How Winter Olympics gambling might give bettors a chance to beat the house
MARTIN ROGERS | USA TODAY SPORTS
Bobsled, speedskating and biathlon don’t immediately spring to mind as obvious sports for savvy bettors to risk their hard on money on, but they might offer Las Vegas gamblers their best chance of beating the house.
These Winter Olympics will be bet on in Sin City for the first time in recent memory, thanks to Nevada legislation that was passed in advance of the 2016 Summer Games that reintroduced gaming on the global five-ringed circus.
And while high-profile gambling sports such as college and pro football, basketball and boxing are tough to crack due to the weight of knowledge and expertise the casinos possess in those disciplines, the Olympics are different.
“A lot of the time it is just best for us to use the internet to look stuff up,” said Jason Simbal, vice president of risk management for CG Technologies, which provides odds to several Vegas casinos. “Often we can also look to see what a lot of the European bookmakers have done. They have been doing this for many years, and we are new at it so using them as a resource can help.”
That system is not foolproof, however. Much of the money being staked in Vegas will be on American athletes, requiring an adjustment in the odds. While the Vegas books are not expecting huge traffic on events from Pyeongchang, they are hoping it creates solid traction.
Simon Paulsen, 36, from Claremont, Calif., bet on the Olympics in Rio while on vacation in Vegas and enjoyed the different kind of experience.
“I had been to Vegas for March Madness, been here during big fights and during NFL season,” he said. “The Olympics wasn’t like that in terms of the buzz, not even close. But I love the Olympics and I always watch it religiously so this made it a bit more exciting. I do feel that some of these lesser known sports give you a real chance of making some money. The casinos just don’t have as much knowledge about them.”
However, not every sport can be bet on. Figure skating, which would have likely given the Vegas casino their biggest handle of all the events from South Korea due to its popularity, is off the table. Events that involve a subjective human element of judging cannot be staked, per the legislation.
Jay Kornegay of the Westgate Las Vegas sports book, has been in the industry since 1987 and remembers laying odds on who would finish better out of Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding in 1994, before an Olympic gambling ban came into force.
“With the publicity that was surrounding that mess it received some pretty decent handle,” Kornegay said. “There’s been a couple of events over the years that received a lot of coverage, often involving a highly popular American figure.
“This year we're going to do is play it by ear, a little bit. We’ve had Olympic odds up since early January.”
With many events taking place during nighttime hours in the U.S., both Simbal and Kornegay believe generic bets, such as which country will win most gold medals, may be more popular. Westgate currently has Norway as 1.25:1 to top the table. Germany is 2:1, the U.S. is 11:2 and Canada 10:1.
Rio in 2016 had some advantages in that it came during a busy time for Vegas and was on during the day time, meaning people could bet on events and then watch them live.
That option is going to be less available from Pyeongchang but Kornegay said that if an event is priced, there will usually be someone prepared to lay down their money on it.
“We are not sleeping on it,” Kornegay said. “There are some people who follow these sports all the time, a lot closer than we do, so we have to do our research. All the right information is available to us, we just have to go out and find it.”
MARTIN ROGERS | USA TODAY SPORTS
Bobsled, speedskating and biathlon don’t immediately spring to mind as obvious sports for savvy bettors to risk their hard on money on, but they might offer Las Vegas gamblers their best chance of beating the house.
These Winter Olympics will be bet on in Sin City for the first time in recent memory, thanks to Nevada legislation that was passed in advance of the 2016 Summer Games that reintroduced gaming on the global five-ringed circus.
And while high-profile gambling sports such as college and pro football, basketball and boxing are tough to crack due to the weight of knowledge and expertise the casinos possess in those disciplines, the Olympics are different.
“A lot of the time it is just best for us to use the internet to look stuff up,” said Jason Simbal, vice president of risk management for CG Technologies, which provides odds to several Vegas casinos. “Often we can also look to see what a lot of the European bookmakers have done. They have been doing this for many years, and we are new at it so using them as a resource can help.”
That system is not foolproof, however. Much of the money being staked in Vegas will be on American athletes, requiring an adjustment in the odds. While the Vegas books are not expecting huge traffic on events from Pyeongchang, they are hoping it creates solid traction.
Simon Paulsen, 36, from Claremont, Calif., bet on the Olympics in Rio while on vacation in Vegas and enjoyed the different kind of experience.
“I had been to Vegas for March Madness, been here during big fights and during NFL season,” he said. “The Olympics wasn’t like that in terms of the buzz, not even close. But I love the Olympics and I always watch it religiously so this made it a bit more exciting. I do feel that some of these lesser known sports give you a real chance of making some money. The casinos just don’t have as much knowledge about them.”
However, not every sport can be bet on. Figure skating, which would have likely given the Vegas casino their biggest handle of all the events from South Korea due to its popularity, is off the table. Events that involve a subjective human element of judging cannot be staked, per the legislation.
Jay Kornegay of the Westgate Las Vegas sports book, has been in the industry since 1987 and remembers laying odds on who would finish better out of Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding in 1994, before an Olympic gambling ban came into force.
“With the publicity that was surrounding that mess it received some pretty decent handle,” Kornegay said. “There’s been a couple of events over the years that received a lot of coverage, often involving a highly popular American figure.
“This year we're going to do is play it by ear, a little bit. We’ve had Olympic odds up since early January.”
With many events taking place during nighttime hours in the U.S., both Simbal and Kornegay believe generic bets, such as which country will win most gold medals, may be more popular. Westgate currently has Norway as 1.25:1 to top the table. Germany is 2:1, the U.S. is 11:2 and Canada 10:1.
Rio in 2016 had some advantages in that it came during a busy time for Vegas and was on during the day time, meaning people could bet on events and then watch them live.
That option is going to be less available from Pyeongchang but Kornegay said that if an event is priced, there will usually be someone prepared to lay down their money on it.
“We are not sleeping on it,” Kornegay said. “There are some people who follow these sports all the time, a lot closer than we do, so we have to do our research. All the right information is available to us, we just have to go out and find it.”
