James Holzhauer, of Jeopardy! fame, is working for the athletic, writing about sports gambling. The first column already had a lot of stuff I didn’t know:
This was interesting to me. I thought that was exactly what they go for:
A popular misconception is that sportsbooks set their lines in order to get an equal amount of money on each side. […] The book typically prefers to keep the line close to the “correct” number and gamble on the result, rather than move to an off-market number and attract a flood of action from advantage players.
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Fascinating information. Now I want to make a board game where one player is the bookie. We already have betting games like Camel Up, but none that I know of where players are setting the odds.
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This is kind of a wild story.
A Pentagon report in the early 2000s claimed that without the slot machines, the [morale, welfare, and recreation] groups would not be able to afford other amenities for military members such as golf courses and family activity centers.
No golf courses if you need an unregulated gambling operation to pay for them seems… obvious?
Do not gamble. The house is straight up showing that they have a vast information and technology advantage.
If a huge bodybuilder carrying a full arsenal challenges you to a fight, you say NO THANK YOU.
I want to talk about the Ohtani story, but it keeps changing every 5 minutes.
Just read this article which seems to have a good grasp of the situation:
Long story short, if you believe Ohtani’s Monday statement, Ohtani’s translator released statements that weren’t actually from Ohtani and Ohtani didn’t know what was going on until later.
No matter what the truth is, I really only see two possibilities.
The translator is either a crook, and now Ohtani’s worst enemy, or the translator is a fall guy and Ohtani’s best friend ever.
I’m sure we’ll find out which it is eventually. Until then, popcorn time.
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Based on the DOJ investigation, it looks like Ohtani’s translator is an even bigger crook:
“The answers, as explained by federal prosecutors Thursday, are very dark. Ohtani is a victim on a scale both more severe and more multifaceted than media reports had indicated. He did nothing wrong other than trust the wrong people—in particular a dear friend who screwed him, and handsomely compensated staffers and Dodgers executives who accelerated a public-relations mess.”
" The feds say that Mizuhara took not just a million bucks from Ohtani, but $16 million . Not that there’s an especially ethical way to steal $16 million, but the Justice Department accuses Mizuhara of plotting it in a sinister fashion. According to the indictment, Mizuhara impersonated Ohtani and authorized transfers from the player’s account over the phone, as well as diverted notifications and security alerts to his own phone and email address. Mizuhara was in a unique position to gain that access: He was not only Ohtani’s close friend but also his interpreter, the intermediary between the Japanese-speaking Ohtani and his English-speaking bank and financial advisers."
“Mizuhara did not bet on baseball, according to the records prosecutors reviewed. That saves MLB from what would’ve been a massive headache, even given Ohtani’s lack of involvement with any betting.”
Well, federal prosecutors agreeing with your story really helps you out.