Legal sports betting lands in New Hampshire; 2 Nebraskans win $1.5 million in SuperContest

Thousands of people in New Hampshire signed up for legal sports betting on Jan. 1 when it became legal in the state.

The New Hampshire Lottery reported Tuesday night that there were more than 6,000 registered players and more than $250,000 wagered so far. The lottery said it’s seeing a significant number of Massachusetts residents registering and playing in New Hampshire.

The lottery described the initial numbers as “very promising.”

“Clearly there is strong consumer demand that will only grow as we market this new and exciting product,” Charlie McIntyre, the lottery’s executive director, said in a statement.


Two Nebraskans won almost $1.5 million in the Westgate Las Vegas SuperContest last weekend.

Eric Jensen, a 38-year-old water well driller from Grand Island, Neb., and Matt Kucera, a 36-year-old territory sales manager for an insurance company in Omaha, Neb., teamed to win the SuperContest’s record $1.469 million first-place prize by topping a record field of 3,328 that put up the $1,500 entry fee and made five NFL picks a week against the contest spread with wins worth 1 point and pushes worth half a point.

Playing under the alias “It Aint Breezy,” they were leading by 1.5 points over “Crispr” entering Sunday’s final day of the regular season, clinching when they won their first play Sunday on New Orleans -13 (fittingly as their alias is partly a tribute to QB Drew Brees in addition to being a tongue-in-cheek nod to the fact it’s always breezy in Nebraska) and the three contestants who entered the day mathematically alive for the title all lost with New England -15.5 at Miami.

“I knew we were in good shape when ‘Crispr’ had four plays in common and couldn’t catch us,” Jensen said. “[Longtime leader] ‘Tuco’ was on Carolina, so the Drew took care of him for us, but we didn’t know we clinched with New England losing until we saw your Tweet [@ViewFromVegas].”

It Aint Breezy ended up going 3-2 Sunday to finish with a record of 58-25-2 (69.9 percent). Crispr held on for second place, 1.5 points behind the champs, to earn $505,190.40 as the runner-up. Pro’s and Con’s finished third, worth $275,558.40 in the contest that has seen explosive growth like the poker boom of last decade.


The Miami Dolphins pulled off one of the biggest upsets in NFL history with their win at New England.

Depending on where one looked ahead of Miami’s 27-24 upset win over the New England Patriots in Foxborough, the Dolphins were somewhere between 15.5- and 17.5-point underdogs against the defending Super Bowl champions. Rightfully so, too. The Patriots entered the game at 12-3 and needed a win to secure a first-round bye in the AFC playoffs. New England had every motivation to provide a strong showing and take care of business.

Except they didn’t. And in the aftermath of Miami’s upset win, more details are emerging of just how unlikely this win really was. Miami’s victory will go down as one of the most unlikely upsets in decades — it’s tied for the biggest NFL upset in the last 30 years.


The Baltimore Ravens enter the NFL playoffs as a 2-to-1 favorite to win the Super Bowl.

The Baltimore Ravens, at 2-1, are the favorites in updated Super Bowl odds released Monday at Caesars Sportsbook. The Kansas City Chiefs are next at 3-1, followed by the San Francisco 49ers (7-2), New Orleans Saints (6-1) and Green Bay Packers (10-1).

The Patriots had been consensus Super Bowl favorites for the majority of the regular season, but were overtaken by the Ravens in December. New England dropped three of its last five games, including a stunning upset loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday that cost the Patriots a first-round bye. New England was a 17-point favorite over the Dolphins. It was the largest upset loss of Tom Brady’s career.

At 20-1, the Patriots have their worst Super Bowl odds entering the playoffs under coach Bill Belichick. New England began the 2009-10 postseason with 11-1 odds and lost to the Ravens in the first round.

 

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Each Friday, 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 [email protected].

Michigan could be next to legalize gambling; CB Josh Shaw appeals gambling suspension

Michigan could be the next state to legalize sports betting.

Legislation that would create the framework for sports betting and internet gaming in Michigan cleared the Senate Wednesday morning morning after amendments were made to the proposal the House passed this fall.

