Inside the Lines

Inside the Lines

Thomas DeNigris

Copyright © 2020 Thomas M. DeNigris

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2020

ISBN 978-1-64801-629-5 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64801-630-1 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

The Journey into the World of Sports Betting Begins

He’s Makin’ a Living

Talkin’ the Talk An A-to-Z Glossary of Betting Terms

First the ABCs…Now the 1-2-3s Getting to Know and Understand the Numbers

The Line Formed Here… The Who, What, When, Where, and How It All Began

The Good (Athletes), The Bad (Gambling Addiction), and The Ugly (Scandals Rock the Sports World)

The Government Enters the Sports-Betting Arena Laws Passed to Make Betting Illegal

Scotus Speaks… So Does the NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA, etc.

Why Fighting Matters The MMA/UFC versus Boxing

There Are Other Sports to Bet On

One Day in a Sportsbook in Las Vegas and New Jersey

Integrity

Hooks, Lines & Stinkers A Season on the Line

A Successful Future’s Bet

And Just When Things Were Going Great… Another Memorable, albeit Unwelcome, Moment Occurred

To my wife, Irene, for not minding me spending so much time researching and writing this book and also, perhaps most importantly, for tagging along into the casino sportsbooks whenever we are in Las Vegas or Atlantic City but mostly for whiling away the hours spent in the Monmouth Park Racetrack William Hill Sports Book watching me staring at sheets of paper and digital boards. I could not have done this without her.

To my kids, Danielle and Paul, each of whom had to put up with a sports-addicted father who would not let another man or woman coach them in soccer, basketball, or baseball.

To Danielle’s husband, Billy Mozet, who, along with Paul, was an inspiration for this book. Indeed, after one of the casual dinners with relatives in Las Vegas, where the conversation was centered, of course, on sports betting, wondered aloud about some of the terms my cousins and I were using while discussing the current football season, not to mention the next day’s Thanksgiving Day clashes in the NFL. And later that night…the middle of the night, in fact, voilà, the light bulb went off.

I needed to write a book about sports betting.

Thanks guys!

Acknowledgments

There are so many people whom I wish to thank.

First, a big thank-you to Anthony DiTommaso, former director of risk operations at CG Technology in Las Vegas, for setting up interviews with various sports-betting experts. Another big thank-you to Matthew DiTommaso of Las Vegas for supplying me with valuable Internet links and other pertinent information for research purposes.

Special thanks to Matthew Holt and Quinton Singleton for taking time out from their busy schedules and granting Inside the Lines an interview on integrity inside The M of Las Vegas Sportsbook; to Richie Baccellieri for also taking time out for an interview at The M in Las Vegas and for giving me great insight into the line-making process; and to Jay Kornegay, from his position as vice president at the Westgate Hotel and Casino SuperBook, for stopping by a booth inside the SuperBook for an interview.

Finally but not lastly, a thanks to my best buddy, Michael Kelly, for those many trips to the Monmouth Park Raceway William Hill Sports Book and for asking me so many questions about sports betting and mostly for motivating me to keep on writing this book!

Introduction

Memorable Moment 1

Polo Grounds

October 3, 1951

There’s a long drive…it’s gonna be, I believe…The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! Bobby Thomson hits into the lower deck of the left-field stands! The Giants win the pennant and they’re going crazy! They’re going crazy!

Memorable Moment 2

Lake Placid, New York

February 22, 1980

11 seconds. You’ve got 10 seconds. The countdown going on right now. Morrow, up to Silk. Five seconds left in the game. Do you believe in miracles? Yes!

Memorable Moment 3

Tokyo, Japan

February 11, 1990

What an uppercut by Douglas…down goes Tyson… It’s over! Mike Tyson has been knocked out!

Three of the most exciting—and memorable—moments in the world of sports. I was not around for Memorable Moment 1, but with a baseball-loving dad who also happened to be a die-hard Giants baseball fan, I heard so much about that day of October 3, 1951; and being such a baseball fan, I was lucky enough to have read about it numerous times and eventually got to hear that incredible call by Giants baseball radio play-by-play man Russ Hodges.

I was lucky enough to be around on February 22, 1980, though. In fact, I was working as a general assignment reporter for the Bridgewater Courier News in New Jersey and was even luckier to be able to read about the action taking place that day in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid via the Associated Press ticker-tape machine (Oh, so long before the age of the Internet!)

