Bookmaking & Oddsmaking
With most betting markets, there’s a perception that sportsbooks oddsmakers simply know more. They have models, or they’re the first to get information. They dictate the market, and the old saying that it’s impossible to beat the house gets repeated over and over. Whether or not that’s true in general can be debated for sure. One time a year where it certainly isn’t true, however, is for the NFL Draft. Setting the NFL Draft Markets Nick Bogdanovich was in charge of setting the draft markets for Circa Sports this year. Bogdanovich, a veteran of the industry for nearly…
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A Conversation with Baseball Oddsmaker Chris Bennett Before the Baseball Season Sitting in the risk room on Wednesday afternoon, Circa Sports® Director of Risk Chris Bennett was getting excited while looking over the 2023 baseball season futures. Everyone in the room has their specialties. For Chris, it’s baseball. As he says on his Twitter profile: “Meaningless baseball games are my jam.” When it comes to baseball at Circa, he’s the guy. New Baseball Rules, New Totals Challenges With every new season comes new challenges for oddsmakers. In this case, the biggest question is how the new rules…
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The Circa Sports risk room was fairly quiet on Sunday afternoon, one hour before the college basketball tournament bracket was set to be released. There were only a handful of games going on. The Big Ten and AAC Championship games were winding down, it was a light slate for the NBA, and the Players Championship was finishing the weekend. The Big Ten game started catching major attention as Purdue had a number of turnovers down the stretch. “Well that’s disappointing,” was heard as Penn State traveled before a possible game-winning shot. In the midst of this, Nick Bogdanovich and Richie…
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As we head into March, it’s a perfect time to take a look at how we got to this point in the college basketball season. To properly put into context some of the aspects of the season, it’s important to start where we are now. Read on to see the current 2023 college basketball tournament odds so you can keep your eye out on your favorite teams leading up to and during the exciting tournament starting March 14. Current 2023 College Basketball Tournament Odds Here are the current top 10 teams with the lowest odds to win the…
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The NFL Championship game just ended, and the Kansas City Chiefs are your new champions. However, despite the season just ending, the football betting season never ends. Circa Sports has already released 2024 NFL Championship odds for those who either can’t wait until next season to make a bet, or those who think they have an angle before the offseason truly begins. Read on to see the current odds, favorite teams, and some insight into which teams to keep an eye on in the upcoming season. Current 2024 NFL Championship Odds First, let’s take a look at the…
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We’re down to the divisional round of the playoffs and Circa Sports still has plenty of way to bet the NFL Playoffs. While a lot of the value in betting individual teams has disappeared, there’s still at least one interesting way to bet the playoffs while getting a big potential payout while just making one bet. And that’s betting the possible NFL Championship Exacta. Instead of simply betting the Chiefs to win it all at +290, if you think the 49ers are going to be their opponent in the Big Game, you can bet that a much juicier +825. Every…
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The year was 1995, it was the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, and I was a novice bettor who wanted more than anything to figure out how to make big money betting sports. I loved betting basketball, but I was awful at the objective, winning bets. I watched college sports nonstop, had tons of opinions, and more than anything I believed in luck. The luck part of this equation was made substantially worse due to what I now recognize as a moderate case of OCD. This was made extremely evident by the fact that I wholeheartedly believed that lining up my…
Read MoreCirca Sports Sportsbook Manager Chris Bennett joins the Covers Daily live broadcast to discuss Circa Sports’ Super Bowl LVI props menu and his approach to making odds for Super Bowl props.
Read MoreCirca Sports Assistant Sportsbook Manager Jeff Davis joins the Be Better Bettors podcast to discuss his career in sports betting and his approach to bookmaking and oddsmaking.
Read MoreOperations Manager Jeff Benson joins Covers Daily to discuss Circa Sports’ approach to the sports betting industry, NFL predictions, and more.
Read MoreCirca Sports Sportsbook Manager Chris Bennett joins the Be Better Bettors podcast to discuss his career in sports betting and his bookmaking and oddsmaking philosophy.
Read MoreTopics range from 2021 NFL season predictions to sports betting philosophy as Mike Palm moderates the 2nd Annual Circa Sports Football Contest Panel Discussion with Michael Lombardi, Matt Metcalf, Mike Pritchard and Cristen Zenuik.
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Every few months the subject of sportsbook limits seems to pop up on Twitter and much debate usually follows. Having been in Las Vegas for the better part of 20 years, both as a bettor and a bookmaker, I feel I’m as qualified as anyone to offer my take on the matter.
Read MoreHow do bookmakers know when they’ve put up a bad number? @MMpact of @CircaSports joined @MitchMossRadio and @PaulyHoward to discuss his thinking as he creates the lines for upcoming games. For more #FollowTheMoney head to https://t.co/GLnt2HZaXW pic.twitter.com/uvIBgBnwQQ
— VSiN (@VSiNLive) December 2, 2020
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For a little over a year Circa Sports has existed in 2 locations, Golden Gate Hotel & Casino and the D Las Vegas. We opened the doors on June 1, 2019 and for the most part have not looked back. A lot of our thought process in starting our hole-in-the-wall sportsbook located in the oldest hotel in Las Vegas was to make as many mistakes as we could as quickly as we could. The importance of making these mistakes is that this is usually the best way to learn – and the often the only way to grow. We knew…
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When we opened the doors to Circa Sports a little more than a year ago, we had a few ideas about what we were bringing to the sports betting landscape. Part of the reason we felt qualified to take an honest look at what was missing in the sports betting world was our experience on both sides of the counter.
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With the recent events regarding COVID-19, bookmakers around the world have been forced to become resourceful in their efforts to find additional sports to add to their betting menu. This has created a unique situation for bettors and bookmakers all around the world.
Read MoreSportsbook Director Matt Metcalf joins the Be Better Bettors podcast to discuss his career in sports betting and Circa Sports’ bookmaking philosophy.
Read More“I think we’ve gone out of our way to show how much we love sports betting.”@mmpact on being transparent and consistent in providing bettors with the best customer service@MikePalmCirca & @AmalShah1 /@SIRIUSXM /@NESN/@MSGNetworks/@thebetrnetwork/ @SportsNet pic.twitter.com/Z5TiLViDp3
— VSiN (@VSiNLive) February 14, 2020
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If you hang around sportsbooks long enough, you will overhear countless conversations between bettors speculating about why a certain line has moved. Betting lines move for a variety of reasons and for the most part are in a constant state of flux. In this article, we will run through some of the main reasons why a betting line might move between the time the line opens and the start of the game.
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College football bowl games have become a national pastime and typically generate a lot of interest from sports bettors. A number of factors can influence the point spread for bowls, creating an entirely new challenge for bookmakers relative to the regular reason.
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The opening line can be a term that is thrown around pretty loosely when it comes to sports betting. You will often hear media outlets say “Vegas” opened the line this or “Vegas” has the line at that. But what does that really mean when we hear these expressions?
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