This past weekend's action from a bookmaker's point-of-view
By Jimmy Mason, Director of Sportsbook Operations,
www.betcom.com
This weekend was another small winner for the house that saw the Angels in the mix, a split of our biggest NBA decisions and a huge golf handle!
Saturday saw some big line movements as there were a handful of games that we just couldn?t move hard enough. The Nuggets hosted the Sonics and opened as low as -7 ? point in places. Our linesmaker seeing the play before it happened opened them up at -8 ?, which lasted about a nano-second! They soared to -9, then -9 ? and all the way up to -10 ? before closing at -10. The Nuggets easily won and covered 121-105. Round one went to the players! Baseball was not so nice to the book either as the big bats of the California-Anaheim of Los Angeles Angel-Disney-Dodgers or whatever the heck they are now (I know they?re the ones in the A.L.!!!) hosted the lame duck Royals and the line reflected it. The Angels opened at -185 and we could not buy a bet on the Royals. We ended up closing the Angels at -225. Even though we moved through the -200 price which expanded the moneyline, a forty cent move is strong no matter how you slice it! Angels, and the players win 8-3!
The NBA was kinder to us Sunday as our biggest game of the day saw the Pacers hosting the Knicks. The Pacers opened at -7 ? in many places, but our guy decided to use -8. Soon the world was painted -8, and we were so loaded up on Indiana that we went to -8 ?. The Knicks played hard and not only covered, but won the game outright 113-112! Then it was the Angels again who were big favorites over the Royals. The sharps were on the underdog Royals small when they opened at -230 and took the line down to -220. I was going bananas at the fact we were getting hit at an 8:1 clip on the favorite and we were moving the line down!!! Fact of the matter is our linesmaker knows his business and respected the sharp move more than the public money on this one and it paid off as the Royals knocked off Colon and the Angels inverting the score 8-3.
The Masters was also held this weekend and if you didn?t bet it, you should have! We had daily updated odds to win the tournament, golfer vs. golfer matchups, hole by hole betting and much, much more. Every year we see the betting expand on golf and never is it more clear than during the Masters. Our handle (Volume) was more than five our usual golf handle and the icing on the cake was our live betting on the playoff?? ??Which we got creamed on! All said though, it was a fun weekend and the Masters finale was just the icing on the cake.
Until next week, when we?ll look back again?..
Jimmy Mason
By Jimmy Mason, Director of Sportsbook Operations,
www.betcom.com
This weekend was another small winner for the house that saw the Angels in the mix, a split of our biggest NBA decisions and a huge golf handle!
Saturday saw some big line movements as there were a handful of games that we just couldn?t move hard enough. The Nuggets hosted the Sonics and opened as low as -7 ? point in places. Our linesmaker seeing the play before it happened opened them up at -8 ?, which lasted about a nano-second! They soared to -9, then -9 ? and all the way up to -10 ? before closing at -10. The Nuggets easily won and covered 121-105. Round one went to the players! Baseball was not so nice to the book either as the big bats of the California-Anaheim of Los Angeles Angel-Disney-Dodgers or whatever the heck they are now (I know they?re the ones in the A.L.!!!) hosted the lame duck Royals and the line reflected it. The Angels opened at -185 and we could not buy a bet on the Royals. We ended up closing the Angels at -225. Even though we moved through the -200 price which expanded the moneyline, a forty cent move is strong no matter how you slice it! Angels, and the players win 8-3!
The NBA was kinder to us Sunday as our biggest game of the day saw the Pacers hosting the Knicks. The Pacers opened at -7 ? in many places, but our guy decided to use -8. Soon the world was painted -8, and we were so loaded up on Indiana that we went to -8 ?. The Knicks played hard and not only covered, but won the game outright 113-112! Then it was the Angels again who were big favorites over the Royals. The sharps were on the underdog Royals small when they opened at -230 and took the line down to -220. I was going bananas at the fact we were getting hit at an 8:1 clip on the favorite and we were moving the line down!!! Fact of the matter is our linesmaker knows his business and respected the sharp move more than the public money on this one and it paid off as the Royals knocked off Colon and the Angels inverting the score 8-3.
The Masters was also held this weekend and if you didn?t bet it, you should have! We had daily updated odds to win the tournament, golfer vs. golfer matchups, hole by hole betting and much, much more. Every year we see the betting expand on golf and never is it more clear than during the Masters. Our handle (Volume) was more than five our usual golf handle and the icing on the cake was our live betting on the playoff?? ??Which we got creamed on! All said though, it was a fun weekend and the Masters finale was just the icing on the cake.
Until next week, when we?ll look back again?..
Jimmy Mason
