Lock of the year at Olympic!

[AYCE]

For all you guys that really believe "a bet is a bet", try this one at Olympic,

Season Win Totals

Tampa Bay Buccaneers
411 Over 75½ wins -110
412 Under 75½ wins -110

How much would you like on the UNDER?



Oh yeah, a bet is a bet. A line is a line.

[Alexander]

That is an obvious mistake. They don't even play 75 games in a season. That is like getting a line on a college game of +100.

This is getting really old, but us "a line is a line" guys really wouldn't have a problem if Olympic cancelled our bet BEFORE the football season started, which they obviously would.

What is really getting old is the inability of some sportsbooks to put up the right lines. Who puts up these lines at Olympic? Are they ever doublechecked? It seems that putting up the right lines is not that important to Olympic, and other sportsbooks, because these mistakes are all too common.

Sure everybody cares about getting paid first and foremost, but how "solid" are books that keep making mistakes like these. Aren't these mistakes getting a little tiring to some people? Don't these sportsbooks feel an obligation to put up the correct lines?

That is an embarassing mistake if Olympic posted a line like that. But too many people just shrug these mistakes off. What if a Las Vegas casino mistakingly posted their room rates at $10 a day instead of $100 a day. You bet there would be a lot of angry people, even though that was an "obvious" mistake. When a book puts out their lines, it is like an advertisement, and bad lines are false advertisements.

Ayce, all these bad lines are really funny to you. I guess it's because you would never take advantage of them, so you find people who do pretty amusing. But you really don't get the point. If sportsbooks don't feel the obligation to put up the right lines, then I certainly don't feel any obligation to not take advantage of them. If they realize their mistake, then great, go ahead and cancel my bet. (but please do it before the actual game in question starts, but let's not get into that again)

I really could care less if a sportsbook thinks I am a thief if I bet on a bad line. Before they call me a thief, they should look at the reasons why they can't put up the proper lines. (try to tell me that they couldn't avoid this if they spent more money on more knowledgable staff or more staff period) If I owned a sportsbook, it would be of utmost importance to me to put up the right lines. If I put up a bad line, I definitely wouldn't think of people who take advantage of that line as crooks or thieves. In all honesty, I would feel like I am the one who should apologize to them for having to cancel their wagers for being so careless as to have put up a bad line.

Sportsbooks have an obligation to the bettor to put up the correct lines, period. Too many sportsbooks are not fulfilling this most basic of obligations, and for some reason that is beyond me, a lot of people here don't seem to care.

[phaedrus]

Alexander, take it easy on ragging on olympic. They put up more lines (arguably) than any other sportsbooks. They deal with Credit, huge bettors, and small bettors over the internet.

Their payouts are so quick and timely that you receive them between 24-36 hours after you request them.

Their website is hardly ever down and fast as lightning even during crunch times.

Oh yeah they put up half time lines on EVERY single NCAA bball game, they make one mistake and you are already getting "tired" of it.

Give the gals and guys over at Olympic a break. They add NFL total wins, along with MLB total wins, futures all NHL lines, all NCAA bball lines, NBA lines, are the first to put up the overnight lines etc. etc,

cut them some slack.

here is an idea, rather than running over to this bb to complain about a line error, how about politely picking up the phone or sending olympic an email to notify them of the error?

Anyone ever thought of that?

Save the complaints for duplicitous operators like Ray Meyers et al, and the blowhards like Skybook.

[AYCE]

The above line is just a very obvious typo.

The bet offer actually should be,

"TB DEVIL RAYS"

and the bet can bet found at the baseball section.

Its not a big deal at all, as I'm sure they will correct this typo very quick and I just thought this is pretty funny.

Its not even anything about the numbers.

Only idiots may think they can take advantage on this line here so don't be too serious about it.

I am just bored and trying to make a cheap joke.

Alexander, please.

But if you are so keen on your belief, why didn't you fight to death on your last post with Olympic (which I would rather believe you have a much valid point than Olympic in that 2nd half line) but choose to believe their explanation is "rational and fair"?

And then coming back to repeat and repeat and repeat those old thoughts again and again and again...

[Alexander]

phaedrus,

I had an account with Olympic, so I know for a fact that they have made more than the occasional error. Just because they post more lines than anybody shouldn't be an excuse for mistakes. That's like telling me I shouldn't be mad if I have to wait 30 minutes at the check-out cashier at Wal-Mart because they don't want to spend the money to hire more cashiers, and lose profits. (Wal-Mart is great, they usually have more than enough cashiers) If Olympic wants to post more lines, that's great, but they should still ensure that those lines are accurate, whether it be hiring more staff or just being more careful.

