I think anyone losing more than say €500 a month (probably too high even) should have to pass a means test to show they can afford it
A lot of the sports shows are sponsored by bookies .
Who watches over and who enforces ?
Me
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Sunday marked not only the NFL’s opening weekend, but also the league’s first season since the launch of full-scale sports gambling. The Supreme Court in May 2018 overturned the national ban on sports gaming largely outside of Las Vegas, but that just got the regulatory ball rolling. Even today only 13 states allow sports gambling — five others are pending — and most did not roll the dice until after the start of last year’s NFL season.
To get a peek at this new world, The Athletic spent Sunday with PointsBet at its U.S. hub as well as a planning meeting last week. An Australian firm that has been in the U.S. now for seven months, PointsBet distinguishes itself with two features: points betting, which awards more cash winnings, or losses, based on how much a bet exceeds or misses the line; and a multitude of prop bets. Prop, or proposition bets, are guesses on, say how many yards Saquon Barkley will gain, or whether Patrick Mahomes throws for 400 yards and three scores.
“Our plan for NFL is to offer the most props, not only in America, but in the whole world,” Ron Shell, the firm’s vice president of customer & insights, said during the planning meeting.
Sunday would end up with a $1 million-plus loss, largely because of one bettor — but it could have been worse for PointsBet. A VIP bettor on Sept. 1 placed a $30,000 bet on the Baltimore Ravens, but for every point above the 7 point line, he or she won another $30,000 (this would work as a loss in the other direction). The Ravens won 59-10 against the apparently tanking Miami Dolphins, 42 points more than the spread. That would have meant an extra $1.26 million, though the bettor capped his/her winnings or losings at $600,000 before the bet.
But that’s the kind of bet PointsBet will happily take and promote to gain market share. The firm’s Twitter feed promoted the bet all day Sunday. In January, it invalidated all bets on the New Orleans Saints after the NFC championship game refereeing fiasco. It canceled all preseason Andrew Luck prop bets after his retirement.
Sunday it received calls from bettors seeing if they could invalidate prop bets on Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Nick Foles, who went out with an injury in the first quarter (the answer was no).
“I guarantee you people will call up and say, ‘This is unfair, void my bet,’” director of analytics Jay Croucher said as news quickly spread of the Foles injury.
The office in Jersey City is full largely of young Aussies in their 20s and 30s with backgrounds in gambling and quantitative analysis, recently having moved to the U.S. a few months ago. There is an occasional American accent.
For those who are raised on Americans talking endlessly about football on ESPN and elsewhere, it is almost funny to hear this spoken with a thick Aussie drawl of Chicago Bears rookie David Montgomery, “So last year, he made 100 tacklers miss in college, which is kind of historic. And missed tackles in college, that’s much more predictive of future performance then just kind of basic core stats of rushing yards and touchdowns, which is so much more dependent on on your offensive line,” said Croucher during the planning meeting as he discussed the right prop bet figures for Montgomery. “If you’re a running back and you can make tacklers miss, then that tends to dictate future performance.”
At kickoff, PointsBet listed the prop bet at 61.5 yards. The rookie rushed for 18 yards as part of a poor offensive performance by the Bears.
Croucher, 27, moved to the U.S. three months ago. He grew up a sports fan and trained as a lawyer. In Australia, companies support aspiring lawyers, and PointsBet was Croucher’s benefactor. He spent a short stint as a counsel there before moving into analytics.
PointsBet on any given Sunday as a sportsbook operator will offer hundreds of prop bets, changing the figures at halftime with new ones.
“They are using it as a differentiator,” Dustin Gouker, head of content for a number of sports gambling websites, wrote in a direct message. “They will book just about anything if there’s a market for it. There are lots of props at other books, but they don’t play them up like PB (PointsBet) does.”
When Mahomes nearly beat his full game prop bet yardage number by halftime, Croucher moved it up. It had been 300 yards total, so he moved it to 477.5, meaning Mahomes would have to break 477 for the game for the second half prop bet to win.
Asked at halftime why the new prop figure was not higher (if he threw for 300 yards in a half, double that is 600), Croucher reasoned that the Kansas City Chiefs with a lead would run the ball more. Mahomes ended with 378 yards because the Chiefs, as Croucher predicted, ran the ball more with a lead.
The prep meeting, with sweeping views across the Hudson River of lower Manhattan — where sports gambling is still illegal — is akin to a sports show discussion with more wonkiness. While Croucher is high on Montgomery, another analyst worries about game flow issues and how many times Montgomery will touch the ball. This analyst was right: Montgomery had six rushes.
Prescient, one analyst worried about the New York Jets.
“Adam Gase as a new coach is something we need to be wary of, especially early, new quarterback, head coach, offensive coordinator combos; because all these models are based off historical data,” said Matt Pollett, PointsBet USA Senior Sports Analyst. In other words, for the first game with a new head coach, young quarterback, PointsBet’s models didn’t reflect positively. The Jets indeed blew a 16-0 lead and lost 17-16.
On the Bears, Croucher offers this bath of cold water for Chicago fans, “They’ve been so dependent on turnovers which are so luck-based on interceptions, just kind of bouncing your way, fumbles.”
Many sportsbooks are run by software programs, so their operation centers are quiet. Sports gambling operation centers are remarkably similar to Wall Street desks, the quiet hum of computer screens as analysts pour over ever-changing data and feed it into the software.
And PointsBet does have automaton. But because of the large number of prop bets, they need personnel on site to make the adjustments. Fourteen people staff the trading room during the early afternoon Sunday games (some are customer service representatives), using 45 computer screens and large TVs showing the games (and the U.S. Open Tennis Championships — tennis is one of the top bet sports in the world).
Because only a handful of NFL teams play in states where gambling is legal, PointsBet tends to focus on three in and near New Jersey: the Jets and Giants and Philadelphia Eagles.
The Jets and Giants have struggled for years, but Shell of PointsBet expects to keep fans engaged with all the action that’s not just about winning and losing.
“We’re going to be offering sort of halftime props, so people can stay engaged with the game. Especially for the Giants and Jets as their teams will be, supposed to be, pretty poor, people can still enjoy the pain perspective from a player’s prop,” said Shell. “As opposed to just backing you know, the Jets, Giants.”
(Photo: Daniel Kaplan / For The Athletic)
I know a few guys involved with this enterprise. They wouldn’t strike you as overly shrewd or savvy, just genuine sports fans. All the best to them.
Your man is at it again. Chap is very sick according to the article 
"When young Spillane got the goal I was worried and Dublin had only 14 men but they got the draw. They pulled away at the end in the replay,” said John, who pocketed €10,222 in winnings which he put straight in the bank.
Put it straight in the bank my arse, under a mattress more like. 
I actually know someone who worked in the bank and regularly dealt with him. In fairness he did lodge all the money with the bank…
Paddy Power continues to devour everything in it’s path.
I would say its the opposite. The Stars Group would potentially be bigger than PPBF. This has been on the cards for years apparently. World domination not far away.
The end of the shops are around the corner. There will be a regulator next year. Any lad who is collecting over 2k will be asked for id and their winnings will be logged. Anyone betting over €200 will be monitored. Be hard to launder money now.
We’ll find a way
That already happens
Yes but the government can now come in and check whos gambling, say @AppleCrumbled is supposed to be on the dole or in college and he’s collecting 2k in the bookies questions are going to be asked
What about the bets he’s running around and putting on for the serious gamblers? Does he have to rat them out then?
So Skybet had the below price boost in the Liverpool game.
Skybet/Opta are claiming that this isn’t a shot on target for Mane.