Savor the avalanche.

Several independent factors bring Nevada sports books to the brink of historic revenue. Recovery from 9/11, casino expansion, sports explosion and a spiraling online feeder system have records teetering on extinction.

The state’s 175 legal sports wagering facilities handled a staggering 51 percent spike in 2006. Gamblers wagered $2.428 billion, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. The all-time mark of $2.481 billion, set in 1996, is on the ropes. Boxing, normally a gaming lightweight, may help Nevada KO the previous mark. The Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather extravaganza May 5 in Las Vegas helped books realize a 500 percent profit over the same 2006 period.

Volume is up substantially, with varied sectors contributing. The depth of the rally forecasts a long run.

Football Fever
Everyone has a perspective, linked with an area of expertise. Frank Streshley, senior analyst for the Nevada Gaming Control Board, indicates football delivered a major revenue boost.

“That increased more than 100 percent in 2006,” Streshley says.

Kenny White, who operates Las Vegas Sports Consultants, isn’t surprised. His company employs nine oddsmakers and supplies betting lines to 90 percent of Nevada’s sports books.

“We are in the best form we’ve ever been in,” White says. “Ticket-writing continues to go through the roof. People continue to bet in record numbers. You are not going to stop them from going to the window.”

“To me, sports wagering is the number-one commodity in Las Vegas,” White adds. “There is gaming all over the world. There is Vegas-style gaming all over the world. We have to take advantage of the Strip. This is something we do better than anybody, and we want to keep showing that through sports.”

White’s operation provides more than 800 betting lines—per week—at various times. It supplies 32 different weekly pro football spreads, 118 for college football, 140 for the NBA, 300 college hoops and 140 National Hockey League lines. Baseball commands about 350 more weekly spreads during its season. The all-you-can-wager buffet greets a visitor base exceeding 30 million people annually.

“When you look at five of the most traveled weekends in the calendar year, sports and sports wagering is a major part of it,” White says. “The Super Bowl, the first four days of March Madness, the kickoff to college football and New Year’s Day (with the added slate of bowl games) all are tied to sports. That creates major revenue for Las Vegas. We have the biggest fantasy football conventions in the country, too. The people keep coming, and they come here to play.”

Nothing Like the Real Thing
Once they arrive, the Las Vegas difference unfolds. Majestic gaming cathedrals dwarf the online experience. NFL Sunday remains a holiday unto itself, bringing thousands of people for several non-stop betting hours. The heartbeat of the book is unparalleled. Sounds of the game are often turned down.

Bettors provide the audio. A blend of clapping, cheering, jeering, screaming and moaning unfolds continually. It is accompanied by betting urgency, a rush of action and wild emotion swings. Individual TV monitors, large electronic scoreboards and the sense of exclusivity create fantasyland.

The real world takes notice. Although books take perhaps 1 percent of national wagering, giving ground to offshore parlors and the internet, they enhance the financial health of casinos and the community. Super Bowl weekend generated an estimated $109.5 million in non-gaming revenue this year, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Without books to supply action—about $93 million this year—non-gaming impact would vanish.

Operators continue viewing books as an attractive wild card. Any property without one is considered second-rate. Any expansion-minded property remembers to prime sports betting’s pump. Harrah’s recently announced a booming $1 billion expansion. In a rising-tides-lifts-all-boats philosophy, it will upgrade the vaunted Caesars Palace sports book. Caesars was the original sports-wagering Big Daddy on the Strip.

Books Are Resilient
Sports books absorbed their predicted hit from online and offshore wagering several years ago, but have rebounded for the same reason. Online players want more.

The booming internet market, pegged at $4.29 billion in 2005 by Christiansen Capital Advisors, provides a ripple sports-book benefit. Just as a movie renter still attends first-run flicks, online gamblers can patronize the books. They bring a new, sophisticated element to the wagering halls.

