LAS VEGAS -- July in Las Vegas is supposed to be the calm before the storm of football season, but ask any sports book director in town and they’ll tell you it’s anything but. While booking baseball is still a daily grind, the biggest stress for every book right now is more from the administrative level than from bookmaking, yet it still has everything to do with football.
“I’ll have people say to me, ‘you must be in cruise control right now with just baseball,’ and that is the furthest thing from the truth,” said LVH SuperBook VP Jay Kornegay. “I’ve been trying to catch a glimpse of the British Open and I can’t because there is so much to do. Did Tiger triple-bogey or something?“
This is the time of year when every book director sets his marketing plan into action, finalizes house rules or contests, readjusts budgets, re-hires for the massive increase in action, and then ensures his book is in prime condition for guests.
All those things happen every month, but with football upon us, it’s taken to another level. Up to 75 percent of a book’s annual marketing budget goes towards the football season to draw more through the doors. It’s a small window to turn bettors into returning guests, and it takes time to decipher what spending approach is best to spread the word of how great your book is. 'How much radio do we want, and who do we choose? Do we dare try television? What print or online company should we use to target our audience best?'
“It’s funny you mention that because I’m reviewing new ads for Football Central (the LVH's viewing party every Sunday inside the Elvis Showroom),” laughed Kornegay. “No really, I am, and I’ve still got all the Super Contest stuff (86 entries so far) to finalize along with our SuperWeekend (Aug. 23-25) schedules. Right now there is more behind the scenes work than at any other part of the season.”
Staffing has to increase by up to 30 percent because of the extended hours of operation and, with more tickets needed to be written, so no one gets shut out. Kornegay said his September ticket counts “will triple what was written in July. ...
“Our supervisory staff doesn’t change over the year, but we do beef up on the line. Right now, I’m looking at a stack of applications that is about three inches thick, and I have a series of interviews lined up every day for the next two weeks.”
If you’ve ever wanted to work in a book, this is the time to apply. And because of all the new hires, the books have to deal with human resources more -- which can be a pain -- with six layers of approvals and forms to go through before a writer can even begin getting trained. It can be up to a three- or four-week process before the new writer can contribute on the line.
“I’d say the average for us is about two weeks of waiting time,” said Kornegay of getting new staff processed. “Sometimes it’s as quick as seven-to-10 days, and other times it’s three weeks.”
One of the many things MGM Resorts book VP Jay Rood has done during his July is alter the payout charts on parlay cards for the upcoming season. The payouts are actually increased a bit, because of a change in verbiage.
“I just thought it was time for us to change how the parlay cards read (so that) the payouts read the same as our odds off the board, using 'to' instead of 'for'. All our cards will now read, as an example, with odds, at say, 100-to-1 instead of 100-for-1 like we’ve been using for so long. It‘s just confusing to some of our guests.”
On the 100-to-1 payout on the board, the bettor gets his initial wager back when winning. On the 100-for-1 wager listed on the cards -- like nearly every Nevada book uses -- the original bet is included in the payout.
Hopefully, other books will follow Rood and MGM’s lead in this area because it’s long overdue. The way things stand, it’s almost like a slight of hand with words, like a carnie might pull. The problem is that has been rooted for so long into the minds of everyone who has run a book. The verbiage started when parlay cards were first seen in Las Vegas books.
I’m not proud to say I also let it pass for several years as an ‘it’s always been that way’ kind of thing during my tenure of running books.
“I’ll have people say to me, ‘you must be in cruise control right now with just baseball,’ and that is the furthest thing from the truth,” said LVH SuperBook VP Jay Kornegay. “I’ve been trying to catch a glimpse of the British Open and I can’t because there is so much to do. Did Tiger triple-bogey or something?“
This is the time of year when every book director sets his marketing plan into action, finalizes house rules or contests, readjusts budgets, re-hires for the massive increase in action, and then ensures his book is in prime condition for guests.
All those things happen every month, but with football upon us, it’s taken to another level. Up to 75 percent of a book’s annual marketing budget goes towards the football season to draw more through the doors. It’s a small window to turn bettors into returning guests, and it takes time to decipher what spending approach is best to spread the word of how great your book is. 'How much radio do we want, and who do we choose? Do we dare try television? What print or online company should we use to target our audience best?'
“It’s funny you mention that because I’m reviewing new ads for Football Central (the LVH's viewing party every Sunday inside the Elvis Showroom),” laughed Kornegay. “No really, I am, and I’ve still got all the Super Contest stuff (86 entries so far) to finalize along with our SuperWeekend (Aug. 23-25) schedules. Right now there is more behind the scenes work than at any other part of the season.”
Staffing has to increase by up to 30 percent because of the extended hours of operation and, with more tickets needed to be written, so no one gets shut out. Kornegay said his September ticket counts “will triple what was written in July. ...
“Our supervisory staff doesn’t change over the year, but we do beef up on the line. Right now, I’m looking at a stack of applications that is about three inches thick, and I have a series of interviews lined up every day for the next two weeks.”
If you’ve ever wanted to work in a book, this is the time to apply. And because of all the new hires, the books have to deal with human resources more -- which can be a pain -- with six layers of approvals and forms to go through before a writer can even begin getting trained. It can be up to a three- or four-week process before the new writer can contribute on the line.
“I’d say the average for us is about two weeks of waiting time,” said Kornegay of getting new staff processed. “Sometimes it’s as quick as seven-to-10 days, and other times it’s three weeks.”
One of the many things MGM Resorts book VP Jay Rood has done during his July is alter the payout charts on parlay cards for the upcoming season. The payouts are actually increased a bit, because of a change in verbiage.
“I just thought it was time for us to change how the parlay cards read (so that) the payouts read the same as our odds off the board, using 'to' instead of 'for'. All our cards will now read, as an example, with odds, at say, 100-to-1 instead of 100-for-1 like we’ve been using for so long. It‘s just confusing to some of our guests.”
On the 100-to-1 payout on the board, the bettor gets his initial wager back when winning. On the 100-for-1 wager listed on the cards -- like nearly every Nevada book uses -- the original bet is included in the payout.
Hopefully, other books will follow Rood and MGM’s lead in this area because it’s long overdue. The way things stand, it’s almost like a slight of hand with words, like a carnie might pull. The problem is that has been rooted for so long into the minds of everyone who has run a book. The verbiage started when parlay cards were first seen in Las Vegas books.
I’m not proud to say I also let it pass for several years as an ‘it’s always been that way’ kind of thing during my tenure of running books.
