Horse racing should be applauded for not trying to conceal the fact that the entire sport revolves around gambling. At the track, off-track, wherever, it's the kind of rare honesty that's appreciated. "Smarty Jones," the Philadelphia horse that won the Kentucky Derby will be a fun story for the next few weeks, but I missed out on most of the fun because I was rooting for the horse I bet money on.
Through utilizing a careful betting system based solely on superstition, I put my smart money on "Minister Eric." I found an old church bulletin in the backseat of my car on the way to the Turf Club and took it as a sure sign. I opened the betting guide and searched for the first name with religious overtones. This decision was made much easier when I saw "St. Averil" had been scratched from the race earlier in the week.
The Minister's odds weren't very promising (30-1), but I felt this was strongly overridden by the fact The Passion of the Christ was this year's undoubted king of the box office.
Unlike horse racing which is completely centered on gambling, watching mainstream sports and gambling on them are two completely different activities. Plays at the end of a game that are meaningless to the game's outcome can mean everything to the sports gamblers.
No recent experience exemplifies this point more than the Duke/UConn game from this year's Final Four. With Duke down by four and time running out, Duke Guard Chris Duhon halfheartedly launched a meaningless half-court shot. The long, long three pointer went down. This meant that Duke still lost by one, but the line on the game was two points. Unknowingly, Chris Duhon had shifted the outcome from a gambling standpoint and millions of dollars changed hands in a split second.
Action like that is probably why the Men's NCAA Tournament is one of the biggest wagering events of the year. It lures many to the packed Vegas sports books and even more people put down $10 in their local NCAA office pool.
Currently, the NCAA is considering a measure that could destroy the office NCAA pool.
The NCAA is currently considering reseeding the teams once they reach the Final Four.
This would break the traditional brackets at the Final Four and ensure the most high profile game would take place in the finals. The shifting would make it nearly impossible to fill out a bracket at the start of the tournament, the office pool standard.
In this election year, I stand against reseeding on three different levels - gambling, principle and sound business. Gambling, I obviously like to bet and talk trash on my friends along with the rest of the country every March. During a television broadcast this year, I saw commentator Billy Packer say he was for reseeding the teams, therefore I'm against it on principle. Anything that angry old man is for, I'm against.
The third reason is a matter of business practice. I imagine the NCAA's sole motivation for reseeding the teams is money. Pushing the best possible match-up back to the title game would capture the best television ratings for that game. Better television ratings would obviously mean more money from advertisers, but I believe the NCAA would be missing the big picture.
It would be a bad financial move to reseed the teams and therefore make office pools obsolete. In my estimation, office pools and the very casual gamblers they attract account for a larger percentage of the viewing audience than the NCAA would like to admit. Therefore, the bigger title game audience would not nearly offset the number of people lost because their interest in the NCAA Tournament was based on casual gambling, not the pureness of competition.
Although many people perceive gambling as a sports detriment, those I know involved with college wrestling were pleased when odds were first offered on the NCAA Wrestling Tournament. The XFL also felt legitimacy when official odds were first listed for their games, reinforcing the idea that this was real competition. Hopefully Title IX doesn't do to college wrestling what awful football did to the XFL, make it disappear.
The elimination of the wrestling team would obviously be a major step backward for Drexel University considering it's easily one of this school's most successful athletic teams, but with the zeal that this school's administration eliminates athletic programs, perhaps the next program to be eliminated is what we should really be wagering on.
http://www.thetriangle.org/news/2004
Through utilizing a careful betting system based solely on superstition, I put my smart money on "Minister Eric." I found an old church bulletin in the backseat of my car on the way to the Turf Club and took it as a sure sign. I opened the betting guide and searched for the first name with religious overtones. This decision was made much easier when I saw "St. Averil" had been scratched from the race earlier in the week.
The Minister's odds weren't very promising (30-1), but I felt this was strongly overridden by the fact The Passion of the Christ was this year's undoubted king of the box office.
Unlike horse racing which is completely centered on gambling, watching mainstream sports and gambling on them are two completely different activities. Plays at the end of a game that are meaningless to the game's outcome can mean everything to the sports gamblers.
No recent experience exemplifies this point more than the Duke/UConn game from this year's Final Four. With Duke down by four and time running out, Duke Guard Chris Duhon halfheartedly launched a meaningless half-court shot. The long, long three pointer went down. This meant that Duke still lost by one, but the line on the game was two points. Unknowingly, Chris Duhon had shifted the outcome from a gambling standpoint and millions of dollars changed hands in a split second.
Action like that is probably why the Men's NCAA Tournament is one of the biggest wagering events of the year. It lures many to the packed Vegas sports books and even more people put down $10 in their local NCAA office pool.
Currently, the NCAA is considering a measure that could destroy the office NCAA pool.
The NCAA is currently considering reseeding the teams once they reach the Final Four.
This would break the traditional brackets at the Final Four and ensure the most high profile game would take place in the finals. The shifting would make it nearly impossible to fill out a bracket at the start of the tournament, the office pool standard.
In this election year, I stand against reseeding on three different levels - gambling, principle and sound business. Gambling, I obviously like to bet and talk trash on my friends along with the rest of the country every March. During a television broadcast this year, I saw commentator Billy Packer say he was for reseeding the teams, therefore I'm against it on principle. Anything that angry old man is for, I'm against.
The third reason is a matter of business practice. I imagine the NCAA's sole motivation for reseeding the teams is money. Pushing the best possible match-up back to the title game would capture the best television ratings for that game. Better television ratings would obviously mean more money from advertisers, but I believe the NCAA would be missing the big picture.
It would be a bad financial move to reseed the teams and therefore make office pools obsolete. In my estimation, office pools and the very casual gamblers they attract account for a larger percentage of the viewing audience than the NCAA would like to admit. Therefore, the bigger title game audience would not nearly offset the number of people lost because their interest in the NCAA Tournament was based on casual gambling, not the pureness of competition.
Although many people perceive gambling as a sports detriment, those I know involved with college wrestling were pleased when odds were first offered on the NCAA Wrestling Tournament. The XFL also felt legitimacy when official odds were first listed for their games, reinforcing the idea that this was real competition. Hopefully Title IX doesn't do to college wrestling what awful football did to the XFL, make it disappear.
The elimination of the wrestling team would obviously be a major step backward for Drexel University considering it's easily one of this school's most successful athletic teams, but with the zeal that this school's administration eliminates athletic programs, perhaps the next program to be eliminated is what we should really be wagering on.
http://www.thetriangle.org/news/2004
