woody Deck 2000-1

Wendeen Elios 2000-1

Xuyen Bad Girl Pham 2000-1

Yevgeny Kafelnikov 2000-1

Simon Nowab 2000-1

Stephen Wilsdon 2000-1

Perry Green 2000-1

Robert Perry 2000-1

Richard Grijalva 2000-1

Robert Varkonyi 2000-1

Ron Kirk 2000-1

Richard Ashby 2000-1

Randal Heeb 2000-1

Ron Rose 2000-1

Steve Brecher 2000-1

Shane Schleger 2000-1

Scott Lazar 2000-1

Stuart Fox 2000-1

Steven Hudak 2000-1

Shah Koumi 2000-1

Chuck Thompson 2000-1

Alex Kahaner 2000-1

Brad Daugherty 2000-1

Ben Milkybarkid Grundy 2000-1

James Hoeppner 2000-1

CT Law 2000-1

Chris Moneymaker 2000-1

Charlie Daddy Warbucks Shoten 2000-1

Daniel Bergsdorf 2000-1

Don Barton 2000-1

Dewey Weum 2000-1

Derek Baxter 2000-1

Daniel Beazer 2000-1

David Sklansky 2000-1

Dave Barnes 2000-1

Eddie Scharf 2000-1

Ben Affleck 2000-1

Burt Boutin 2000-1

Ash Parvais 2000-1

Achilleas Kallakis 2000-1

Paul The Grifter Griffin 2000-1

Al Krux 2000-1

Adam White 2000-1

Bill Miros Purle 2000-1

Bob Feduniak 2000-1

Bruce van Horn 2000-1

Bob Cooper 2000-1

Brad Kondracki 2000-1

Barbara Enright 2000-1

Brian Wilson 2000-1

Bruce Yamron 2000-1

Bambos Xanthe 2000-1

Eli Marciano 2000-1

Frank Callaghan 2000-1

Jose Rosencrantz 2000-1

James McManus 2000-1

Jack McClelland 2000-1

John Strzemp 2000-1

Jeremy Tinsley 2000-1

Jiang Chen 2000-1

Jerry Young 2000-1

Jeri Thomas 2000-1

Jon Brody 2000-1

Joe Bartholdi Jr 2000-1

James Sousa 2000-1

John McIntosh 2000-1

Jac Arama 2000-1

Jan Ljundberg 2000-1

James Woods 2000-1

Jac Fox 2000-1

Fabrice Soulier 2000-1

Fred Berger 2000-1

Frank Sinopoli 2000-1

Gary Lent 2000-1

Gerry Drehobl 2000-1

Glenn Hughes 2000-1

Gabe Kaplan 2000-1

George McKeever 2000-1

Joe Grech 2000-1

Isaac Galazan 2000-1

Hon Le 2000-1

Herschel Zalewski 2000-1

Hugh Kirton 2000-1

Greg Alston 2000-1

Helen Hells Bells Chamberlain 2500-1

Steve The Nugget Davis 2500-1

Mathew Stevens 2500-1

Stephen Hendry 2500-1

Shannon Sharpe 2500-1

NFL Week 2 review

2005-09-20T15:54:00.000-04:00

It was a mixed set of results for BetUSA.com this week and I don’t think many sportsbooks will be holding huge parties at the end of week 2 of the NFL.

There were enough upsets to keep us happy but some of the big public teams won comfortably and when that happens it is hard to make a lot of money.

Pittsburgh’s win over Houston was our worst result of the weekend. Everyone saw what they did to the Titans last weekend and we had a very one-sided book with everyone wanting to be on the Steelers -4.5. Even with the injury doubts surrounding Ben Roethlisberger, bettors still only wanted one side and we never really had a chance. The Eagles were nearly as bad, with all the money on them -13.5 and the result was never in doubt. Bettors also wanted to be with St Louis +1.5 and they were right with Arizona never able to get more than a field goal in each quarter.

Cleveland’s victory over Green Bay was generally a good result for the books but not as good as you might think. Although the Packers are a public team, when we opened the line at 7 we only saw cash for the Browns and had to go 6. Once the number was settled, the Packers came in for strong support but there were plenty of pro bettors who did some damage early in the week.

Anyone betting the ‘under’ did well this week, with 10 games going under, three over and one pushing with two games to come. There definitely seems to be something of a trend for the under so far this season and it’s something we are watching carefully.

