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A 30-something sports bettor shared his experience with the newly expanded legalized sports wagering market in the United States and he's not very embracing of its arrival.
Gambler X, as ESPN.com refers to him in maintaining the individual's identity, has been betting sports in Las Vegas for the better part of a decade.
The expansion, he claims, is cutting into his livelihood.
How?
From ESPN.com:
Legalization means more places for sharp bettors to sneak bets through without moving the market. More casinos sharing liquidity and information to stay one step ahead of bettors. More jurisdictions and hodgepodge shops where one is the majority owner, but lines are set by another, and software is provided by a third. It's just more stuff to make my life miserable.
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His travels to locales that now offer sports betting like Mississippi, Delaware and New Jersey, have left him mostly unimpressed.
“In Mississippi, I mostly targeted MGM properties,” he tells ESPN.com. “The staff were friendly, and they took big bets with no issues. But as I suspected, they mostly mirror MGM Las Vegas' lines, so there is no real opportunity for me.”
He added that independent books set their own lines, manage their own risk and are the lifeblood of his own lucrative career as a professional sports bettor.
"They mean more chances to pick off bad lines, opportunities to arbitrage and more places I can go fire the same bet at a number I want."
The books he visited in other states won't make a move without checking with the bosses in Vegas first.
- Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com
