Last night’s UFC event on Fox Sports 1 created a betting phenomenon not often see in the pugilistic arts these days; a card filled with live underdogs. Normally this spells disaster for UFC bettors accustomed to identifying a few favorites worth parlaying for what they deem to be a +EV investment.  However last night one bettor at Bet Online took a very different approach to getting an action fix instead of watching the Oscars; he elected to parlay 8 underdogs while risking $2.  Typically a bet of this nature keeps you engaged through one fight, maybe 2, but rarely will it leave you glued to the edge of your seat until the bitter end. Little did anyone know at the time such a small investment would yield a rather large pay day.  When the dust settled on UFC Fight Night 61 in Porto Alegro, Brazil the bettor who shall remain nameless turned his small wager into a $64,616.08 pay day.  At least he was smart and hedged a bit of his potential windfall going into the Frank Mir match to close out the evening. Technically @ToddFuhrman he actually won just $64,613.53 b/c he hedged the last fight (Big Foot) $2,55 to win $1. True story. — Dave Mason (@DaveMasonBOL) February 23, 2015 For those reading this story they know my feelings (along with those of other long time bettors) that parlays are a long term losing proposition. Every now and again we’ll hear success stories of a lucky punter catching lightning in a bottle. I can tell you one thing after last night’s results there’s a lucky UFC bettor out there that won’t soon forget February 22, 2015 as long as he...

DraftKings revenue exploded from $2.5 million in Q4 2013 to $17 million in Q4 2014, but they actually lost market share to DFS leader FanDuel. Written by Trev Rogers I expected the big jump in revenue for DraftKings however I also expected to hear about gains in DFS market share. Keep in mind around Q2 of 2014, FanDuel CEO Nigel Eccles confidently proclaimed a 65% market share for FanDuel. DraftKings publicly balked at the number, but did not show metrics to prove otherwise. When FanDuel reported their Q4 2014 numbers, they did so with a claim of 80% DFS market share, a truly dominant number. Myself and other DFS players thought 80% was a bit high and waited for DraftKings to present their case, they did not this time around, yet I believe they will later this year. For FanDuel to gain an additional 15% market share in just 6 months is truly impressive, but can FanDuel keep the momentum going in 2015? WHAT IS NEXT FOR DRAFTKINGS? Lets keep things in perspective. DraftKings reported $30 million in revenue for 2014. That is up from just $4 million in 2013. No one can argue with 650% revenue growth, but believe me, their investors want to see market share gains. I believe DraftKings has set the groundwork for a HUGE 2015. DraftKings has agreements in place with Major League Baseball and the NHL, to be represented as the league’s official daily fantasy sports provider. DraftKings also recently announced deals with numerous NBA teams: DraftKings is now the official daily fantasy game provider of the @LAClippers #ClipperNation http://t.co/qgHQsuPSRT pic.twitter.com/vgslRUB2FC — DraftKings (@DraftKings) February 5, 2015 We are excited to announce our partnership with the @SacramentoKings http://t.co/IKMoZvwmTA pic.twitter.com/JYL0WUsGwx — DraftKings (@DraftKings) February 4, 2015 FanDuel and DraftKings...

Bookmaking is very different all around the world.  Given the differences in geography every book knows the kind of betting markets their customers will demand.  Some shops are in business to take the largest limits out there, others cater more to recreational players, and of course some fall right in the middle.  As we’ve seen recently there’s an increased trend among offshore shops dealing to North American customers to offer a higher volume of novelty or entertainment props.  This type of bet is still prohibited by the Gaming Control Board here in the state of Nevada.  On the heels of last night’s Grammys with the Oscars looming, I wanted to get a perspective of how fringe betting markets are viewed throughout the UK where every shop offers them.  I had a chance to talk to Nick Goff, head of football trading at Coral and he shared a very unique perspective on the topic. How has the UK market changed the past few years when it comes to exotic type wagers? There is more pressure put on traders from PR/marketing departments to offer a lot more markets now. And as one bookmaker offers more, their rivals are pressured to follow suit, and even overtake, and this leads to a never-ending battle to have the most betting content available. Why do you think this is…that the traditional is no longer an option? From a trading perspective we understand the way the industry has moved and why the marketing guys demand this of us. It’s simply not acceptable for any firm to lag behind in attracting new customers because we don’t have the level of betting content available that some rivals have. This means sometimes we now price lots of events we would have elected to leave...