I had one major complaint with Olympic, which was resolved by Spiro, and one minor complaint. I still believe they are a decent book, but there are a lot of things they could improve on.

All I am saying is that I truly believe that some sportsbooks don't take posting accurate lines seriously enough. As a customer, am I wrong to want the right lines? Do I have to call in every time that I think a line might be off? Whose responsibility is it to ensure the accuracy of those lines? Not mine.

phaedrus, you would be an ideal customer to me if ever had a sporstbook. You are really easy to please. But you wouldn't be any more valuable to me than those customers that would call in to complain every time I posted a bad line. I think they have every right to complain, and I would try to re-assure them that I would take steps in trying to ensure that such mistakes would not happen in the future.

I would hope that if you owned a sportsbook, that you would respect your client's right to complain if you ever posted a bad line. A bad line is just CARELESSNESS on your part. Because if you didn't understand why they might be angry, then you are just making excuses for your own carelessness. And you'll just keep making the same careless mistakes over and over again. Let's face it, we all know that sportsbooks that choose to be careless do so because they know that they can cancel wagers made on their mistakes at any time. So why spend more money on more staff?

There really is no excuse for carelessness, and I guess the difference between you and me is that you believe that bad lines are rare, and they are the result of honest mistakes. Whereas I believe that these mistakes are too common, and they are the result of carelessness. Sportsbooks know they can do a much better job of posting accurate lines, and it's just a matter of whether they really want to or not.

Let's just say that you really owned a sportsbook and somebody phoned in to complain to you about a bad line you posted.
Would you honestly tell them, "Well, sir, we post so many lines here that you have to cut us some slack for making the occasional mistake." That is the excuse you are making for Olympic.

Or would you rather tell the customer, "Well, sir, I apologize for our mistake, and I understand your anger, but believe me, I am taking measures to ensure that these mistakes will not happen in the future."

Well, I know which sportsbook I'd rather join, and if you still think I am making a big deal out of nothing, then we just don't see eye to eye on this matter.

[This message has been edited by Alexander (edited 03-09-2000).]

[Alexander]

Ayce,

I just accepted Olympic's explanation of that extreme variance in their half-time line on that particular game. If they want to tell me that was an honest line, then fine. I wasn't whining because I lost my money. All I wanted to know from them was whether I could bet another half-time line that seemed way off to me, with the utmost confidence that my bet would not be cancelled. They told me yes, so if I ever see a half-time line that looks too good to be true, I will hold Olympic to their word.

[AussieVamp2]

More staff? In the 90s?

Yeah, that happens.

Should send that to a few telcos.

[Alexander]

I know. Banks here in Canada are making billion dollar profits year after year, yet there seem to be fewer and fewer tellers available to serve you. Hiring more tellers would cut into their enormous profit margins. I have waited in line for half an hour or more on several occasions, and there's just no excuse for that. The most annoying thing is that the tellers take their lunch breaks at lunch time. Banks are busiest at lunch time because people flock to the banks on their lunch time because that's the only free time they really have. So what you get is a lineup of 20 people or so, and three tellers, because the other two are on lunch. Go figure.

I always try to do my banking at the bank machine, but there are still some banking things that require having to wait in line. Anything can be done properly and smoothly, it's usually just a question of whether that certain company or institution wants to spend the resources (money) to ensure that things are done properly. Some do, and some don't.

So those of you willing to excuse the sportsbooks when they post bad lines, should also be willing to excuse them if you get busy signals when trying to wager, or are put on hold for long periods of time when you want to talk to a customer service rep, etc... Who wants to join a book when all you get are busy signals? Are we supposed to cut them some slack because they have "too many customers"? No, hire some more staff!!!! So, I will not cut Olympic some slack whenever they post bad lines just because they post "so many lines". Hire more staff, be less careless, do whatever it takes, just do it.

[Gary]

When I saw this post I thought you were going to point out that Olympic is offering a moneyline on the Rice Tulsa game. I feel I progressed to Olympic and when I went back to other books I just really missed what I got at Olympic. With other books you get 'oh you can't parlay moneylines or no we don't have a halftime line on that game even though its on ESPN'. When you request a payout the money is removed instantly from your account, it doesn't sit there for two or three days for you to play and lose and eventually not get paid. I figure if any book has a line on something then you can be sure Olympic has a line on it(American Sports in particular).