Sportsbooks usually aren’t in the business of reducing the amount of business they can handle. In the aftermath of Sunday’s federal indictment of Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz for manipulating microwagers, some sportsbooks are taking proactive steps to stave off a potential reactive goring of the golden goose.
Via David Purdum of ESPN.com, “prominent” sportsbooks will place a nationwide $200 betting limit on baseball wagers based on individual pitches. Such prop bets also will be excluded from the extremely (for the sportsbooks) multi-leg parlays.
The goal is to reduce the incentive for manipulation of the wagers by players.
It’s a simple concept. If the easy money that can be made by rigging such bets is drastically limited, gamblers hoping to acquire an edge will be less inclined to offer easy money to those who can rig them. (Even if there’s no such thing as easy money, especially for the folks who will end up going to prison for their pursuit of it.)
DraftKings and FanDuel, the Coke and Pepsi of American sports betting, have agreed to the caps. It’s unclear whether and to what extent other sportsbooks will.
Sportsbooks thrive on maximizing the handle. The more total bets are placed, the more money they’ll make. But if/when bets are rigged, the sportsbooks are the victims.
The bigger goal for all sportsbooks appears to be extending the Wild West era of the seven-year-old industry for as long as possible, with little or no regulation on anything and everything that could impact revenues, from types of bets to amounts of bets to marketing practices that have made persuading people to bet — and at getting them to believe the false notion that, over time, they can win.
These companies are worth billions. Their only commodity is money. Their profits come directly from the pockets of the millions who bet, and who lose.
Today’s developments are all about keeping the government out of the sportsbooks’ business. Once state and/or federal legislators begin implementing meaningful efforts to protect consumers from abuse (as they should), the cash cow will end up spraying far less milk.