We talk about responsible gaming all the time…even for those that have been in the business for ages.  Apparently long time pick seller Stu Feiner couldn’t handle the finish of Sunday’s Super Bowl and took to youtube.  Marketing ploy or not, this video is beyond ridiculous....

I won’t claim to be a music aficionado by any stretch.  However, when there’s a wagering line being placed on who takes home the hardware that warrants at least a mention. Earlier today Bovada put out a handful of unique markets for the upcoming award show.  As always these are meant more as novelty bets not get rich quick angles so enjoy. 57th Grammy Awards – Album of the Year  Beyoncé – Beyoncé                               5/4 In The Lonely Hour – Sam Smith      7/4 X – Ed Sheeran                                      17/4 Morning Phase – Beck                          7/1 Girl – Pharrell Williams                       10/1 57th Grammy Awards – Record of the Year  Stay With Me (Darkchild Version) – Sam Smith    10/11 Chandelier – Sia                                                             13/4 Fancy – Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX                             4/1 Shake It Off – Taylor Swift                                            9/2 All About That Bass – Meghan Trainor                      15/1 57th Grammy Awards – Song of the Year     Stay With Me (Darkchild Version) – Sam Smith    4/5 Take Me To Church – Hozier                                     13/4 Chandelier – Sia                                                            9/2 Shake It Off – Taylor Swift                                           8/1 All About That Bass – Meghan Trainor                     9/1 57th Grammy Awards – Best New Artist    Sam Smith                                            1/6 Bastille                                                   10/1 Iggy Azalea                                            10/1 Brandy Clark                                         10/1 Haim                                                       12/1 GRAMMY SPECIAL – Will Sam Smith sweep all 6 nominations at the Grammy’s? Yes                  8/1 No                    1/10 GRAMMY SPECIAL – How many Grammy’s will Sam Smith be awarded? Over                             3 (+110, 11/10) Under                           3  (-150,...

This has absolutely nothing to do with sports betting but that’s not stopping me from posting it on the site.  Clearly Gronk’s performance on Kimmel was one of the single best interviews we’ve ever seen post Super Bowl.  I’ll still take the under on the last book he read actually being in 9th grade but I digress.  If you haven’t seen this already…watch it.  I can say first hand his bros and dad put on quite the show earlier in the week at El Hefe in Old Town Scottsdale as...

Every prop is not created equally.  Naturally recreational bettors or professional bettors gravitate towards different props given their level of engagement.  The folks at William Hill US were kind enough to share their top 10 most popular prop bets thus far in anticipation of Sunday’s big game #10: Team to receive opening kickoff: Patriots +115 #9: Will there be overime? Yes +500 #8: Exact Margin of Victory: New England by 13-18 +1000 #7: First scoring play of the game: Seattle Safety +5000 #6: Player to score first touchdown: Julien Edelman +1200 #5: Which will be the highest scoring quarter: 3rd Quarter +320 #4: First score of game: Field goal or safety +150 #3: Will there be a successful 2 pt conversion? Yes +310 #2: Will there be a special teams or defensive touchdown? Yes +145 #1: Will there be a safety in the game? Yes...