The Senate passed an array of amended gaming-related bills Wednesday with wide bipartisan support, and the House began approving the updated legislation later Wednesday afternoon.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer needs to sign the legislation for it to become law. Whitmer spokesperson Tiffany Brown said Tuesday the governor “is pleased with the progress made on gaming over the course of this year” and said the changes made addressed many of her initial concerns.

“This is a good, bipartisan solution made possible by working together on a complex issue, and the governor looks forward to closely reviewing this package once it hits her desk,” Brown said in an email.


Arizona Cardinals defensive back Josh Shaw was suspended from the NFL through the 2020 season for gambling on league games. He has appealed his suspension.

Shaw, who is on injured reserve, has not played during his first season with the Cardinals. He placed at least one of his wagers on Nov. 10 at a Las Vegas sportsbook operated by Caesars Entertainment, multiple gaming industry sources told ESPN.

According to the sources, Shaw bet a three-team parlay on the second-half results of three Week 10 games, including the Cardinals’ game at Tampa Bay. On his parlay, Shaw bet against Arizona, backing the Buccaneers to cover the second-half spread against the Cardinals. The Buccaneers failed to cover the second-half spread and the bet, which the sources said was for a few thousand dollars, did not win.

The NFL found no evidence that Shaw used inside information to make his bet or that any game had been compromised.

Shaw, who had a player’s card with Caesars, had bet with the company previously, sources said, but not on the NFL until Nov. 10. Immediately after realizing Shaw had bet on the NFL, Caesars contacted the Nevada Gaming Control Board and subsequently the NFL, which launched an investigation.


Sports betting handle in Indiana increased 60.6 percent following the introduction of mobile sports betting.

 Mobile bets accounted for $96.2 million in handle, or 65.3% of Indiana’s total handle last month. That’s up from 52.4% in October but still a bit shy of the more than 80% share found in New Jersey or Pennsylvania.

Those states followed a similar trajectory to what is happening in Indiana. Mobile share grew steadily over the first few months of legal sports betting to reach more than four out of every five wagers today.

 

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Each Friday, 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 [email protected].

Coloradans vote in favor of legal sports betting; Bettor James Holzhauer returns to Jeopardy!

Colorado voters narrowly approved a proposition to legalize sports betting in the state last week.

DD will legalize sports betting in Colorado and create a 10 percent tax on casinos’ house winnings that would largely benefit Colorado’s Water Plan. Colorado’s 33 casinos will be able to offer in-person and online wagering on professional, collegiate, motor and Olympic sports on May 1, 2020.

For the interested, the Colorado Rockies and the Philadelphia Phillies play that night.

Backers of Prop DD were counting on Coloradans’ previous willingness to approve “sin taxes.” Casinos and FanDuel spent more than $2 million on their unopposed campaign and are barely squeaking by.

Bad ballot language could be a culprit, but it may also be an indication that Colorado isn’t enamored with every vice. The state has a long history of taking a limited approach to gambling. Colorado casinos are sequestered in three mountain towns with low bet limits. And past casino expansion efforts aimed at Aurora have been rejected.


Professional sports bettor James Holzhauer returned to Jeopardy! this week in a Tournament of Champions.

Ever unflappable, Holzhauer held the lead throughout the game, ending the first round with the highest score on the podium: $5,000. Then, going into Final Jeopardy, Holzhauer racked up $37,412 to Boettcher’s $13,200 and Barcomb’s $7,800. Unlike a regular-season “Jeopardy!” game, which is just a single night, whichever contestant has the most money cumulatively at the end of Friday’s game will take home the $250,000 Tournament of Champions grand prize — and bragging rights.

Holzhauer and Boettcher both aced the final question, ending the first night of play with $49,326 and $26,400, respectively. Barcomb, meanwhile, still has $1,800 going into Friday night’s game.


Millions of dollars shifted hands during the improbable ending of last weekend’s Chiefs-Titans game.

The end result — the Titans winning 35-32 — was met with groans from the majority of bettors. Caesars Sportsbook estimated Tennessee’s comeback produced a mid-six-figure swing in favor of the house. Las Vegas sportsbook operator CG Technology, and New Jersey sportsbook PointsBet experienced similar swings in their favor.

