When is a line BAD?

[BARNEY]

WINTERMUTE,
Check your e-mail please.

[DrunkenGoon]

I had Vancouver -0.5 +120 and my book honored my bet... I placed that bet around 11:00 am, the line moved significantly in the afternoon...

May all your bets be winners

[mls]

I assume - because of the silence - that the book in question decided to pay what the owed.

If not, I hope wintermute will reveal the name of the book ...

[wintermute]

The book in question is Island Casino. As I said at the start of this thread they are all things considered not a bad book. They can admit a mistake.

They have reviewed my situation and we have come to a mutually agreeable resolution of the problem.

I made it clear that if the problem does recur I will definitely close the account.

There's no doubt that having a public forum such as Bettorsworld in which people can air their grievances contibuted greatly to the happy outcome.

Thanks to everyone for their support.

wintermute

[bucky]

Wintemute,
Congrats on your resolution! The difference between a sharp or opinionated line and a loose line or small mistake is very hard for the bettor to tell. Depends on how much it happens. If one pops up out of the blue it must be loose. If one pops up every day I think its sharp especially if the plays are losing, in which case they are your new reverse tout.
At any rate, you know their feelings and they know yours. However, in the event of something like this to any Bettorsworld player that cannot be worked out I think some form of solidarity would have some weight. In other words if a player does not get paid on a confirmed wager not only will the players publicize it for others but I think we should withdraw our funds en masse to show support for our financially wounded compatriot.
Kind of like a Gamblers Union. I am only partially serious but one man only has so much clout whereas a unified group of players might be a force to be reckoned with.

[intheknow]

There are no "bad lines", just lines that are posted. You take the bet, you pay the bet period! All this crap just came up in the last couple of years. Before that, it was never a question, you gave a line, took the bet, confirmed the bet and hung up. ACTION!!!! PERIOD!!!!. If you can't double check your lines, hire someone who can. If you can't check all the lines, only post those you can. It's absurb!!!!!! Our Books are Multi-million dollar operations, how can you not have someone double-checking your lines constantly?
I can't believe this is an issue now. It's all these damn extra props and BM's blindly copying prop lines without knowing who should be favored or the dog!

Enough, sorry about the rant, but Pleeeeeze.
Bookmaking ain't rocket science.

[AussieVamp2]

another example :-

Centrebet had Kings over Bruins at +100 the other day, think it is -120 or -125 most places.

Did they pay? Of course they did. No crap like that.

[mls]

I wish Island Casino the best of luck ...

However, cancelling a bet with a line 10 cents off is a sure sign of financial problems in my opinion.

Three years ago I had Betmaker cancel a 2 dime baseball bet which also was 10 cents off. After several E-mails and calls they gave me some (but not all) of the bet back.

Later I found out that at that time they WERE having cash flow problems.

When a book panics over a line 10 cents off they have a reason for being "penny scared" ...

[AussieVamp2]

yeah, certainly sounds dodgy

another example again today

Pinnacle had Vancouver -115 when I was looking, Centrebet, Sportodds around -142

[sportshobby]

mls, instead of cash flow problems I think the explanation is a very regimented bookmaking philosphy. And while this may minimize the amount of bad wagers that they take, it's probably not worth the loss in customer satisfaction.

[PMcK]

The line wintermute got was the "right" line (if there is such a thing in the start of a NHL season) an hour before his bet. This book was just slow to follow the move and then claimed they had a "bad" line!!!

[bucky]

I wonder if their was a goalie change or injury problem in this game? This morning the Flyers opened at a pick -120 and about an hour later the line changed to Ottawa -120 to -130. I'm not sure why. But if you beat somebody to the steam there is it possible they will try to call it a bad line.

These books just hate to move the line because of onesided action because they lose all or most of their juice sometimes.

[Hamhog]

WWTS showed a lot of class in a similar situation.

They had a prop bet up yesterday for total completions by Frank Wycheck at 5. Frank Wycheck caught 5 passes (he dropped a few too).

When I checked my account I saw it was graded as a win. Called them to correct their grading error and was told that since they used "completions" instead of "receptions", they chose to grade all plays as winning.

Miracle in music city aside, it is clear 5 completions for Wycheck is a very bad line.
WWTS deserves praise.

[Ronbets]

Hamhog,

You're the class act here. Not many would ? a higher figure.