Veteran bookmaker Nick Bogdanovich is known for his big-decision sweats. There are tales of banged-up file cabinets and walls scarred by wayward flying objects.
“That’s all hype,” said Bogdanovich, now the director of trading at William Hill U.S.
Others disagree. One former colleague described him as the “Babe Ruth of Sweats.”
“I think it’s in your DNA on how you react,” said the light-hearted Bogdanovich, who has spent 20-plus-years as a Nevada bookmaker. “Some people are cool, and some get bothered. I played all the sports, and I’m pretty competitive. Maybe I’m a little high-strung. As far as taking action and paying out, it’s no big deal. I’m as calm as a cucumber. But sometimes when a ref blows a call or does something stupid, I might scream a little.”
Two weeks ago, Bogdanovich accepted a $228,431 money-line bet on Connecticut to beat Iowa State in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. It was the biggest bet he’d ever taken on a college basketball game. Anticipation of another magnificent Bogdanovich sweat grew.
“No one sweats like Nick,” another former colleague joked.
It turned out there wasn’t much to sweat. Connecticut led throughout and won comfortably. Bogdanovich didn’t even watch most of the game. He prefers watching golf.
“I track most of the games on the Internet and will only turn them on in the last four or five minutes when the money is decided,” Bogdanovich said. “I really don’t waste my time with the foreplay, but I do see the finish.”
The Huskies’ win cost Bogdanovich’s shop a $479,706.55 payout to a gambler, who had rolled over his winnings from Connecticut’s upset of Villanova and put it all on the eventual champs again against Iowa State.
“I really didn’t sweat that one too much,” said Bogdanovich, who didn’t even receive a call from his boss after the loss. “No big deal.”
Bogdanovich said he has to sweat much bigger decisions on almost a year-to-year basis. The biggest sweats, he says, occur on a Sunday or Monday night football game, after a weekend when a run of favorites cover the spread.
“There are times where there’s parlay card exposure in the seven figures,” Bogdanovich said. “Those are the real big sweats. We call them tsunamis, when all the favorites come in and people hit six-, seven- and eight-team parlays left and right. Those are the tough ones to watch. We avoided those last year, but the year before we blew seven figures during a week. There’s been some really, really big decisions.”
One of his biggest came early in his career. While working at the sportsbook at Binion’s in the early 1990s, a patron placed a $100,000 two-team money-line parlay. The gambler needed the New York Jets to beat the Miami Dolphins to complete the parlay that would have paid $1.4 million.
“The Jets were winning, but (Dan) Marino threw two late touchdown passes to somehow pull it out,” Bogdanovich recalled. “That was pretty hairy. And it was early in my career too, when you really don’t know what’s going to happen after a big hit. I remember that one.”