SportsHandle and friends deliver another round-up of the week’s big developments in US sports betting.
How’d The Book Do? — Sportsbook Translator Explains ‘We Did Okay’ And Other True Meanings
With the legalization of sportsbooks across the country, there are a lot of things about the business that are being discussed during football season. Whether it’s the sharp side or the square side is a weekly debate. Line movement is discussed, analyzed and speculated upon with a fine tooth comb. Whatever information you seek to find, it’s pretty much out there. Whether it’s “good” info or not is a whole other story.
For so many of us in the business, these discussions have been going on for years. Who bet what. Or what is the public on. What does the book need. And after the games are played, how did the book do?
Full story here.
Behind The Scenes Of NBC Sports Philly’s Betting-Focused Live Sports Broadcasts
“By the way, Ben Simmons tonight, guys — if you were feeling frisky, Ben Simmons was getting 14/1 to make the first three of his career.”
A mere 11 seconds elapsed between when those words came out of Brad Feinberg’s mouth and when Ben Simmons stroked a three-pointer from the corner a little under four minutes into the Philadelphia 76ers’ Nov. 20 game against the New York Knicks.
For more than two seasons in the NBA, Simmons’ reluctance — bordering on utter refusal — to shoot from the outside has been a constant plotline. Feinberg seized on that plotline at the perfect moment. And it gave the NBC Sports Philadelphia sports betting-focused alternative broadcast of that Sixers-Knicks game, the “BetCast,” the defining call of the historic moment.
Full story here.
Is The Brady-Patriots Dynasty Finally Over?
It has to end sometime.
Tom Brady may look from the neck up (and particularly from the forehead up) like he’s aging in reverse, but according to his birth certificate he is 42 years, five months, and six days old, and that clock doesn’t actually wind backward for anyone.
By dedicating his mind and his body to football like no quarterback before him, Brady has defied all expectations to get this far. He won a Super Bowl at 41 and is still a competent NFL quarterback at 42. Some would say he’s approximately Kirk Cousins at this point, which is to say, he’s amazing for a guy in his 40s and about average for an NFL starter in 2019.
Full story here.
Michigan Legislature Sends Sports Betting To Governor
Michigan is on course to become the latest, and likely the last, state to legalize sports betting in 2019. The state Senate passed and the House concurred Wednesday on a package of gaming bills that will usher in legal mobile sports wagering, iGaming (online casino and poker), and daily fantasy sports (DFS).
The Lawful Sports Betting Act received broad appeal in both chambers, passing the Senate, 35-3, in the early afternoon, and the House, 100-8, just hours later.
Full story here.
Check Out DraftKings’ Flashy New Workspace In Boston
BOSTON — In the heart of Boston’s Back Bay, in a building with a taco shop, Bank of America and Panera on the first floor, resides one of the biggest players in daily fantasy sports and sports betting. On the fifth floor of the brick-and-stone building at 222 Berkeley Street is the heart and soul of DraftKings. The middle-of-the-city location says plenty about DraftKings, which in the last two years has become a major player on the fast-growing U.S. sports betting scene.
Full story here.
New Jersey Seen As Gold Standard For Igaming, Per Economic Impact Report
New Jersey has been the U.S. leader in its offering of legal, regulated online gambling — from poker and casino games in 2013 to sports betting in 2018 — and that has led to job creation and to new tax revenues.
But how much of each? iDEA, an association of the online gaming industry that advocates for further education of all relevant parties in the sector, commissioned a report on those topics called “The Economic Impact of New Jersey Online Gambling” that was released on Tuesday.
The “headline” numbers are the estimated 6,552 jobs created from iGaming, $401 million in wages, and $259.3 million of local and state tax revenue collected in that span.
Full story here.
