Originally Posted by
redietz
Delaware/New Jersey Sports Gambling -- Some Details and Questions
Now that I've reviewed some of the initial media coverage, and now that some of my guys have checked out the Delaware and (soon-to-be) New Jersey sports books, I'd like to mention a couple of things.
First of all, William Hill is running the Delaware sports book. My friends spoke with some of the ticket writers in Delaware. They were not impressed with the employees or the facility. The conclusion is that the sports book will need more seating and more space to function properly. They have 80 days to get the layout tweaked. Although not yet live, the Monmouth, New Jersey, facility was given good reviews. A little spiffing up, and it'll be a poor man's Superbook, which is impressive.
I apologize if the next material is very basic, but it is important. New Jersey has decided to not feature betting on local college teams, including Seton Hall and Rutgers. Delaware will not allow betting on Delaware schools, which quite possibly affects the 1-AA football playoffs. Previously, Nevada had similar rules in place regarding Nevada's college teams, but these were rescinded circa 2001 (God, I must be old; I remember this like yesterday).
The American Gaming Association's Sara Slane, a senior VP of public affairs, has argued against this kind of discretionary exclusion. Interestingly, I have not read William Hill's comments regarding this. If anyone has any insight on William Hill's stance, please post or PM me.
This has always been a fascinating debate point, because banning the local demography from betting local teams has consequences. It greatly reduces handle, obviously, and presumably reduces profits. But it also protects the sports books from being inundated with locals' money. If that locals' money is allowed, the sports book is faced with either absorbing the unbalanced wagering into its overall international pool, creating some risk since "the other side" of the game may not have legal wagering in that state, or conversely, the sports book can use different spreads in different geographic areas, which would obviously make the book vulnerable to seesaw middle shots. William Hill's size dictates that the former is the obvious way to go. It will, however, be very interesting if smaller sports books gain contracts in various states and are faced with the same choices.
I did not explicitly state what may be profitable angles down the road, but I think anyone who's paying attention can probably read between the lines and understand what the paragraph above implies (regnis, I'm talking to you). It's pretty obvious, and I'm not sure it will work, but you can be damn sure you cannot go against it. And there should be some other opportunities as well. They may, however, take years to appear.