Wild Bill's article concerning consolidation of books...

Doug · Dec 20, 2004

That's right on ! I've preached the same thing for years. Giants like Pinny take over. No more 500+ books in 5-10 years. Exchanges will work. Mansion may become one, but I'm waiting !

No -110 in 5 years, -107, -105, even -103 will take over. Pinny might be able to do -103 now. That will put out shops like CRIS, Oly, Royal, Grande, WW, RIO, SIA, BET $3.65, Millenieum, WWTS, and many others !

-110 is history. The theoretical billion is nice. What if a Bill Gates threw up 5-10 billion to back it ?

Who bets at -110, unless getting a half, or something ?

TTinCO · Dec 20, 2004

DougJ, I agree, but this is a no brainer.

No one in this industry will tell you that there will not be some mass consolidation in the next couple of years.

Play smart

WildBill · Dec 20, 2004

I hope you are right. -103 wagering would be great stuff for the industry as well. The break-even point would be reduced enough to where a lot of people could be slight winners at the game. If players win or think it is easier to win, they will put more money into the endeavor and next thing you know a lot bigger bankrolls will be in play. From a single book's perspective the loss in lowered vig won't make up for the additional money out there floating around, but industry-wide it will be great. That in turn will force the books with good operations that generate good cash flow the incentive to go out and buy up a larger share of the market in order to make the economics work.

Doug · Dec 20, 2004

Just like Wal-mart is a major threat to Cunningham hardware ( Happy days). The time is displaced, but point is valid. 500 books, 50 good, will change. More like 50 books, and 5 biggies.

The times, they be a changin'

Buzzsaw · Dec 20, 2004

I will unfortunately disagree that there will be “mass consolidation”. It would be healthy if there was. I just don't see it. There will be plenty of deals where the healthy absorb the weak, those too weak to continue. But cultures, booking differences, software differences including databases and platforms, lack of trust in unaduited books and the history of many failed mergers make mass consolidation a long shot.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com

ffice

ffice" /><o

></o

>