Novacane32000
Sophomore
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2014
- Messages
- 1,739
Cool, I wonder what we were in 1983.
Nothing. Those odds didn't exist at the time. Online offshore books obviously didn't exist and sportsbooks were prohibited from booking action on outcomes that weren't decided on the field of play. Sporting "elections" like the AP Poll or UPI Poll or Heisman Trophy were not bettable.
That didn't change until the BCS came up with the matchup of the final two teams. At that point future odds were offered on who would win that game.
When I worked in a sportsbook I can't count how many times I had to turn away tourists who wanted to bet on this or that. They'd have a list that Uncle Fred wants to bet $20 on the MVP award, and similar. When I told them there was no action on those categories they would be miffed, if not stunned. They were under the false conventional wisdom impression that, "You can bet on anything in Las Vegas, honey."
Only in recent years has it loosened up a little bit, primarily to allow the Nevada books to take action that otherwise would go elsewhere.
In 1983 there probably were published college football championship odds from guys like Danny Sheridan looking for publicity for himself, but those numbers were invented and not actually on the board anywhere.
Anyway, future odds are a ripoff, far more often than not. Sucker pools with incredibly high house take. And the take only goes up. When somebody makes a sizeable bet on some team, that team's odds will be lowered while the others are rarely raised to balance things.
Every time you look at a future book number it's wise to realize it could probably be doubled and you still would have the worst of it. That's why the sportsbooks trot those numbers out there immediately so they can draw a steady stream of small wagers throughout the offseason.
So you are saying that in order for this to be a worthwhile bet we should be getting 200-1 odds ?
