betED.com - The View from the Couch - by Gavin McDougald!
-*- 9.22 Quintillion to One
Since we are all gambling men and women here ? who amongst us would be stupid enough to get involved in a wager like that?
The answer: Most all of us.
9.22 quintillion to one are the odds of filling out the perfect NCAA tournament bracket by predicting all of the 63 games played, yet that ridiculously daunting number deters none of us from giving it a shot.
Just how long a shot?
The chances that, while you?re reading this, you are killed by an Asteroid impact are only 200,000 to one. Or by fireworks discharge? 1-in-615,488. You needn?t duck.
Yet those are near certainties compared to the NCAA bracket. In case you aren?t a math wiz, a quintillion is a 1 followed by 18 zeroes or a billion billion, (or the amount the Iraq war will end up costing). Now multiply that by nine, and those are the odd facts.
Almost nearly as odd is how the NCAA is looking to keep those odds that long. The hosts of March Madness is looking for help from an unlikely source: Las Vegas bookmakers. The Baltimore Sun reports the NCAA is sending an observer to Las Vegas over the next two weekends to work with sports gambling operators to ensure the games are honest.
Ever since Arizona State?s Stevin Smith admitted to engage in point-shaving in four games in 1994, questions have been asked about some of the more surprising tournament results.
Then, the NCAA?s first reaction was to attempt to ban wagering on college sports in Las Vegas altogether ? like that would make a difference. Clearly, they?ve snapped out of their head-in-the-sand-on-gambling attitude recently and realized that legal or not, it?s always going to go on.
And, if history is any indicator, it should. Sportsbooks have insisted that for years they are always the first to know if something dirty is going on in a sports event.
When the fix is in, unusual betting patterns stand out like an airball at crunchtime.
Now someone from the college ranks has been looking to see if there is a pattern of corruption beyond that indicator.
Assistant professor Justin Wolfers from the Wharton School business (Donald Trump?s old stomping grounds), is releasing a paper in May entitled Point Shaving: Corruption in NCAA Basketball and he writes in the tantalizing preview that, ?that there exists a "prima facie" case that point shaving is surprisingly widespread.?
He suggests that as many as 500 men's college basketball games out of 44,000 studied over the past 16 years have been influenced by point shaving.
Thus, the NCAA is in Nevada making sure all is on the up and up this March (and into April). Hopefully, for this one instance, what goes on in Vegas doesn?t stay in Vegas.
Nationwide, an estimated $3.5 billion will be gambled during March Madness. In terms of money wagered, the Final Four is second only to the Super Bowl, on which fans gamble more than $1 billion on a single game.
For all parties involved, it?s in everybody?s interest to make sure stay as close to the straight and narrow as possible. Especially when the odds to start are 9.22 quintillion to one!
The bottom line is this: How ironic is it that gambling, that has been pooh-poohed by the higher-ups and high thinkers in the Ivory Tower that is the NCAA for all these years as a blight on their sports has become a driving force for honesty in the college ranks?
What were the odds on that?
If you're interested in a little bit better odds - check out the betED lines for the tournament! They've got lines on every game in the NCAA Tourney as well as futures to win it all and props throughout! Get your wagers in now!
Good luck on the tournament and Cheers - Gavin McDougald - AKA Couch
Remember to drop us a line at rants@betED.com to voice your opinion on one of McDougald's articles or on anything else you read at betED.com!
-*- 9.22 Quintillion to One
Since we are all gambling men and women here ? who amongst us would be stupid enough to get involved in a wager like that?
The answer: Most all of us.
9.22 quintillion to one are the odds of filling out the perfect NCAA tournament bracket by predicting all of the 63 games played, yet that ridiculously daunting number deters none of us from giving it a shot.
Just how long a shot?
The chances that, while you?re reading this, you are killed by an Asteroid impact are only 200,000 to one. Or by fireworks discharge? 1-in-615,488. You needn?t duck.
Yet those are near certainties compared to the NCAA bracket. In case you aren?t a math wiz, a quintillion is a 1 followed by 18 zeroes or a billion billion, (or the amount the Iraq war will end up costing). Now multiply that by nine, and those are the odd facts.
Almost nearly as odd is how the NCAA is looking to keep those odds that long. The hosts of March Madness is looking for help from an unlikely source: Las Vegas bookmakers. The Baltimore Sun reports the NCAA is sending an observer to Las Vegas over the next two weekends to work with sports gambling operators to ensure the games are honest.
Ever since Arizona State?s Stevin Smith admitted to engage in point-shaving in four games in 1994, questions have been asked about some of the more surprising tournament results.
Then, the NCAA?s first reaction was to attempt to ban wagering on college sports in Las Vegas altogether ? like that would make a difference. Clearly, they?ve snapped out of their head-in-the-sand-on-gambling attitude recently and realized that legal or not, it?s always going to go on.
And, if history is any indicator, it should. Sportsbooks have insisted that for years they are always the first to know if something dirty is going on in a sports event.
When the fix is in, unusual betting patterns stand out like an airball at crunchtime.
Now someone from the college ranks has been looking to see if there is a pattern of corruption beyond that indicator.
Assistant professor Justin Wolfers from the Wharton School business (Donald Trump?s old stomping grounds), is releasing a paper in May entitled Point Shaving: Corruption in NCAA Basketball and he writes in the tantalizing preview that, ?that there exists a "prima facie" case that point shaving is surprisingly widespread.?
He suggests that as many as 500 men's college basketball games out of 44,000 studied over the past 16 years have been influenced by point shaving.
Thus, the NCAA is in Nevada making sure all is on the up and up this March (and into April). Hopefully, for this one instance, what goes on in Vegas doesn?t stay in Vegas.
Nationwide, an estimated $3.5 billion will be gambled during March Madness. In terms of money wagered, the Final Four is second only to the Super Bowl, on which fans gamble more than $1 billion on a single game.
For all parties involved, it?s in everybody?s interest to make sure stay as close to the straight and narrow as possible. Especially when the odds to start are 9.22 quintillion to one!
The bottom line is this: How ironic is it that gambling, that has been pooh-poohed by the higher-ups and high thinkers in the Ivory Tower that is the NCAA for all these years as a blight on their sports has become a driving force for honesty in the college ranks?
What were the odds on that?
If you're interested in a little bit better odds - check out the betED lines for the tournament! They've got lines on every game in the NCAA Tourney as well as futures to win it all and props throughout! Get your wagers in now!
Good luck on the tournament and Cheers - Gavin McDougald - AKA Couch
Remember to drop us a line at rants@betED.com to voice your opinion on one of McDougald's articles or on anything else you read at betED.com!
