Report From Las Vegas

[redietz]

Just some notes regarding sports betting for the forum:

1) William Hill, the British book, took over Leroy's, Lucky's and the Cal Neva "franchise books" inside the casinos, which makes Hill the largest sports book in Las Vegas based on number of books. I do not know where they stand volume-wise.

2) The contests previously sponsored by Leroy's and Lucky's are up in the air. We expect an announcement sometime in the next week regarding these.

3) The LVH has posted College Football "Games of the Year" odds, so these are now available.

4) Hill reportedly consulted with managers in all three absorbed books to arrive at futures numbers, with a lean to the Leroy's numbers.

5) Hill kept current personnel in place at the various franchise books. People are getting an opportunity to prove themselves, more or less. If they do well, they stay. If not, Hill will replace them.

6) The two dominant books in Las Vegas, Hill and Cantor, are British companies. It says a lot about American casinos' risk aversion.

[Alan Mendelson]

Thank you for posting this. We need more info about sports betting. I know nothing about it. The only sports bets I ever made in Vegas:
1. San Diego would win the Super Bowl -- this was about ten years and a friend asked me to make the bet for them pre-season. It wasn't that much of a long shot, but the Chargers didn't make it.

2. About seven years ago Denver Broncos would win by 6 or more, and they did. Don't ask me the name of the other team because I don't remember, and Caesars gave me a $125 free bet (promo bet). Elway was playing then.

6) The two dominant books in Las Vegas, Hill and Cantor, are British companies. It says a lot about American casinos' risk aversion.

Isn't Cantor Gaming part of Cantor Fitzgerald the big Wall Street investment banking company? I thought that was an American company?

[redietz]

You're correct, Alan. I don't know why I thought there was a British connection, unless it's that the actual oddsmakers are UK-based. I must have misinterpreted a report in Gaming Today. In fact, I realized I do not know who sets the numbers for Cantor -- whether it's an individual or panel or whether they simply copy someone else. I noticed they take higher limits on UFC wagers, for example, but they wait longer to post their actual numbers than some other books, so that suggests a follow-the-leader oddsmaking team. I will try to find out, and I'll try to figure out why I thought there was a UK connection.

[Alan Mendelson]

I recall reading something about Cantor getting into the sports betting business a couple of years ago, and because they use some new computer technology they are able to better manage odds, etc to increase their profits while offering better odds. Plus they are taking the lead in hand held betting technology and now they are also making inroads into online gambling. I haven't followed the company much but if you recall most of their New York trading staff perished in the World Trade Center.

[redietz]

Basically, they opened their first LV shop at the M, and they took fairly high limit wagers plus they began offering during-game wagers. Then came the hand held, take-it-to-your-room gambling devices.

Eventually, the Tropicana and Hard Rock also let Cantor take over their sports books. Then Cantor made the big jump by taking over the Venetian and Palazzo sports books.

Next, the buzz was that Cantor would be taking the sports books of all the Harrah's/Caesars' properties off the casinos' hands, but somewhere along the way that was delayed or blocked. There were actually dates bandied about regarding when Cantor would start taking over Caesars' property sports books one by one, but none of that has happened as yet, and it appears to be a dead issue at the moment.

Cantor appealed to the techie youngster crowd with its in-game wagering and mobile devices. It originally appealed to me because it had good futures odds and high limits. Some of those futures odds appear to have been reined in a bit.