Nationwide, bookmakers estimated, easily more than $10 million shifted on the game.

“While it’s a bit difficult to exactly pinpoint the swing, as a great deal of our liability on that game was tied up in parlays, we can confidently say that it was close to a half a million dollars,” Patrick Eichner of sportsbook PointsBet told ESPN.

 

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Each Friday, 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 [email protected].

‘Mattress Mack’ loses millions as Astros lose; Michigan House passes sports betting bills

“Mattress Mack” lost millions of dollars in wagers he placed on the Houston Astros to win the World Series. The Astros lost 6-2 in Game 7 to the Washington Nationals.

The Houston mattress mogul spread multi-million dollar betting tickets on the hometown Astros to win the World Series to act as a hedge for a store-wide refund of up to $3,000 he offered to his customers if the Astros won the title.

The Washington Nationals took down the Astros 6-2 in Game 7 on Wednesday, and McIngvale watched his hedge melt into losses by the millions — he told USA TODAY Sports he estimates his losses between $12-14 million.

“The ball didn’t bounce our way. Kudos to the Nats, they played a great series and have a great team,” McIngvale, 68, said. “The Astros are a great team and had a great series. One team had to win and one team had to lose. It had to be us, but we will live to play another day.”

 

The Astros are favored to win the World Series in 2020.

Houston Astros fans who saw their team suffer the biggest World Series upset in 29 years have something to look forward to: The Astros, for now, are the favorites to win next year’s World Series.

At 4-1, the Astros are the favorites at Caesars Sportsbook to win the 2020 World Series, followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, who are each 5-1, and the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves, who are each 10-1.

Houston fell to the Washington Nationals 6-2 in Game 7 of the World Series on Wednesday night. The Nationals were nearly 2-1 underdogs to the Astros in the series, making their victory the largest World Series upset since the Cincinnati Reds took down the Oakland Athletics as +260 underdogs in 1990.

The Nationals, who captured the franchise’s first World Series, hold the sixth-highest odds to win next year’s title at 14-1, along with the Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs.


The Michigan House of Representatives approved 10 bills that would legalize and regulate sports betting in the state.

An 8.75 percent tax would be collected on sports bets, and the city of Detroit could also collect an additional 3.25 percent tax under the plan.

For non-sports online gambling, the tax rate would be phased in over time – starting between 4 and 19 percent in the first three years, rise to a range of 6 to 21 percent in the fourth year and be between 8 and 23 percent after five years. Taxes would be calculated based on how much money a casino generates from online gambling.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Brandt Iden, the lead sponsor on the package, said in a statement the bills would bring Michigan up to speed with what other states are doing, and provide additional consumer protections to people already participating in sports betting or online gambling.

“We are making great progress on this plan to move sports betting and gaming into a safer, regulated, and modern environment – but we are falling behind other states and we must move forward,” said Iden, R-Oshtemo Twp. “The longer we delay, the longer we put our citizens at risk, and the longer we miss out on economic benefits and needed revenue for schools and public services.”


A ballot measure will be presented to Colorado voters on whether or not to legalize sports betting.

“I’m hopeful the Colorado voter takes the time to do the research and they come to the conclusion they should pass this,” said House Majority Leader Garnett.

“I think if they take that time and realize that this tax is only on the people placing bets on sports and legalizes something that is currently being done illegally,” said Casino exec Farahi, “I think they’ll pass it.”


College basketball season tips off next week and Gonzaga has the highest regular season win total.

The Bulldogs’ win total for the regular season opened at 27.5. Memphis is next at 26.5, followed by Duke and Michigan State, each at 25.5.

Kentucky, North Carolina and Villanova opened at 24.5, followed by Kansas at 24. Defending national champion Virginia opened at 23.5, with Louisville, Ohio State and Texas Tech at 22.5.

 

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Each Friday, 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 [email protected].

Longshot LSU QB Burrow becomes Heisman co-favorite; Lakers lead NBA in futures bets

LSU quarterback Joe Burrow has emerged as a 5-to-4 co-favorite to win the Heisman. Before the season, his odds were as high as 200-to-1.