Indy’s failure to cover the pointspread was good for BetUSA.com, although it would have been an epic result if they had lost the game as well. The Colts are a big public team this year and it was interesting to see how well they did in a game where defense was the key. Manning pretty much wasn’t allowed to get his passing game going and yet the Colts came good and managed to get 10 points on the board in the final six minutes.

Chicago’s victory was good for the books, with 75% of the money bet with us for Detroit -2.5. Seattle’s 21 second quarter points was good too as all the money was for Atlanta +1. Given the Seahawks’ ability at losing leads in the fourth quarter, the last 15 minutes was a bit panicky for us.

The Vikings 0-2 start to the season is probably the biggest shock so far. They were easily the best supported team for the Super Bowl and losses to the Bucs and Bengals were not easy to predict. They are now out to 30-1, having been 14-1 chances at the start of the season.

It will be interesting to see how bettors react to Carolina’s win over the Patriots. Some people will say that it was the Panthers’ chance to gain revenge for the 2004 Super Bowl loss and they will have been especially focussed on that game but I thought both teams looked poor. Bill Belichick said in the post-match press conference: “We can’t play like this. This won’t be good enough against anyone we play” and I have to agree with him. The Pats look a shadow of the team that has won three of the last four Super Bowls.

As usual, the Sunday Night game did not go our way. The Chiefs were well supported at a ‘pick’em’ price and there was never really a doubt in our minds that we’d done our money. The Chiefs’ defense played really well and a lot of people played the under on that basis too. We’ll be hoping tonight that the Redskins can stop the Cowboys as 82% of the cash bet so far is on Dallas and it could end up being an expensive night if they cover the pointspread.

NFL week 1 review

2005-09-13T09:47:00.000-04:00

It was definitely a weekend for the sportsbooks. Even though some well supported teams won, there were enough upsets to make us happy.

The whole world wanted to be on St Louis and we had one of the most lopsided books I have seen on NFL in the past five years. 97% of players too St Louis at between -4.5 and -6 and we could hardly believe our luck as the 49ers scored 21 second quarter points. We were sweating on the result when St Louis managed 13 in the fourth quarter, especially when SF could only run 50 seconds off the clock in their final possession. The interception was cheered loudly in our office.

Miami was another exceptional result. 90% of the money bet on the pointspread was on Denver -5 and 80% of the moneyline bets were on the Broncos. The scoreline was of course flattering to the Dolphins but we were delighted to see them win and the margin of victory wasn’t the important thing.

The Vikings had been the best team pre-season and their supporters also came in for them against the Bucs. 87% of the action we took on the game was for the Vikings and at half time we were pretty happy with the 17-7 scoreline. The Vikings had two TDs nullified, which was great news for BetUSA.com, and I think on balance we got lucky on that game.

As one would expect in week one, the majority of the money was for the chalk (favorites); the only game where this was not the case was for Green Bay vs Detroit where a small majority of bettors wanted to take the Packers +3. The totals were bet down across the board and the disproportionate number of unders in the 1pm kick offs was expensive for us. Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Washington and the Giants all did the business for the bettors and were bad results for us.

Bettors got a good chunk back on the Sunday Night game with everyone wanting to be with the Colts and on the under. The Indianapolis defense managed to hold it together in the first half while Peyton Manning woke up and bettors pressed up at half time. Manning of course then went on a streak while the Ravens’ QB Kyle Boller was taken out with a foot injury.

We were also delighted the Jets managed to get on the board with 34 seconds left in the game. BetUSA.com has a special offer where we refund all losing moneyline bets on games where there is a shutout and that would have cost us a good $40,000, which we are happier to keep.

Inside a US sportsbook

2005-09-02T04:25:00.000-04:00

I'm the head of sports at one of the largest offshore sportsbooks, BetUSA.com. We're based in San Jose, Costa Rica, although we also have offices in Antigua and in Dublin, Ireland.

I've been in the sports betting business for more than 20 years now and have worked for sportsbooks around the globe. I find that people never tire of wanting to know how the business works, whether it's all run by the sort of guys you see on the Sopranos and who actually wins.

I've asked the guys in charge whether it is ok to blog about everyday life at BetUSA.com and - with a couple of provisos about not revealing too much financial data or personal information about my colleagues - they are comfortable with the idea of it.

A lot of my posts will simply be about how the sports betting markets are shaping up, whether the results were good or bad for us, how the sports betting market is shaping and what I like this week in terms of my own bets (one thing you'll quickly learn is that most employees in a sportsbook like to bet their own opinions).

I'll try to keep it interesting but would welcome guidance on what is and isn't interesting to the outside world.