Legendary handicapper and LVASportsboards co-moderator Fezzik responds:
The jury is still out on this. Many Las Vegas bettors like to reminisce about the "good-ole days" when they had 20 "outs," and lots of unique/rogue numbers were out there to be found. When William Hill took over Leroy's/Lucky's/Cal Neva, the sports bettors saw three more doors slam shut and just one open.
On it's face it doesn't look good, but I think you have to look at what a positive influence Cantor Gaming has been. Even some of the fossil bookmakers in town have taken notice, and have started to finally offer certain things they should have been dealing for years, such as live wagering, app's on phones for offsite betting, fantasy football-type props, etc.
Cantor and William Hill cannot function as loss leaders for the casinos. They pay rent for their spaces on top of their other expenses, and the only way they can make money is to take bets. Hence, these books have every motivation to roll out more product, get bettors to wager bigger, and write more volume. Contrast that with some of the old-school places that literally felt the only way the casinos risked losing was to take big bets, so they discouraged them.
Assuming Cantor and William Hill can continue to get the rest of the industry to mimic their styles, it will eventually be a great situation. Yes, we'll have lost a lot of the smaller books, but the betting options at those that remain will be so much better and more varied.
It's interesting that most of the innovation in the sports-betting industry comes from the new players in the market. I think that stems from the basic strategy most casinos use with their employees, encouraging them to bat zero rather than ever take a chance, for fear it could cost them money. Dealers are discouraged from active interaction with customers (it might offend someone!) and books are discouraged from taking any sort of risk that the house could lose on, namely dealing new products. So … for 20 years (1985-2005) the Vegas books didn't change and the offshore books took their business.
Now the offshore market is in shambles. Players don't trust having their money in the hands of a potentially nefarious operator (the Full Tilt disaster, along with numerous books going belly up over the years, have seen to that). The market is ripe for Las Vegas to once again become the center for sports betting in the world.
Cantor has led the charge, but they can't do it alone. So bring on William Hill, and let's hope a rising tide lifts all boats, which should be the case if all the books follow along.
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