One of the really interesting aspects of the World Series comes from the Wise Guy angle. With several futures tickets outstanding for daring soles who bravely bet money on the Rays to win the World Series at 200-1 before the season started, there’s no secret who Las Vegas and other online casinos want to win the Fall Classic: the Phillies. They opened the line with the Rays as the favorites even though the teams seem to be pretty evenly matched, so that they could try to spark betting interest on the Phils to help them hedge. What kind of impact could it have on sports books in Vegas if the Rays win?
“It’s a significant number for a futures book, but it’s nothing that’s going to shut down the book or anything,” Kornegay told The Associated Press. “It might dim the lights.”
…
“We have learned our lesson that we don’t open these teams at 500-1 until the season starts and we realize what they have and what kind of team they have,” Kornegay said. “This year, I’m going to guess it’s probably in the millions range if you accumulate all the liability across the state.”
They must be breathing quite a sigh of relief after seeing the Phils take a Game 1 lead. Could you just imagine a room of FOX execs and sports book managers huddled together hoping for the Rays to lose in the ALDS or the ALCS so they don’t lose too much money? Could there be any other team in there that people would be more unhappy to see? At least they’re getting their way so far. Wonder if the wise guys can somehow create a few artificial rainouts to get Hamels an extra start or two — they wouldn’t even have to sweat in that case.