(Historical note: This hockey game between the major underdog United States team comprised of college-hockey-playing kids and led by Herb Brooks, himself a former USA Olympic hockey team member, against the big, bad defending Olympic hockey champion the Soviet Union was not being televised live as it would be today. Instead, ABC TV was taping the game for a later broadcast that night. This was a common practice back then—taping and then televising later during prime time. It was also pure indication that no one—in this country anyway—was giving the American kids a snowball’s chance in hell of even playing a competitive game against the Soviets and especially considering that about a week before the Olympic Games started, the Soviet Union romped over this same USA team at Madison Square Garden in a so-called friendly match. But, oh, what a memorable Olympic game this was, let alone a magical moment!)

Indeed, on that February day, the United States Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviet Union, which at that time, if not of all time, considered to be the greatest hockey team in the world. And that call from Al Michaels on ABC TV—to this day called the Miracle Call—remains engrained in many minds of sports fans as this game is arguably the greatest upset in sports history.

But then ten years later came another major upset, another one that can arguably be called the greatest upset in sports history. This was February 11, 1990, in Tokyo. A heavyweight championship title fight between undisputed and undefeated Iron Mike Tyson and incredible underdog Buster Douglas.

Taped and seen later on cable television, the broadcast call noted above came from outstanding boxing announcer Jim Lampley and written words cannot do justice to just how excited his call was when in the tenth round, Douglas scored with a few jabs and then clobbered Tyson with a thunderous uppercut that caused Tyson to stumble. Douglas, sensing the opportunity to end the fight, moved in and rocked Tyson with four unanswered punches; and down went the champ. Tyson attempted to get back on his feet but was clearly, as they say in sweet science jargon, on Queer Street and was not able to gather himself as Ref. Octavio Meyran counted him out, resulting in Lampley’s great call.

Lampley’s and Michael’s calls are worth researching and listening to as both can be considered the best sports calls ever.

But you can argue that Russ Hodges’s call on that 1951 October day was just as good—if not better…at least for us baseball Giants fans! This was the New York (soon to become the San Francisco) baseball Giants against their bitter rival the Brooklyn (soon to become the Los Angeles) Dodgers at the famous Polo Grounds in New York City. And up to the plate stepped Giants third baseman Bobby Thomson with Ralph Branca on the mound for the Dodgers. Two Giants were on base in this incredibly exciting playoff game as Thomson stood in the batter’s box. The Giants had won thirty-seven of their last forty-four regular-season games to tie the Dodgers for the National League pennant that season. And, thus, under Major League Baseball rules at the time, a three-game playoff would decide the champion. The teams split the first two games, tying the series to get into this third and deciding game. With the Giants trailing in the last inning.

Thomson cracked the game-winning home run; and Hodges, calling the game on WMCA AM radio, captured it all with his famous call.

(Just a couple of sidenotes about this game: (1) this was the first baseball game nationally televised, (2) the radio broadcast was even heard on armed forces radio so our servicemen and servicewomen could follow the action, and (3) on deck for the Giants when Thomson cracked the game winner was none other than this young center fielder named Willie Mays!)

More notably, Russ Hodges’s call will forever be known as the…shot heard ’round the world.

Of course, what these three fabulous endings to sporting events conjure to me is…

Did anybody have any money on any of these events?

Certainly there had to be folks who had some green on the baseball game, albeit illegally with their bookies! After all, wagering on a sporting event was pretty popular albeit illegal back then and even during the ’80 Olympics, save for the sportsbooks in Las Vegas casinos. Perhaps a few blokes had made it out to Las Vegas in 1951 since two years earlier, the state of Nevada legalized sports betting. And no doubt a few bettors wagered on the USA versus Soviet Union Olympic hockey game.

(Betting note: the USA Hockey Team was a thousand-to-one underdog. Yes, a thousand to one!)

And the fact that the baseball game ended with a walk-off/game-winning home run while the hockey game was perhaps the greatest upset in team sports, made for some interesting reactions for sports bettors but especially for those who dropped some green on those games!

My mind continued to wander…

How about those who placed a wager on the 1990 heavyweight title fight between Mike Tyson and Buster Douglas, a 42-1 longshot; or maybe someone had the good fortune later that year in 1969 and placed a wager on the New York Mets at 100-1 to beat the Baltimore Orioles in the MLB World Series. Or how about Appalachian State’s football team in 2007 which was a 150-1 underdog to powerhouse Michigan and pulled off one of the greatest college football upsets.