“Burrow is the biggest liability of the guys who can win it,” John Murray, executive director for the SuperBook, told ESPN. “[The liability] was close to six figures at one point.”

 

One LSU fan risked $50 to win $10,000 on Burrow before the season.

This week, his gambling outfit offered him $3,865.38 to cash out his bet. It has since dropped to $3,500. Take the money and run? Or let it ride for a potential bigger check? “I feel like I’m playing ‘Deal or No Deal’ or ‘Let’s Make a Deal,’” he laughs during an interview this week from his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The decision is made even more difficult because of what lies ahead for the No. 2-ranked Tigers (7-0) and their star quarterback. LSU hosts No. 9 Auburn (6-1) on Saturday and after a bye week travels to top-ranked Alabama (7-0). Those are arguably the two toughest defenses Burrow will face in the 2019 regular season.

Porter isn’t cashing out his bet—at least not yet. “What fun is gambling if you don’t go along for the ride?” says Porter, an LSU season ticket holder who moved from Illinois to Baton Rouge at age 20 and fell in love with the Tigers. “The original plan was I was going to hold it to ’Bama week to see what the offer was at that time. When I put that plan in place in my head, I didn’t picture Joe as the frontrunner.” But here he is, at many sportsbooks, the favorite to win college football’s most prestigious individual honor eight weeks into the season. Burrow is a 6-to-5 favorite at Westgate, a Las Vegas-based sportsbook and one of the most respected in the world. Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts is next (7-5), followed by Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (7-2) and Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields (10-1).


The Los Angeles Lakers had more money bet on them to win the NBA championship than any other team.

“We’ve taken a lot of large wagers on the Lakers, just continuous support on them,” Jeff Sherman, vice president of risk and head NBA oddsmaker for the SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas, told ESPN.

Five-figure bets on the Lakers have been showing up since the summer. Sherman said he took a $10,000 bet on the Lakers on June 15, shortly before news broke that superstar Anthony Davis was headed to Los Angeles to join LeBron James. William Hill also reported taking big bets ($10,000 and $9,500) on the Lakers in mid-June.


An article in the New York Times takes a look at how universities are responding to the expansion of legal sports betting betting.

In Mississippi, university officials sent state gambling regulators names for a “watch list” for big bets. Iowa colleges have simply kept teaching their athletes longstanding, narrowly applied rules on sports wagering. And in Indiana and Pennsylvania, some universities flatly banned students and employees from betting on their school’s athletics events.

The rapid spread of legalized sports betting, made possible by a United States Supreme Court ruling last year, is prompting colleges and universities to grapple quickly with whether they can, or should, control a lawful activity so explicitly linked to the performances of their students.

But as more states have allowed bets and as wagers have soared — there were more than $730 million in sports bets in August, more than double the amount from a year earlier — there is no consensus among universities about how they should respond. And it is unclear whether the initial reactions will stave off any problems that critics fear might come from bets on everything from bowl games to March Madness brackets.

“Because these are fuzzy questions, and they’re new questions, we’re not asserting that we’ve got it tacked down in all particulars,” Mitch Daniels, Purdue’s president, said in an interview as university officials labored this month over the precise wording of their new policy.


Sports betting has been continuously growing in West Virginia since it was legalized.

Mobile sports betting in West Virginia has hit two milestones, state Lottery Director John Myers said Wednesday: Topping $1 million in revenue for September, and topping $7 million in total wagers for the week of Oct. 13-19.

“It’s been consistent growth as they’ve matured,” he said following Wednesday’s meeting of the Lottery Commission.


A large number of New Yorkers have been commuting to New Jersey to bet on sports.

Which is why New Yorkers are flooding west. But not too far west—44 percent of all mobile bets in New Jersey are made within two miles of the state border, according to GeoComply, with 80 percent made within ten miles. At a public hearing in May, Fan­Duel’s COO said that as much as 25 percent of its business comes from New Yorkers crossing the border. For those carpetbagging gamblers without a car, Hoboken Terminal—which couldn’t be closer to the state border without falling into the Hudson River—is a mecca.

