Traps in sports books - are they on purpose or accidental?

I love your questions.

Trap games are what inexperienced bettors call games they can't figure out how to analyze. There are no trap games. Will you see a bad line occasionally, sure but that's all it is, a bad line.

Always cracks me up when I hear this trap game shit, there is no such thing.

The formula is always the same, books hang odds to entice equal betting on both sides to make money on the juice. They don't hang 14 games to get equal action and then 1 game just to fuck with people.

Trap games are games people can't make sense of, not some intricately crafted ruse the bookmaker is using to fool you.

Keep the questions coming.

Thanks MC

8)

Michael

I would like to respectfully disagree with your point about books just wanting the juice. I've sat down and interviewed about a dozen either current or former linemakers and they each expressed the goal was to make money and lots of it. In Nevada, most sportsbooks are under pressure by the corporate bosses to increase profits and revenue. They can't just rely on the juice and they are smart enough to set numbers on certain games they feel the public might bite, with the intention of reaping the profits. Off-shore sportsbooks have gone the way of inticing bettors by showing "favorite bets" or what percentage people are betting on particular games. Are those numbers legit, maybe yes and maybe no. These activities would not be listed as a trap game, rather creating an opportunity for the proverbial "sucker bet".

I respectfully disagree with your disagreement because I don't think we are talking about the same thing.

I didn't say that sports books were only interested in making the juice. I have spoken at length before about the different types of sports book business models which exist and also some of the different personalities managing online sports books.

What I said was that oddsmakers aren't in the business of creating false betting opportunities when there is plenty of money to be made towing the company line and managing risk.

Having a line manager or sports book owner take a stand on a game is different then a "trap line" or a "trap game" which was asked about here.

I think we are talking about two different things.

Michael

I would like to respectfully disagree with your point about books just wanting the juice. I've sat down and interviewed about a dozen either current or former linemakers and they each expressed the goal was to make money and lots of it. In Nevada, most sportsbooks are under pressure by the corporate bosses to increase profits and revenue. They can't just rely on the juice and they are smart enough to set numbers on certain games they feel the public might bite, with the intention of reaping the profits. Off-shore sportsbooks have gone the way of inticing bettors by showing "favorite bets" or what percentage people are betting on particular games. Are those numbers legit, maybe yes and maybe no. These activities would not be listed as a trap game, rather creating an opportunity for the proverbial "sucker bet".

I spent almost 20 years in the sportsbook business in NV and you could count the managers on one hand who had the balls to take a big bet or have a number shaded when they had a opinion.Sportsbook managers in Vegas are nothing but sheep in a suit these days.Nick Bogdanavich at the Cal Neva is the only real bookmaker left in NV.

First misconception, and a very common one - 'linesmakers in Vegas.'
Vegas books employ line movers. There is a big difference.

In general, there are no bookmakers in Vegas books.
Sorry Clinton, I am sure you were told by book managers they are bookmakerrs, because the alternative is painful to them - they are not skilled laborers with a talent (bookmaking) they are the reduced modern day version, the line mover.
Of course they are embarrassed to admit it.

There are at most, 3-4 of this dying breed (actual bookmakers) left.

Vegas books do not make lines.
Vegas books look on their LVSC screen and see what the common number is, and they copy it.

Second, Michael is right - there are no such things as trap games.
As for the 'cappers who say there are, most handicappers are failed bettors, so chuck out their words, as that industry has a BS % that exceeds 98%.

In thousands of oddsmaking meetings I have NEVER heard the word "trap" used. That's simply not how it works.

Yes, the goal is to increase profits, OF COURSE - it's a business.
And there is even more pressure so to do so in this time of a failing economy, but GM's do not want their book managers setting their own lines - that is why conglomerates have taken over and set up hubs.
GM's do NOT want book managers making their own numbers, which is why you see so little varitey these days as opposed to years past. GM's consider putting up your own numbers "Playing with house money" and they do not appreciate bookmanagers taking risks with house money.

The pressure is also on because revenue in Vegas is measured in sq. footage, and slots out perform sports books and their minuscle 4-5% GP.

GM's consider race and sports to be loss leaders, a necessary evil to keep players from going elswhere to place bets and possibly staying to play other games.

I don't think it's fair to blame all book managers, past or present, as most are under corporate mandate and thumb that dictate wagering limits and options.
Would you go in to your employer (or customer base if self-employed) and say "fuck off?" Of course not.
Neither would a book manager tell his GM or CFO to fuck off. No one would, as we all have families to feed and bills to pay, and thus require employment of some kind. Same for book managers, although players love to trash them and blame them for the sorry state of Vegas books today.

As for Nick, sharps say he's the best bookmaker, they LOVE him - but that's only because he's so easy to beat.
Bottom line - a book managers job is to make money (or, in today's Vegas, to not lose money). "Good bookmaker" or not depends on what side you look at it from, the players, or the multiple casinos that have fired him.