One of the biggest reasons Sportsbooks fail

[lander]

Good posts by everyone, but I think the BIGGEST reasons that books fail are HUGE bonuses & piss poor cloning managers that get them self one sided all too often ...

chipper hit a good point - you have to balance your action & that means your numbers have to reflect your clientel, not Pinny's.

 

[Java]

IB-
Almost sounds like you have a specific book in mind. (Care to warn anybody?) Seriously, this is all too true.

Chips-
All excellent points.

I would add to the list of reasons: books run by guys that see all that money coming it and start spending it on cars, women, drugs, houses, etc. They blow it and then when the book hits a bump, they can't pay. But, if they had kept their assets liquid, they could have ridden out a short bad run and come back stronger.

 

[WildBill]

Sportsbooks and professional betting are like no limit holdem. No better analogy out there. You can get along for a long time, winning along the way and you think you got it down and will continue winning indefinitely. Then someone you don't think can beat you busts you with one move, whether it be blowing the money on cars/women/drugs or just plain letting in someone and not respecting them, in booking that would be gambling too much and taking too many sides, in betting that would be stop doing your homework and assuming your method will work forever with no tweaking. Either way you can work a long time making money and have it all thinking life is great and then in a month's time it all crashes down on you. Staying humble and prepared for the worst is good advice in any business venture, this particular one more than most.

 

[JoeyC]

Wild Bill

It's called taking care of business, and not getting sloppy.

I've met quite a few "used to be's" in my life.

 

[acw]

Todays "cyber" bookies put a $4 an hour clerk in front of Don Best and tell them to copy every 1 penny move at Pinnacle
Is this really true?
Time to start manipulating those lines of Pinnacle!

 

[PanchoSanza]

no soccer games on ACW?

 

[SuperWimp]

As a tico I feel you guys are coming down heavy on the "local" thing. Many local line movers are smart, young, college educated people with 4-5 years experience in the gaming industry. Sharp shops, such as JAZZ, have ticos in top positions, and they are NOT making $6 per hour. The reason is simple: the level of talent and loyalty they can get from the "natives" is better than anything being offered by gringo ex-patriots. Ticos accross the industry make schedules, hire and fire clerks, move lines and basically do all the things necesary to run an off-shore operation.

Looking down on somebody just because they are not from the US is beyond racist, it is stupid. In a competitive industry such as ours anything that will give you an edge over other companies is valuable. You must take the best people for the job at a competitive price.

And yes, some gringo line-movers are over paid. The industry changed when it went off-shore, the days of the handicapper-linemover/maker are gone. Don Best made the playing field more level, you no longer have to be a sports expert to know what a sharp line is, you don't have to be a junkie to move with the money.

So CHIPS, put up your lines vs. mine, let's see who is sharper. Are you afraid of the young upcoming competition?

 

[IntuitionBET]

Java - No I don't have a specific book.

EGOs are the reason MANY books have fallen. And there are SEVERAL books out there right now that have BIG EGOs in their top manangement ready to missguide them business wise.

 

[Woody0]

Chips, I just don't understand this.

Don't all cyber books use yield management software to move the lines?

As a newbie I just assumed they did. If they don't then why not?

 

[chips]

Hey SuperWimp, I knew a Tico would take this to heart, you are the perfect example for my arguement!

"The industry changed when it went off-shore, the days of the handicapper-linemover/maker are gone. Don Best made the playing field more level, you no longer have to be a sports expert to know what a sharp line is, you don't have to be a junkie to move with the money."

You are the typical $6/hr local clone bookmaker, every move hinging off what Pinnacle, Cris and OLympic do. If Don BEst were to go out you would be lost like the rest of the books that tell me the lines are down for a little while, lol!!!! Your own mouth said you now can be a bookmaker BECAUSE of Don BEst and thats exactly my point thanks for cementing it for me!

As for this statement:

"So CHIPS, put up your lines vs. mine, let's see who is sharper. Are you afraid of the young upcoming competition?"


Younger, lol, I guess the industry has passed me by at the ripe old age of 28, the younger competition that I am afraid of must be what?? 12yrs old???? LMAO!! As for a competition between who's lines are sharper shows another side of your ignorance, it is impossible to show who's lines are sharper unless we had the EXACT same customers and used different lines and charted the outcome, but if you really want to try something with me I am open for anything, kinda like making lines for saturdays college football before anyone comes up, like maybe Saturday night for the follwoing Saturdays games!

