I appreciate that you should not be in the position of defending Chau/Morrison, however, the facts stated are NOT necessarily the facts.
Tell me, does the "official" system use the opening line or the closing line? On 11/26, the C wager, Houston, opened at -3 and closed at +1.5 (high for the game). The only way this wager won (and therefore the series) was if you placed the bet at +1.5 (and bought the three points). Yet, previously, there have been series' which have lost unless you got the _opening_ line (or very near it). When wagers only won with the opening line, that was Morrison/Chau's "official" system to use the opening line, yet, when you needed the closing line to win the series, all of the a sudden, the "official" system is that you need to use the closing line.
The "official" system has also changed over the years with other items, such as a RPI filter in baseball, which was NOT in the original "official" system.
I am not looking for an argument/flame war, just trying to give more insight into the system for those who don't know the history. WE are in this together. US against the books.
There have definitely been series which would have lost using the closing line, I just don't have the dates/games handy. Chau is a master in marketing and finds ways to transform a loser into a winner, or he creates a new "rule" which disqualifies a loser.
As to transparency, ere is a quote from rules from 2010 for the system at the time:
Finally, my research has also shown that it is worth it to buy between 2-3 points for your team if they are playing on the road. If you prefer to just wager on the point spread so that you will always get -110 odds, then that is fine. However, buying 2-3 points on the NBA road team is a profitable “rule-of-thumb” betting strategy that I can recommend, because the amount of additional money that you have to risk does indeed justify the increased rate of winning over long term. The greatest return on investment is by buying exactly 2.5 points on the road team.
IMVHO, this is NOT very transparent -- "point spread is ... fine, buying 2-3 points... "rule of thumb", greatest ROI is by buying exactly 2.5" -- so which is it?