As it changes them, so they change it: The gamblers step onto the platform and transform it into a literally underground betting parlor. The Borgata it isn’t. But convenience beats out coddling. Here, you won’t find leather seats at ritzy bars, nor giant television screens and waitresses showing too much skin. Here, in this dusky underworld, the house is open all day and all night, and it’s less than twenty minutes from midtown Manhattan. Here, you can get cell service without leaving the turnstile, so the whole trip costs the price of a one-way fare. “I really don’t want to spend more than maybe, like, an hour in New Jersey,” says Harrison, twenty-seven, from Queens, one of the many carpetbagging gamblers I spoke to over the opening weekend of the NFL’s 2019 season.

 

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Each Friday, 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 [email protected].

Oregon Lottery launches sports betting app; UFC to offer real-time data to oddsmakers

The Oregon Lottery launched its sports betting app this week.

The Oregon Lottery was supposed to launch the app in time for football season, but the rollout was delayed. Chinook Winds, a Lincoln City casino, opened a sports betting lounge in late August, beating the Oregon Lottery to the market.

The Oregon Lottery estimated the app would bring in a net profit of $37 million on $1.6 billion in sports betting during the first three years the app is in use.


The UFC will launch an official real-time data service available to oddsmakers for in-game wagering.

“The UFC Event Centre and its official data feed will be a game changer for how UFC fans engage with our events through sportsbooks and gaming operators,” White said in a statement. “We have the most passionate, die-hard fans of any sport, and they’re going to love the option to place bets live during a fight. Betting operators are also going to love this product because, unlike other sports, UFC has no off season. The action will be non-stop for fans and sportsbook operators.”

It will take official data from UFC, including logos, photos and fighter bios, and will be available to sportsbooks for a licensing fee and a share of gross gaming yield for data access. Specifics on the share and the fee weren’t provided to Bloomberg, which first reported news of the live-betting partnership.


Six weeks through the NFL season, Russell Wilson became the favorite to win MVP over Patrick Mahomes.

Wilson has thrown for 14 touchdowns without an interception, leading the Seahawks out to a 5-1 start. He passed for 295 yards and two touchdowns, and also ran for a touchdown in the Seahawks’ road win over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. He has accounted for 18 touchdowns this season.

Wilson, who has never won MVP and started the season with 20-1 odds to win the award, is now 2-1, just ahead of Mahomes at 5-2 at Caesars Sportsbook.

 

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Each Friday, 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 [email protected].

80 percent of Americans want legal betting; Nationals enter NLCS as favorites over Cards

A new poll found that 80 percent of Americans now support legalizing sports betting.

In February 2017, results of a Seton Hall Sports Poll revealed that only 46% of Americans believed betting on sports should be legalized. Some 32 months later, the latest version of the poll published Thursday reveals that 80% are in favor of sports betting legalization.

“Public acceptance of legalized betting in sports is moving at a rapid pace, likely tied to court approval,” said Rick Gentile, director of the poll, in a statement.


The Washington Nationals entered the NLCS as favorites over the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Nationals opened as -120 favorites over the Cardinals in the NLCS at Caesars Sportsbook.

Washington was considered a contender entering the season but got off to a disappointing start. The Nationals were 19-31 in late May and were listed as a 70-1 World Series long shot at that point at SugarHouse sportsbooks in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. They’re 7-2 now at SugarHouse.

The Nationals winning the World Series would be a boon for some sportsbooks and costly for others. Entering the postseason, only the Tampa Bay Rays had attracted fewer bets to win the World Series at William Hill sportsbooks. There were some big World Series bets on the Nationals, though, including a $15,000 wager last October when Washington opened at 22-1 at William Hill. That ticket would pay a net $330,000.


Indiana took in more than $34 million in sports betting action during the first month of legal betting in the state.

In both states, not all casinos started accepting sports wagers on the first day available for betting, which means the handle almost certainly will be larger in future months.

Mobile sports wagering, which began Oct. 4 in Indiana through two companies — with several more set to come online in coming months — also is likely to pump up Indiana’s handle.

