Mike Hembree: When in Vegas, NASCAR’s a bestseller with sports books

By Mike Hembree - Associate Editor

Saturday, February 28, 2009

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COMMENTARY

LAS VEGAS – One of the most interesting aspects of NASCAR’s annual visit to Las Vegas is that so many people are so willing to predict what’s going to happen here Sunday in the Shelby 427.

And they do it for everyone to see and they do it for profit.

Their work is on display – very, very large display – in the sports book areas of the casinos around town. Their job is to produce odds on the chances of individual drivers in the field winning the race. Produced by research, recent race results, track history and perhaps a little late-night guesstimation, their odds are right there, brightly lit in white, red and green, on huge screens on the walls of the sports books, which are cavernous rooms where guys – yes, mostly guys – gather and smoke cigars and ponder the future of sports.

The books do this kind of business here all year, of course, and their odds boards currently hold numbers for an array of other sports, including college and pro basketball, and preseason guesses on how many games each Major League Baseball team will win this season.

You can place bets on everything from the halftime score of a basketball game to professional golf and college hockey. College hockey?

From the racing perspective, this is the only event on the schedule where drivers can wander into a race-city casino – and, of course, some of them do, maybe repeatedly – and see their names and the scientifically reasoned analysis of their hopes and dreams illuminated for all the world to see.

It would seem to be a potentially humbling experience, this idea that somebody with a bank of computers and calculators and a hunch can so boldly predict your job performance.

Imagine going to work Monday and discovering that some smart aleck has posted on the company bulletin board an estimate of how many widgets you will produce.

The odds differ from casino to casino, but generally only slightly.

At the Las Vegas Hilton, Jimmie Johnson, he of the “troubled” start to the season, is listed at 5-1 for Sunday’s race. Carl Edwards is at 9-2 and Kyle Busch at 6-1.

If you think Matt Kenseth’s two-for-two start to the season might make him the prohibitive favorite, you’d be wrong. He’s 6-1.

Some drivers who are proven Sprint Cup winners have some long odds – Clint Bowyer 60-1, Kevin Harvick 30-1, Jeff Burton 40-1, Kasey Kahne 40-1, Ryan Newman 100-1, Juan Pablo Montoya 100-1.

Do drivers notice these things? If somebody posted you at 60-1, wouldn’t you want to prove him or her wrong?

“I didn’t even look,” said Clint Bowyer, who, trying to get a new team up and running properly, has bigger fish to fry. “We’ll bet big and win big then, huh?”

How the ultimate numbers – those to do with finish position and cash won – will roll out Sunday remains to be seen, of course. It’s a safe bet, though, that most of the folks starting at that big betting board over the weekend won’t be going home with a winner.

The odds are simply against it.

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Comments

2 responses to "Mike Hembree: When in Vegas, NASCAR’s a bestseller with sports books ". Post a Comment.

1

Werner Boehmert said:
Feb 28, 2009 at 3:57 PM
i imagine with all those NASCAR fans in town someone's bound to wager a few $$$...
that is if ya got one of those discounted tix and have a few extra $$$...i wouldn't be happy paying $100 for a seat and the guy next to me paid $50...
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Pat Draper said:
Mar 1, 2009 at 9:48 AM
Thats Life Werner.
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