Competition
leads to innovation and that can certainly be seen in the sportsbook
business in recent years. The offshore industry is undergoing the same
changes that Las Vegas has in the last twenty years. Las Vegas was
once the domain of casino operators that many people considered to be
shady or to have questionable pasts. Now it is run by large
corporations with years of experience in entertainment or hotels run
most of the casinos and the city has boomed. Now it is starting to
happen in the sportsbook industry and this is a good thing as it
brings legitimacy and competition, which can only benefit bettors.
In
recent years we have seen bet types that were once considered
novelties become standard. First half and halftime betting in football
and basketball are now commonplace and more and more shops are
offering wagering by quarter or period, etc. We have also seen the
differences in the way betting is offered for separate sports start to
blend together. For example, moneylines are steadily growing in
popularity for football and basketball and the runline is now a
favorite way for many players to bet baseball. Bettor-specified
conditions such as listed pitchers in baseball may soon be offered on
other sports. We introduced listed goalies during the NHL playoffs and
who knows what is next, listed quarterbacks for football or even
specific player conditions for basketball "I'll take the Lakers
-7 if Shaq starts" could be a possible bet in the next few years.
Baseball
has always been considered a slow season by bookmakers but increased
competition has led to innovation and to a few new offerings. I'll
cover a few of those in this column: prop betting, 4.5 inning lines
and baseball total teasers.
Proposition
betting (prop betting for short) has steadily increased in popularity
as bettors look for more exciting ways to bet on an event. Props are
generally bets on a game that are not directly related to the final
score (although some prop bets are). For example, instead of trying to
pick the winner of a Red Sox - Yankees game, you could bet on the
total number of strikeouts Pedro Martinez will have or who will get
more hits, Nomar or Derek Jeter. You could bet on which team will
score first or which team will score last. Will Jason Giambi hit a
Home Run? The possibilities are endless.
These
are the extension of the kind of wagers friends make when watching a
game and arguing over a specific player or team's ability and I think
this is one of the main reasons for the growth in this type of bets.
Another key factor is the fantasy sports phenomenon. Millions of
sports fans participate in some form of fantasy league where you act
as a virtual GM of your own sports team. Fantasy players do so much
research on individual players that being able to wager on individual
players holds a lot of appeal. One of our players offered another
reason for the popularity of prop betting: "When the team I bet
on is losing by 8 runs in the 7th inning, I have little motivation to
watch the game. But when I have a few prop bets in play, there is
always a reason for me to continue to watch and to cheer and to enjoy
the game."
One
prop bet that has blossomed into its own bet type is the 4.5 inning
line (or 5 inning line at some shops). As I mentioned above, first
half wagering has become very popular in football and basketball so
naturally some clever bookmaker extended this to baseball. Now bettors
can bet on the score for the "first half" of a baseball
game. Moneylines and totals are offered and the attraction for many
bettors is that their research on the starting pitchers (which many
consider to be the key to betting baseball) has much more bearing if
just the first 4.5 innings are considered for the purposes of the bet.
One key
to consider when shopping these lines is that the visiting team will
have an extra at bat. This means that there is a premium on the
visiting team and bettors who favor the home team can often get a more
favorable payout on their wager than if they took the home team for
the entire game. Totals are generally just the game total cut in half
but adjustments are made for certain teams that have bullpens that are
better (or worse) than their starting pitching. Adjustments are also
made for teams with deep benches or when the home team is a heavy
favorite (meaning the game is more likely to go 8.5 innings instead of
9).
The
other newcomer to baseball betting is the teaser on baseball totals.
Few books offer this currently but this should change in the next few
years because of the general growth pattern for new sports bettors. As
their knowledge, skill and confidence grow, new bettors move from
betting football exclusively to betting basketball and from there to
baseball. As most novice bettors start with football and basketball,
teasers are well known to them and make an easy way to start with
baseball (I often hear from new bettors that the moneyline and runline
are a little more confusing than traditional pointspreads or totals).
The
baseball total teaser works the same way as teasers in football or
basketball, except that the number of options is typically reduced
down to one (in football you can tease 6, 6.5 or 7 points but in
baseball teases to the total are always 2 runs). You must pick at
least two totals in your bet and the payoffs vary from book to book.
As the
sportsbook industry continues to become more competitive, further
innovations will arise. It won't be long before you can bet on the
result of a single at-bat or even a single pitch as the mediums of
television and the Internet continue to merge. For now though, us
baseball fans still have plenty of great ways to bet. I'll be back in
a couple of weeks with a look towards the upcoming football season.
I
welcome your comments, questions or suggestions via email at rob@bodog.com
Rob
Gillespie
Operations Manager