In Pennsylvania, for example, which launched mobile sports wagering in May, the August handle was $109 million, with $83.2 million, or 76%, coming through bets placed through mobile devices, as opposed to in-person bets made at the state’s casinos, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

 

Purdue banned students, staff, faculty and contractors from betting on Boilermaker sports.

Trustee Mike Berghoff said campus leaders weren’t comfortable with the idea that the campus community could now legally bet on student-athletes in their classrooms, in their residence halls and in their dining halls.

“We really wanted to get ahead of this,” Berghoff said.

The policy approved Friday morning came with instructions to Purdue legal and compliance staff to hash out the final guidelines, including how the policy would be enforced, the penalties and what it would mean for betting on March Madness pools and other more casual, social settings.

Steve Schultz, Purdue’s legal counsel, said that wouldn’t be ready in time for Saturday’s Homecoming football game against Maryland. But it should be ready, he said, by the football game the following week.


The Department of Justice accuses that a man attempted to fix college basketball games last year.

Benjamin Bifalco, 25, of Staten Island, New York, is accused of offering members of a college basketball team “thousands of dollars to intentionally lose the game,” according to a news release from the Eastern District of New York U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The school and players were not identified in the indictment.

Bifalco is charged with attempted sports bribery. Bifalco’s attorney, Vincent Martinelli, declined to comment when reached by ESPN.

Bifalco was caught on a wiretap discussing the scheme with Joseph Amato Jr., one of 20 defendants who were arrested Thursday and charged with crimes in a wide-ranging investigation targeting the Colombo crime family.

On a series of intercepted calls, Bifalco laid out his plans to fix the unidentified game and encouraged Amato Jr. to place thousands of dollars in bets on the game, according to the indictment. Amato sent two texts to defendant Thomas Scorcia before the targeted game: “Ok I wouldn’t trust the game I was telling u about” and “I’m not touching it personally,” the government filing stated.

 

* * *

Each Friday, 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 [email protected].

‘Mattress Mack’ bets millions on Houston Astros; Horse bettor wins $2.2M on 20-cent bet

A Houston furniture store owner has bet millions of dollars on the Astros to win the World Series.

Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, owner of Gallery Furniture in Houston, bet $3.5 million on the Houston Astros to win the World Series at the DraftKings sportsbook at Scarlet Pearl casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. At +220 odds, the wager would pay a net $7.7 million if the Astros win the World Series.

McIngvale wired the $3.5 million to the Scarlet Pearl on Monday and flew from Houston to Biloxi. He said Tuesday that the betting slip was in his pocket and joked that he’d probably keep it in his wallet, “which is secured by a bunch of rubber bands.”

On Thursday, McIngvale was in New Jersey to place another large wager on the Astros to win it all. He bet $1.5 million at the same +220 odds at the FanDuel Sportsbook at The Meadowlands. The wager would win $3.3 million and is believed to be the largest legal online wager in the state’s brief sports betting history.

McIngvale also recently placed a $200,000 World Series bet on the Astros +250 at the South Point in Las Vegas and has additional wagers for undisclosed amounts with Nevada bookmakers Caesars, MGM, Treasure Island and Circa Sports. He’s shopping around for more, too.

 

The Astros entered the postseason as consensus favorites.

The Astros are around +200 to win the World Series at sportsbooks around the nation. The Los Angeles Dodgers are not far behind at +250, followed by the New York Yankees at +400.

Caesars Sportsbook has the Dodgers as the favorites, and at DraftKings sportsbooks, the majority of which are located on the East Coast, more money has bet on Yankees to win the World Series than has been bet on any other team.


A horse bettor in Florida won $2.2 million on a 20-cent wager.

Someone hit Gulfstream’s Rainbow 6, the first time that the total jackpot had been claimed for that wager since July 6. To win the entire jackpot, someone must pick winners of six consecutive Rainbow 6 races and hold the only ticket that does so — otherwise, much of the jackpot rolls over to the next day of racing.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many six-horse combinations that the winning bettor played.

The Rainbow races Friday were the fourth through the ninth at Gulfstream. Paco Lopez rode Resident Liberal, a 5-1 shot, to victory in the ninth race to complete the win that was worth $2,211,783.62 for the bettor. Lopez had two other winners in the Rainbow series, riding Sherpa in the fifth race and Verdict Is In in the seventh race.


