SportsHandle and friends deliver another round-up of the week’s big developments in US sports betting.
Barstool Sports’ Wrath Sparks A Firestorm; Exposing Problems With Offshore Sportsbooks
On Tuesday, the head oddsmaker for the Costa Rica-based sportsbook MyBookie.ag poked a bear — and then he and MyBookie got mauled. That bear is Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, aka “El Presidente”. On Monday the oddsmaker (hereafter “John”) tried to get Portnoy’s attention on Twitter, claiming his book would take a $250,000 wager from Portnoy (in Bitcoin) on Texas Tech +1.5 to win the National Championship. El Presidente had remarked on Barstool Radio and on Barstool Sports Advisors that “[Texas Tech] is the easiest bet in the history of sports,” that he was pretty jacked up to push hard on the Red Raiders, and said he’d been actively trying to get down $250,000 on Texas Tech.
Full story here.
Battle Over Wire Act ‘Likely’ Headed To Supreme Court, Judge Says
A recent memo by the United States Department of Justice that appeared designed to try to immediately knock the New Hampshire Lottery out of the battle over limitations on legal sports betting failed in federal court on Thursday. Judge Paul Barbadoro of New Hampshire, after listening to four hours of oral argument, denied the DOJ’s motion to dismiss the lottery’s lawsuit over alleged “lack of standing.” In fact, he poured cold water on the idea in the first 10 minutes of the proceeding.
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Remembering Legendary Las Vegas Linemaker Bob Martin
The once shadowy world of bookmaking is now out in the open. This, attributable to the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning PASPA, the law that made Nevada-style sports wagering illegal everywhere else. The computer, the internet and the cell phone are now the tools of what sports betting insiders regard as a specialized practice known as “making book.” At a time when bookmaking and the creation of the opening line is emerging from its somewhat hidden past, now is an appropriate time to remember the late Bob Martin, the Las Vegas longtime oddsmaker and bookmaker whose opinion on what an opening number should be mattered more than anyone else’s. In the 1960s, 70s and into the 80s, Martin created the Las Vegas sport betting lines.
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Professional Sports Bettor Cruising On Jeopardy: ‘I’ll Bet On Anything’
James Holzhauer, a pro sports bettor from Las Vegas, came into this week as the Jeopardy! champion, having won an impressive $82,606 in total between his first two appearances on the game show last week. Holzhauer was actually on pace to set a new single-day record for the show in his debut, but he ran away with the game and didn’t need to risk a large amount on the Final Jeopardy question. The current record of $77k was set in 2010. “I wish on yesterday’s program, James, you had not turned that into a runaway,” host Alex Trebek stated on Friday’s episode. “Because if it had been a close game, you’d have been forced to wager a lot more money, and you could have set the new one-day record.”
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Tennessee Sports Betting Bill Clears First Major Hurdle
On Tuesday, the Tennessee House State Committee voted 12-5 in favor of advancing a sports betting bill to another committee for review. It was a weeks-long process to clear the State Committee. The legislation, HB 1, heads to the Government Operations Committee, the final step before a potential vote before the 99 members of the House. The state has until mid-May to pass the bill and deliver it to Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican. It’s not clear that the governor would sign it, given previous comments about being opposed to state-sanctioned gambling. There are reports that the governor is helping the legislature craft the measure, but he’s not on the record indicating any support of sports betting legalization.
Full story here.