Why Don't Sports Books Give Comps for Sports Bets?

Why don’t casinos allow you to accrue tier/reward points for sports betting? It would seem to me that with the vig accounted for in every bet, the house edge is as great or greater than popular tables games, like craps, baccarat and blackjack. Shouldn’t that count for something when rating my play?

[Editor's Note: This answer is written by Steve Sharp, whose pseudonym will probably change before it appears on the title of his upcoming book, Win at Sports Betting, which might also change before it sees the dark of print. But at least you'll be able to identify him when his new name is qualified by "formerly known as Steve Sharp."]

One would think that since the sports book hold is easily twice that of most table games, sports bettors would be twice as desirable. In fact, it's very difficult in most casinos to receive any comps for sports betting, aside from free drinks. Here’s why.

Let’s say Rollie visits the sports book on an NFL Sunday and makes four $110 wagers. Typically, he’ll then sit back in the book for the next three hours to cheer on his teams. Once the dust settles, Rollie, on average, will win two and lose two, resulting in a net gain of only $20 for the sports book. Meanwhile, he most likely enjoyed some cold beverages on the book's tab in the process. In fact, one could argue that Rollie enjoyed a net win while in the sports book when factoring in what he would have paid for drinks.

Rather than watch the late games on Sunday, Rollie wanders into the casino to play blackjack. He finds a 6-5 Las Vegas Strip game and plays $25 a hand, a typical amount for a guy who wagers $100 on football games. Being an average player, John plays at roughly a 2% disadvantage. With two or three other players at his table, he’ll play approximately 100 hands an hour. At the end of three hours, he's played 300 hands and wagered a total of $7,500, with an expected win for the casino of $150. That’s a 7½ times greater loss than in the three hours he spent in the sports book.

Basically, the difference comes down volume. A sports bettor makes his wagers, then contentedly sits back and watches the games to see how they play out. Blackjack, as well as other table games, requires constant action. So while casinos need sports books to attract guests, they don’t want to reward players for sitting around and watching television.

That said, if your sports book bets are large enough (and we mean really large), we suspect you'll get the attention of casino comp departments. Losing those large sports bets would probably help your cause as well!

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Rick Gevers Jul-12-2019

Stations

FYI Red Rock (and presumably other Stations properties) do give you points on sports bets.  Just give them your player card when you make the bet.

Kevin Rough Jul-12-2019

Caesars Rewards

The last I knew Caesars Rewards gives 1 Tier Credit for every $20 wagered at the sports book.  Stations gives 1 Tier Credit for every $1 bet on sports and 20 points per $1 bet on parimutual races.

Kevin Lewis Jul-12-2019

Points/Tier credits: meh

Let's say Rollie has a Stations player's card and presents it when he makes his four $110 bets. He'll get 440 points on his card. These are worth 44 cents in comps.

"Tier credits" mean different things in different player's clubs but the common thread is that they aren't good for comps--they just move you up in player card level. And that usually takes tens of thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands, of points, especially as you get higher in level. So ONE tier credit as a reward is a joke--the free stubby pencils at the counter are worth more.

As Steve said, you'll never see meaningful comps for sports bettors because the bleed rate per hour is so tiny, even for large wagers. A penny slot player is worth far more than Robbie with his $440 worth of action, over the course of the several hours it takes to resolve Robbie's bets. So yes, Robbie should drink heavily at the casino's expense while kicking back and watching the game.

Jul-12-2019

Historical Notes

In the 70's and 80's, discretionary comping treated sports bettors pretty well. When comp systems were first formalized, sports and race players were originally rewarded at the same rate. Then accountants began doing analyses, and sports bet rewards were incrementally cut back to a fraction of race rewards. In the 80's and early 90's, the comp rate for places like the LVHilton and Circus-Circus (believe it or not) was in the range of $1 in comps for every $200 to $240 in play. The trend of reducing sports comps continued, and that's actually why I began playing some minimal video poker, as a way to accrue meals and rooms. The situation has gotten worse through the decades. I did a comp survey about 10 years ago, and when I checked with the Wynn, they wanted 20K in action (that day) to spring for a meal. That's a little excessive.

Discretionary comps are dead, of course. Now we'll see if LV reverses comp course since other states will hijack their action pretty quickly.

Question of the Day - 12 July 2019

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