Twice weekly, we’ll comb through as many articles, tweets and podcasts as we can find related to the world of sports betting and daily fantasy sports, and publish the good stuff here.
Stumble upon something you think we should include? Email info@bettingtalk.com.
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The South Point casino in Las Vegas released NFL regular season win totals on Sunday.
A Las Vegas sportsbook on Sunday opened the New England Patriots’ season win total at 11, the highest of any team.
That number didn’t last long.
Shortly after posting the first NFL win totals in Las Vegas, the sportsbook at the South Point casino took multiple $1,000 bets on New England to win more than 11 games, quickly pushing the number up to 11.5.
India is considering legalizing sports betting.
The Supreme Court decided on Friday to examine whether bettingand gambling could be legalised in sports, which at present is prohibited and punishable under law.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and A M Khanwilkar agreed to hear a PIL seeking its direction to the government to frame law to allow and regulate betting in sports. The court said it would take up the issue along with the case pending before it on cricket reforms.
Senior advocate R S Suri and lawyer Reepak Kansal, appearing for the petitioner, told the bench that legalising betting would be beneficial to the country and the government would be able to generate revenue of around Rs 12,000 crore a year by bringing earnings from gambling and betting under the tax net. They said allowing betting would also enable the government to curb corrupt activities like match-fixing in sports.
“The calls for regulating betting have been made because unregulated betting is an immense loss to the country and also because regulation of this activity would enable the government to distinguish between harmless betting and corrupt activities like match-fixing. The total betting market (in India) is Rs 3 lakh crore,” the petitioner said.
“Regulating the existing system will weed out the undesirable elements in the betting business and will bring more credible and genuine players over whom the government can have more control. As the business is unregulated, its players indulge in shady transactions. It is accepted that there are huge crime syndicates and mafia that control these business. Most of these syndicates are not even managed from within the country,” the petition said.
Australia has joined an Asian effort to combat illegal sportsbooks.
In a bid to combat the flow of billions of dollars heading into illegal bookies’ pockets, the organisation has assembled an anti-illegal betting taskforce with the aim of investigating black market betting across Asia.
And Australia, via the country’s Criminal Intelligence Commission, is playing their part in the crackdown by becoming the first law enforcement agency to sign a memorandum of understanding with the federation.
Offshore bookmakers are an attractive option for homegrown punters as they’re not governed by Australia’s rules and regulations, often offering customers higher betting limits and ‘in-play’ markets which are illegal on these shores.
But Racing Victoria executive general manager of integrity Dayle Brown had a clear message for Aussie punters thinking about placing bets with offshore bookies.
“We have made it a rule of racing that licensed people must bet with authorised bookmakers and it is against the rules to bet with these underground operators,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“In some parts of Asia, more than $1 billion is going out of the racing economy and that’s got to stop.”
NJ.com published an article about the history of futures betting at the Kentucky Derby.
And you think you found it and bet it and thought, when the smoke cleared the last segment of the 2017 Derby future book closed, wasn’t it considerate and innovative of Churchill to come up with this handy pari-mutuel service?
Actually, it was neither. It was brilliance by default. Churchill didn’t get into the “futures business” until 1999 — more than four decades after the greatest innovator of them all showed the way. And it wasn’t a gift, because now your horse must not die, must not be injured, must go toe the post and win the Derby. If he come up short in any of these things, you lose.
Kentucky Derby future wagers allow racing fans to bet on potential contenders in the Derby and Oaks before the races’ final entrants are determined.
And the man behind this pari-mutuel madness was neither Col. Sanders nor the oddsmakers at Churchill Downs.
His name was John Alessio and this is his story.