William Hill will build a multiple story sportsbook inside Capital One Arena, home of the Washington Wizards, Capitals and Mystics.

“We would like to see at lunchtime people from the community coming in and watching soccer matches from around the world, Leonsis said, citing one example. He added, “I think it will help our arena come alive.”

For major events that are not staged at Capital One Arena, there is the opportunity to turn the arena bowl into a 20,000 seat TV viewing area.

“What’s this building going to be like on Super Bowl Sunday or during March Madness or other prime times on the sporting calendar?” Asher said. “This should be a destination for people to go and spend their time.”


Mobile sports betting has launched in Indiana.

Chicago-based Rush Street Interactive and Boston-based DraftKings both say they are set to launch the state’s first mobile sports wagering apps after receiving approval from the Indiana Gaming Commission. DraftKings is partnering with the Ameristar Casino in East Chicago and Rush Street with the French Lick Resort casino.

In-person sports betting began during September at 10 of Indiana’s 13 state-regulated casinos and all three off-track betting parlors in the state. All Indiana casino operators are planning mobile betting apps, but no others have yet announced launch dates.

Mobile wagering is expected to ultimately seize most of the state’s sports betting market. A report for the state gaming commission projected about two-thirds of sports bets will be done online within a few years, while more than 80% of sports wagering in New Jersey is being done over the internet or on smartphones.

 

* * *

Each Friday, 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 [email protected].

NFL partners with Australian sportsbook; Adam Sandler to star in sports betting movie

The NFL has partnered with a sportsbook.

The league on Thursday announced a multiyear agreement with Tabcorp, a prominent Australian bookmaker (TAB) and media outlet (Sky Channel) that will bring the NFL Network and NFL RedZone to more than 4,400 venues. The partnership makes TAB the exclusive official wagering partner of the NFL in Australia. Such a designation is not yet available to bookmakers in the U.S.

In January, the NFL made Caesars Entertainment its first official casino sponsor. The deal excluded sports betting, however. The league, through its data distributor Sportradar, is selling its data to American and international sportsbooks.

The NFL plans to continue to test international jurisdictions with mature, regulated bookmaking industries while preparing to eventually get more directly involved in the evolving U.S. sports betting landscape.

“Australia was one of the markets we focused on,” NFL executive vice president Chris Halpin told ESPN. “There will be others that we’ll be announcing throughout the season.”

 

The NFL also named DraftKings as its official daily fantasy sports partner.

As part of a multiyear partnership, DraftKings will receive exclusive sponsorship and NFL branding across its fantasy platform. The two entities will collaborate on content for the DraftKings app, including marks, logos, data, NextGen Stats and NFL-produced video clips.

Daily fantasy sports skyrocketed in popularity five years ago, with Major League Baseball, the NBA and NHL each partnering with DFS operators. NFL franchises formed commercial partnership with DFS companies, and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft each invested in DraftKings.

The NFL, at the league level, however, kept its distance until now.

“This is a defining moment in the daily fantasy sports industry,” Ezra Kucharz, chief business officer at DraftKings, said in a release announcing the partnership.


A trailer debuted for a sports-betting-focused film starring Adam Sandler called “Uncut Gems.”

Did you know you wanted a movie in which Adam Sandler plays a dirtbag jeweler slinging diamond-encrusted Furbies to Celtics legend Kevin Garnett? No? Well, Uncut Gems is here to change your mind. In the newly released trailer for the upcoming Safdie brothers movie, Sandler plays Howard Ratner, a New York jewelry store owner who gets caught up gambling other peoples’ money. He does all the aforementioned things (dirtbaggery, Furby-slinging) and then some, including getting in a fight with The Weeknd and drawing the ire of everyone in his life, including his partner, played by the wickedly talented Adele Dazeem (Idina Menzel).


New Jersey has provided the blueprint for making money with legalized sports betting.