 

[chips]

"As a tico I feel you guys are coming down heavy on the "local" thing. Many local line movers are smart, young, college educated people with 4-5 years experience in the gaming industry."

By the way, sharp doesnt mean the person who can chase the Don Best screen the fastest, thats what many "locals" do, not just tico's.

 

[Hugecock]

The stupidest yet most arrogant "line managers" are not ticos but gringos.

Take Don Best away and deny them access to Pinnacle, Cris and Olympic and watch them sweat like a rapist in a sauna.

 

[GringoinCR]

Chips, it's not hard to move off of action.

You sound like an over paid gringo that has a beef because a local took your cheese.

Anyone remember CASE? 5 dimes a week, please.

 

[chips]

Hey Gringo, I got a great job and I am not looking for anything, I just call it like I see it and I am sorry if I offended some "locals". Move off action, thats part of it, far from all of it, but as many offices that I have played into and also been inside of, all they do is chase the Don BEst screen and then wonder what went wrong!

 

[BallRash]

How do you know what other shops are doing behind the scenes anyway ?

Sounds to me that Gringo in CR has you figured out !

Or are you trying to play steam and just can't get down because the books are moving their #'s ?

 

[SuperWimp]

Hey CHIPS,

Let me see if I understand your argument, maybe I'm just dumb and I can't see what must be obvious to you.

1) Locals are inherently worse line movers than Gringos because....?

2) It is wrong to look at the DonBest screen to determine your opening line.

3) Moving with the money is wrong, that just leads to failure.

4) "Wise guys" like yourself know better than the guys at tho other major shops that post on DB because.... the line movers are dumb? maybe they are Ticos over at Pinnacle and CRIS, yeah, that's it!

5) If you have a line mover that is a Gringo you should start him off at at least $1000 per week because this is good business. If the same job can be done by a tico at $300 a week this is bad business because...

6) Looking at DonBest to establish what the consensus opinion available on the market as to the line to hold an offer is wrong because.... there might be a power outage? Maybe they will just ban computers alltogether and we will go back to hand writing action and handicapping every game individually. I'm sure your talents will come in handy then.

7) We should just rehire your friend, throw profits out off the window and pay him whatever he asks for because he is right about the lines and our shop is wrong. Never mind that we made over $44 million last year with shoddy local labor.

8) All the books that have gone under must have hired ticos and set them in charge right before the shit hit the fan. I'm sure no Gringos were involved in that one.

If I miss any points, please let me know. As I said earlier, I must be dumb because I'm just a young, educated tico linemover and you are, after all, a Gringo expatriate.

 

[chips]

How do I know??? Maybe because I have been offshore since 1997 and worked for one of the biggest offshore offices ever(volume wise), when that office closed some 70 people needed to find jobs, all have found a spot somewhere and all now run Sportsbooks all over Central and South America. I know people in Antigua, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Curacao, Jamaica, St Marteen, Venezuela, I have worked in 3 different countries in offices and have been in over 50 Offshore Sportsbook offices over the past 7 years visiting friends, I also have had over 100 Sportsbook accounts over the past 8 years starting with the original offshores like Dial-A-Bet and Richs Superbook. Sorry guys but not all post have hidden agendas, some guys just know a little more than others and just try to share information but as always people with nothing better to do will try to take shots.

 

[BallRash]

maybe chipsy can chime in and name the books that failed because they had top "local" managemnt

 

[GringoinCR]

Chips,

Like Judge has already stated, some of the locals do know their stuff. I have seen both gringos and locals that don't know what a point spread is. I don't know of any shop where the person(s) in the chair(s) are clueless.

Nationality doesn't designate IQ level.

I've seen gringo head managers down here with a wall full of the "idiot" series of books. Doesn't make me too confident putting my money over there. Of course he wasn't charting either. He still managed to "manage" the company into the ground in only one season though.

Chips you've been in the game since 1997? Hang in there son. You won't be a newbie forever.

 

[chips]

Hey SuperWimp, what about our little challenge???