“There is a lot more information out there for the public, and the gamblers have become more savvy,” says Jay Kornegay, who heads the Las Vegas Hilton sports book. “They know the players better and the teams better. You won’t see a guy come up and just ask for a five-team parlay as much as you did a dozen years ago. What’s happened with the internet is actually good for our business, because there is still nothing like the electricity of the book. We draw people from all walks of life, from the young ladies to the older gentlemen. We see them from Thursday through Monday.

“The only adjustment for us is that we have to be better. The players know the difference between a 30-cent line (laying $1.15 to win $1 on either team) and a 20-cent line (laying $1.10 to win $1). We have to offer a better product, but we will make that up in volume. We have great promotions.”

Like 5 percent vig night. Players showing up on certain nights pay only $1.05 to win $1. That puts sports betting among the casino’s best games.

The Hilton also offers a state-of-the-art, 1,400-seat, smoke-free sports-betting theater. Part of the future has arrived.

Future Bets
Sports book futures for gamblers involve season win totals or championships. For operators, the future lies in technology, including self-bet kiosks.

Some facilities have them now. Kiosks will grab business from those reluctant to brave long lines. They may also provide action if the book is closed. In any case, convenience will rule. Horse racing bettors have proven the viability of this concept by using self-betting machines. Kiosks are a logical extension.

“You’ll be sliding in a $20 bill and getting hooked up with a parlay card,” White says. “The day is not far off when you will have an account with the books and have a wireless device hooked into a casino. You can make your decision at the swimming pool. Everybody is going to have this option before too long.”

Another innovation concerns marketing. White believes the industry will prosper by giving patrons a “read” on the book.

“We have so many people here, and we teach them how to play blackjack,” White says. “We should also teach them about sports betting. It represents one of the best values in the casino, but a sports book is an intimidating place to a lot of people. We see as many people walk halfway in and halfway out as we see people walk all the way in. People are not always comfortable with the betting boards, the odds, the payoffs, etc. Blackjack is the number-one game, as I see it, because it’s the easiest game. We need to make sports betting easier to understand.”

For the distant future, sports book operators maintain a long-shot hope: legislation to enable casinos to accept online action. The paradox is that the government would first have to declare internet wagering legal. Casinos can’t invest in technology and then later find the practice to be ruled illegal.

“It would be a great thing in Nevada, for tax dollars alone,” White says. “Think of taxes on $400 billion, what that would do for the treasury. It would also help us monitor all the betting.”
    
Scandal Sense
The sentiment gains momentum in the wake of a recent scandal. NBA referee Tim Donaghy resigned amid reports he’d wagered on games he officiated. Critics indicated sports books should have caught the wagering patterns, but Kornegay indicates the betting probably occurred outside Las Vegas. White points out the Northwestern and Arizona State betting scandals that sports books discovered and helped authorities to solve.

An online book, ironically, made a similar contribution. Betfair, based in London, shut down action from an ATP tennis match in Poland after finding peculiar betting patterns. It made the unprecedented move of returning all bets, as well.

Betfair discovered 10 times the usual betting amount on Martin Vassallo Arguello, the world’s 87th-ranked player, even after he was routed in the first set by fourth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko. Arguello won the second set and an injured Davydenko retired in the third set. Betfair would have been annihilated without taking action, but its self interest also aided the integrity of the sport. Betfair handed betting records over to the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals).

Was there a scandal? Davydenko’s injury was probably forecast in the opening set and people may simply have played percentages. Either way, the online book enabled the ATP to get in front of the matter rather than react to it. The book may also realize that taking mid-match wagers doesn’t work for tennis as it does for football. It’s a growing pain.

As record volume erupts, look for the books to maintain a major role in many industries. They enhance casinos, keep sports honest and play to the heart of the gambling dream. Sports books combine fantasy and reality.

By Dave Bontempo

Casino Connection Sports Editor Dave Bontempo is an award-winning sports writer and broadcaster who calls boxing matches all over the world. He has covered the Philadelphia Flyers in the playoffs, as well as numerous PGA, LPGA and Seniors Golf Tour events, and co-hosted the Casino Connection television program with Publisher Roger Gros.

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