Auxier says if anyone is winning on sports betting, it is the state of New Jersey. New Jersey was ready to capitalize on sports betting when it became legal. Infrastructure in the form of casinos in Atlantic City and racetracks in other parts of the state were already in place. Gamblers in New Jersey bet more than $293 million on sporting events in August 2019 alone, allowing Atlantic City’s casinos to rake in 13% more than they did the previous August.

Another win for the Garden State? Allowing online betting and rolling out a welcome mat for companies like FanDuel and DraftKings. Online gambling now accounts for about 80% of all legal sports bets in New Jersey. According to the New York Times, New Jersey passed Nevada as the sports betting capital of the U.S.


Indiana will have mobile sports betting starting on Oct. 3.

The Indiana Gaming Commission authorized a Chicago-based gaming company that has partnered with French Lick Casino to conduct mobile sports betting beginning Oct. 3. Rush Street Gaming has “substantially demonstrated” that its mobile sports wagering operation meets Indiana’s requirements, gaming officials said Wednesday.

French Lick Casino said in August that all types of sports betting available at its retail sportsbook will be available on its online sportsbook. French Lick Casino was authorized Sept. 6 to take bets at its in-person sportsbook.

 

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Each Friday, 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 [email protected].

Dolphins odds are a challenge for bookmakers; Body of ‘5Dimes Tony’ found in Costa Rica

The lopsided results against the Miami Dolphins are creating a challenge for sportsbook operators.

“The spreads are obnoxious,” Ed Salmons, a 30-year oddsmaker and vice president of risk for the SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas, told ESPN. “It’s like I’m looking at college [football].”

Added CG Technology sportsbook director Tony DiTommaso: “My brother from New Jersey bet against them in Week 1 and doubled up against them in Week 2. And he called me and said, ‘It’s that easy. I can’t believe you get paid to do this and you couldn’t figure that out.’ And I just started laughing.”

Oddsmakers are now fully aware. Miami has been outscored 102-10 through two games, failing to cover the point spread by a combined 67 points.

“This is unprecedented. Teams have been bad before, but this is different. They’re bad and not caring. Everyone wants out. It’s kind of crazy,” Caesars Sportsbook director of trading Jeff Davis told ESPN.

 

This week of NFL action features two underdogs of at least 21 points.

The New England Patriots are 22.5-point favorites over the New York Jets, and the Dallas Cowboys are 21.5-point favorites over the Miami Dolphins at the majority of sportsbooks.

According to ESPN Stats & Information, it’s the first time there has been a week with multiple 20-point spreads in 32 years. In Week 5 of the 1987 season, the Dallas Cowboys were favored by 21 over the Philadelphia Eagles, and the San Francisco 49ers were 23-point favorites at the Atlanta Falcons.


The body of “5Dimes Tony” was found in Costa Rica nearly a year after he went missing.

The body of William Sean Creighton, 43, based in Costa Rica and originally from West Virginia, was found last week in a cemetery in the small fishing town of Quepos, according to a statement from the nation’s judicial investigation department (OIJ). A cause of death could not be confirmed because “it isn’t clear yet,” according to the statement.

“We can confirm Costa Rican authorities identified the remains of a U.S. citizen in Costa Rica,” a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said in a statement Monday afternoon in response to ESPN’s request for comment about Creighton’s death. “We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss. We are closely monitoring local authorities’ investigation into the cause of death. We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance. Out of respect to the family during this difficult time, we have no further comment.”


Legalizing online sports betting in New York may have to wait until at least next year.

Reports out of New York are indicating that the upcoming legislative session is going to be cut short, which is bad news for people hoping to bet on sports online in the state.

Representatives of Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, also a Democrat told the Wall Street Journal, the schedule was still being worked out and no decision has been made.

Mobile sports betting hasn’t necessarily been the hot topic floating around Albany with lawmakers choosing to prioritize other issues such as social services, wage increases, and veterans affairs.

On top of a potentially shortened legislative session, the state gaming commission failed to meet an Aug. 12 deadline to select a company to conduct a sports betting study.

The study, which will analyze the economic benefits of mobile/online sports betting, was set to being September 1 with a final report expected December 31. It’s safe to assume neither deadline will be met.

 

* * *

Each Friday, 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 [email protected].