And that is what I want to deal with here in this book about the world of sports betting…the good, the bad, and the ugly—a world that has grown quite impressively in recent years, growing from being an illegal and immoral exercise to a now legal and, well, while not exactly a totally moral exercise but at least one that you can perform without fear of breaking a law.

Which will eventually bring us to May 14, 2018, a definite memorable moment as that was the day that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) struck down a law called the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which was enacted to support professional and amateur sports leagues and associations in a battle against gambling, thus making sports betting an illegal activity.

The vote by SCOTUS enabled states to construct and operate legal sports-betting sites, like the sportsbooks in Las Vegas, including right here in New Jersey. Sports betting became legal on this day. Of course, there is the question of whether this decision by SCOTUS will affect the illegal side of sports betting, namely, those folks known as Bookies. Could this decision by SCOTUS eventually spell the end of the illegal bookie?

This book will delve into that by virtue of an interview with a professional gambler, a man who spends his time betting on sporting events…24/7/365! But the main theme throughout this book is an official look—via a personal journey of sorts—into the world of sports betting. There is no doubt that there are as many folks who are interested in, if not fascinated by, yet refuse to step into the world of sports betting, as there are those who have entered this world and continue to travel through it!

Welcome to my world.

This book has been a long time coming.

My interest in sports betting started many, many years ago as you will read in the following chapter. While I was not exactly who is known as a sharp or wise guy, my interest in this world is as great as any sharp or wise guy.

From as far back as I can remember, I not only wanted to know what the spread or line was on a particular game (most specifically football!), but I also wanted to know more about the whole process.

I’ve always wanted to know

the who: from the past (originators) to the present, those folks who started this thing and those who continue to help grow it;

the what: the official definitions of point spreads, money lines, totals, etc.;

the where: the place where this all began, the past and present hotspots for sports betting;

the how: indeed, how did this thing get started, who started it, and where did it get started?

Welcome to this book, which will attempt to clarify all of the above—the who, what, when, where, and how of the sports-betting world.

In the following chapters, you will come to know the following:

one person’s journey into the sports-betting world;

one day with a person whose day-to-day life is as a professional sports bettor;

the sports-betting jargon—how to talk the talk before walking the sports-betting walk;

the first official lines and spreads;

how the government got and remain involved first as the antagonist and secondly only to reverse its stance and nearly become a protagonist of sorts;

what the numbers next to teams you see listed in newspapers and online and on television and on those large digital boards in sportsbooks really mean.

Also, highlighted in this book are in-depth sidebars on certain people, places, and things…simply titled as the following:

Persons of Interest: those folks, both past and present, who helped get this thing started and or added to the promotion of sports betting via positive public relations such as on television or online, etc.

Places of Interest: sites where historical events occurred or are currently occurring!

Events of Interest: the games and events that spur large amounts of wagers.

Scandals of Interest: ah, the ugly of the sports-betting world, events that rocked the sports world.

These are important pieces of why the world of sports betting exists and continues to grow.

You may not be a sharp or wise guy (definitions in later chapter), perhaps you are just a square, or perhaps you don’t bet on sporting events at all, but no doubt you have an interest in this thing which is now covered in newspapers, on radio and on television. If there is a game, there is no doubt a line or spread on it.

The sports-betting world can indeed be complicated, perhaps even intimidating. Those are reasons for me writing this book.

I have been interested in sports betting since I became interested in sports, which was, oh, I don’t know, around three or four years old!

Having majored in journalism and communications and graduating with a BA from Glassboro State College (now called Rowan), I was lucky enough to get a job working in the newspaper business. First with the Elizabeth Daily Journal (New Jersey) in an externship program while attending Middlesex County College, where I served for two years as the college newspaper’s sports editor and then to the Bridgewater Courier News. My first two stops in the newspaper business were on the news side. But then a part-time spot opened in the sports department at the Courier News, and my sports writing career began.

It literally took off when I applied to, interviewed with, and was hired as a full-time sports reporter for the Westfield Suburban News where I eventually climbed the corporate ladder to the Sports Editor post for this large weekly newspaper. I covered all sports, including the New York Football Giants of the NFL, the New Jersey Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and college sports, in addition to local youth and high school sporting events. While at the Suburban News, I was