Question of the Day - 10 January 2024

Chris Andrews, author of our books Then One Day and Then One Year and director of the South Point sports book, tells the following story.

In 1989 when Jimmy Vaccaro was the sports book manager at the just-opened Mirage, Hamburger Jack from Dallas asked him, “How many games do you think the Cowboys will win this year?”

Jimmy said, “Come back tomorrow and I’ll have a price for you.” Then he looked over the schedule and made his number.

When Hamburger Jack returned the next day, Jimmy told him, "Six and a half."

Hamburger Jack slapped $38,500 on the counter and said, "I'll take the over." 

It was the first bet on season-win totals, the very first of its kind.

Now every sports book has season-win totals on virtually every sport. Jimmy Vaccaro had invented one of the most revolutionary developments in the sports betting business. But that was then and this is now.

Generally speaking, sports books book bets that they place on their odds boards. They figure out their lines, post the odds, and see which way the wind blows, moving the lines when necessary. So you're right that you couldn't just walk up to a ticket writer at a sports book counter and offer such a proposition; the clerk would never make a decision like that. If a bet's not on the board, he or she would certainly kick it "upstairs." 

Also, today, with huge corporations running the majority of sports books around the country, you'd probably have to go through layer after layer of management to offer an out-there proposition like Hamburger Jack did and the answer would probably come back no. Might some decision maker at an independent book or two consider it? Here's what Chris Andrews says.

"It’s possible, but I think most bookmakers would turn it down. The odds could be figured: Simply multiply the current odds to what you think the future odds would look like. Westgate's Superbook did something like this with Tiger Woods, but it didn’t write any business on it. It was more something the media picked up on, but they quit doing those sort of things."