States Are Missing the Point About Sports Gambling
It's always encouraging to see states look at sports gambling as a potential source of untapped revenue. To see that there is somebody out there who acknowledges the fact the sports gambling is big business and one that United States citizens are going to partake in, legal or not, is a good thing. What's frustrating is the way states are going about it.
Delaware, the latest state to join the sports betting fraternity, is offering gamblers the chance to legally wager on sporting events, but there is a catch — bettors can only bet parlays, and most knowledgeable sports bettors will tell you that point spread parlays are sucker bets, as the odds given by the sportsbook don't come close to the true odds of hitting a parlay. And that could be made even worse when Delaware gets around to announcing the payoffs, which are almost guaranteed to be even worse than you will get at any sportsbook.
Seeing how it will be a state-run game, you can expect the state will want to keep roughly 50-percent of the money wagered, so a three-team parlay, which has true odds of 7-1 and is paid off at 6-1 by sportsbooks, will in all probability pay off around 4-1 in Delaware.That's a sucker bet if there ever was one.
Delaware could learn something from states such as Oregon, which discontinued its Sports Action NFL lottery, and realize that sports bettors aren't stupid. If given the choice between 4-1 odds and 6-1 odds, sports bettors are going to take the 6-1 odds nearly every time, regardless if they're breaking the law or not.
What States Should Do
If states want to make money from sports betting they need to simply follow the patterns of the more successful sportsbooks. By that, I mean offer bettors a fair game and value for their wagering dollar.
Sportsbooks don't expect to make 50-percent on the wagers they receive. States shouldn't either. The only way they can is by offering bettors crappy odds. And history has shown that sports bettors will play someplace they have a realistic chance of winning.
But a well-run sportsbook will make a profit in the long run and states are missing out on tremendous amounts of money by essentially forcing players to play at offshore sportsbooks.
A state serious about making money through sports betting would operate in the same manner as any of the successful online sportsbooks. There would be online betting available, as well as betting windows, such as those found in Nevada. It would be easy to picture the state-run sportsbook as a hangout for betting enthusiasts, who would converge each day to swap stories, compare picks, etc.
For one thing, the state-run sportsbook wouldn't have to worry about the .25-percent tax paid by Nevada sportsbooks, which would make them more profitable than a Nevada sportsbook for that reason alone.
A state serious about running a first-rate sportsbook would hire a top-notch sportsbook manager to run things, preferably somebody who has been in the business for a while and not the lottery commissioner's nephew. A good sportsbook manager is worth their weight in gold.
Individual states, as well as the United States in general, need to realize that betting is an accepted form of entertainment in many countries. Countries such as England and Australia aren't any less civilized than the U.S. and neither of those countries has deteriorated because of their gambling laws.
If state-run sportsbooks offered the same odds and payouts as the best online sportsbooks, a number of players would make their wagers through the state, as opposed to an offshore site. But as long as the states continue to take sports bettors for suckers, the offshore gaming business will continue to thrive.
