Question

[alec]

I would like to ask everybody with experience in sports betting industry how does sports book work.

To be more specific:

How many people usually are responsible for the line?

Does there exist a person responsible for the line in whole or odds-makers are usually responsible only for some specific part of the line?

Does sports book usually create its own line or just compiles lines of several main books in accordance to its customers preferences? Or maybe it usually creates a part of the line and copies a part?

When changing the odds, do line managers follow some algorithm (like change a spread for one point after $10 000) or they make decisions according to each particular situation?

Is the owner of a book usually involved in creating the line? If not, can the owner change the line, if he wish, and how often does he usually do this?

What is the average salary of an odds-maker?

What is the average age of an odds-maker?

What is the measure of success of the job of an odds-maker?

I understand that the answers to these questions are very different for the Caribbean islands and the United Kingdom for instance. But I think ( maybe I am wrong) that inside a specific region there is some standard of an average sports book.

As far as my experience goes, I worked for several years for a sports book in Ukraine. We had three, sometimes four, odds-makers. One person among us was responsible for the line in whole. We used Internet and teletext (like skysport) to get international bookmakers odds and rarely made our odds very different. But in the same time we used to create a lot of original odds, for example for totals in soccer or tennis matches. While creating the line we usually paid little attention to the lines of our competitors in Kiev. The owner of the shop never looked at the line at all. The age of odds makers was from 25 to 45. The salary was much higher than the average salary in Ukraine, but precise amount, I guess, will say nothing to you.

I hope to hear about your experience.
Thanks.

[krackman]

Some good ?'s I hope someone can answer a few of them.

[alec]

As nobody is willing to answer my questions, I probably asked too many of them, maybe you can advise some links to the Internet sites, where I could find some information.
Thanks.

[Jeff]

Ok........

How many people are responsible for "the line"?......for years, the primary source was Las Vegas sports consultants, headed by Roxy Roxborough.(Before that it was Bob Martin.) They would put their numbers out to various Vegas books and International books, who in turn may shade the numbers based on their opinions or those of other independent oddsmaking firms. Recently, CRIS and other offshores have been posting the first numbers.

As for moving the numbers, you have the right idea. Of course each books liability is different. The $$$ a smaller book should take at a certain number, would be considerably smaller than a larger book. Common sense there.

Owners of the books would be involved, if the owners were bookmakers. Several offshore books were started and run by bookmakers from the states. Others, were started by businessmen, who in turn hired bookmakers to run the numbers. Those owner would have no input.

The measure of success would be the bookmakers hold. The higher his hold %, the more money he will likely make for himself. Some books pay a flat salary plus commission. Again, it's different from book to book. Remember, there's books out there in all shapes and sizes. From one man shows to offices with 100's of clerks.

[alec]

Jeff,

Thanks a lot.
I thought that the questions were too stupid, so nobody paid attention to them.

I f you don't mind, I will try to clarify several points.

I assume that you mainly refer to the Caribbean and Nevada sports books.

Could you tell how long several offshore books post their lines independently of "Las Vegas sports consultants"?

How many people that participate in creating of the line work for, for example, Olympic? I don't mean the clerks and the others, just people who work on the line.

If this information is available, what was the price of "Las Vegas Sports Consultants" service?
On the measure of success. We had a lot of discussions on this issue. I think that since 1% out of $10 000 is better than 10% out of $100, percentage alone is nothing. If you give more risky line, you are likely to accept more $$$. So even if the percentage is less, you still can gain more.

I read an advertisement of an odds-maker on your site in which he said something like my percentage on football was 8.5%. For me it means nothing.

What do you think?

Thanks.