Cross sport props continue to grow in popularity each and every year.  Books offshore and in Las Vegas tend to offer a wide variety to test even the most veteran handicappers abilities.  Whether it’s golf, rugby, hockey, soccer, you name it…if you can find an angle worth attacking there will be a bet for you come next Sunday.  Here’s a list of the numbers currently available at the Westgate Superbook here in Vegas. WHO WILL HAVE MORE: **(Heat/Celtics–February 1, 2015) Prop closes at 10:10 am Pacific HEAT POINTS                                -31.5  -110 ROB GRONKOWSKI (NE) RECEIVING YARDS        +31.5  -110   WHO WILL HAVE MORE: **(Heat/Celtics–February 1, 2015) Prop closes at 10:10 am Pacific CELTICS POINTS                             -15.5  -110 MARSHAWN LYNCH (SEA) RUSHING YARDS         +15.5  -110   WHO WILL HAVE MORE: **(Heat/Celtics–February 1, 2015) Prop closes at 10:10 am Pacific HEAT+CELTICS POINTS                        +11.5  -110 RUSSELL WILSON (SEA) GROSS PASSING YARDS   -11.5  -110   WHO WILL HAVE MORE: **(Heat/Celtics–February 1, 2015) Prop closes at 10:10 am Pacific CHRIS BOSH (MIA) POINTS                     +1.5  -110 TOM BRADY (NE) COMPLETIONS                  -1.5  -110   WHO WILL HAVE MORE: **(Lakers/Knicks–February 1, 2015) Prop closes at 11:10 am Pacific JEREMY LIN (LAL) POINTS                     +0.5  -110 SEAHAWKS FIRST HALF POINTS                  -0.5  -110   WHO WILL HAVE MORE: **(Lakers/Knicks–February 1, 2015) Prop closes at 11:10 am Pacific LAKERS FIRST HALF POINTS                   -10.5  -110 JERMAINE KEARSE (SEA) RECEIVING YARDS      +10.5  -110   WHO WILL HAVE MORE: **(Lakers/Knicks–February 1, 2015) Prop closes at 11:10 am Pacific KNICKS FIRST QUARTER POINTS                 -1.5  -110 PATRIOTS POINTS                             +1.5  -110   WHO WILL HAVE MORE: **(Lakers/Knicks–February 1, 2015) Prop closes at 11:10 am Pacific (If no punt—all bets are refunded) **Must be an official punt LAKERS+KNICKS FIRST QUARTER POINTS          -7.5  -110 JON RYAN (SEA) DISTANCE OF FIRST PUNT       +7.5  -110   WHO WILL...

With the Super Bowl looming closer, most of the articles out there relating to sports gambling pertain to the big game itself.  However we still stumbled across a handful of interesting columns covering regulatory issues that remain very prominent.  Remember, feel free to submit any relevant articles so we can share them with the community each week if we happened to overlook them. US Treasury Warns Casinos on Illegal Sports Betting – Source: Reuters (Wolf) ST. LOUIS (Reuters) – U.S. casinos must take steps to combat illegal sports gambling, the Treasury Department has told an industry group in a letter that came just weeks before the Super Bowl, one of the biggest betting events of the year. “Increases in sports betting conducted on behalf of third parties are facilitating criminal activity and posing a money laundering risk to the U.S financial system,” the Treasury said in a letter made public on Friday. The letter was dated Dec. 24. Click here to read full article My Take: This is more of a regulatory formality during peak seasons in Nevada sportsbooks.  FINCEN helps with the bank secrecy act, attempting to prevent illegal third parties from wagering on behalf of undisclosed third parties (largely illegal gambling rings).  I find it interesting that the article only states 80% of sports betting around the world is conducted illegally.  However the main focus of the piece is the explanation of why these policies and procedures are put into place during a busy busy weekend. Could Legalized Sports Gambling Yield Officiating Integrity? – Source: CBS New York  (Max) Who makes the greatest stink over a blown call? (A) Fans (B) Players (C) Coaches (D) Owners Don’t bother, it’s a trick question. The answer is G … as in gamblers. While I’m strongly...

FanDuel 4Q Revenue Jumps From $7 Million to $37 Million Written by Trev Rogers The enormous growth of DFS (Daily Fantasy Sports) was hard to miss during the 2014-2015 football season with an onslaught of advertisements from FanDuel and DraftKings enticing new players to join each week. There is no doubt that we have seen the “tipping point” for the DFS industry happen before our eyes over the past 6 months. The casual sports fan now MUST know what FanDuel is in order to be included in the most relevant fantasy sports conversations. FanDuel this past week reported nearly $37 million in revenue for the 4Q 2014. That is a massive increase from $7.4 million posted in the same quarter the previous year. 2014 total revenue was approximately $57 million on the year. So how did FanDuel grow their revenue at such a rapid rate? For the first time, more than 1 million people paid to play at FanDuel in Q4 2014. In Q4 2013, that number was just over 190,000. In the DFS industry, Q4 is where you need to show big growth since the NFL is in full gear along with the NBA. Year over year, this is the true test of growth due to player retention rates coming into play for football and new player acquisition for fantasy NBA players. Speaking of the NBA, after a $70 million funding round in September, FanDuel signed a four-year deal with the NBA to be the league’s official daily fantasy sports service. As part of the deal, the NBA also became a FanDuel investor and took a seat on FanDuel’s board. In case you were wondering, deals like this are the main reason FanDuel is NOT a profitable company. We have to assume the...

This is a new feature I’ve wanted to add to the site for a long time.  Naturally you’re all going to ask what took me so long to do so and the simple answer is I don’t know.  Each Thursday moving forward my goal is to collect some of the most relevant sports betting articles to share right here.  Whether it’s about legalization, fantasy, strategy, or history the goal will be to help educate the community using the voices of others.  In order to make this an even better exercise I’d encourage loyal readers of the blog or just sports betting enthusiasts to email articles they think would be worth sharing.  I’m realistic: you all have lives, families, and schedules that don’t let you scan the internet for interesting articles.  Hopefully I can help the process because making for a more educated sports betting community helps all of us. Topic – Daily Fantasy – Source USA TODAY LAS VEGAS — The head honchos at FanDuel want to make something very clear. The product they sell is not sports betting, they say. It’s something different. In exchange for an entry fee, FanDuel allows sports fans the chance to win cash prizes every day based on the performance of players in professional or college sports. click here to read full article My Take: This is a discussion that’s not going away any time soon: is daily fantasy sports betting?  The author does a nice job getting different view points on the topic.  I think the spread of daily fantasy only helps full legalization of sports betting in all 50 states become an eventual reality but to say somehow it’s not gambling is borderline preposterous. Topic – Illegal Bookmaking – Source New Orleans News A federal judge...

The topic of legalized sports wagering, especially in relation to its impact on the NBA, has been a hot button topic since Adam Silver’s ground breaking comments months ago.  On New Year’s Eve, a columnist named Jay Evensen had some pretty scathing comments about potential ramifications of Silver’s position on the topic in regards to fan experience.  Here’s an excerpt from his article: …Which leads me to a New Year’s warning as I peer through my crystal ball into 2015. Appropriately, it is sports related, and it goes like this: If the NBA succeeds in making it legal to wager money on its games, it would be a bad thing for the league, the sport and, to some extent, Utah’s economy… Click here to read the full article Todd’s Take First things first: I know nothing about the current state of Utah’s economy.  However, I do understand in this progressive era of local casinos and lottery development Utah remains staunchly opposed to games of chance. The Legislature shall not authorize any game of chance, lottery or gift enterprise under any pretense or for any purpose. Now this is well and good because I personally hate state lotteries as well.  Each state should govern its people accordingly but I believe Jay is missing the point here.  Evensen uses the 1919 Black Sox scandal back in 1999 along with the 2007 NBA scandal involving Tim Donaghy to make his point about integrity of sport.  To his credit he doesn’t appear to be of the opinion that the act of gambling itself would change the propensity for games to be rigged but rather he cites the fan experience as being vastly different with legalized wagering. Wait what?  To claim the fan experience would drastically change with widespread...