Try your puck luck
A New York native, Vinny Magliulo is a VSiN oddsmaker and the sports book director for Gaughan Gaming in Las Vegas. He attended St. Anthony’s High School (then in Smithtown), before moving to Vegas 40 years ago to pursue a career that included running the sports books at Caesars Palace and Wynn Las Vegas. Catch Vinny with Brent Musburger on “My Guys in the Desert,” weekdays from 6-8 p.m. on VSiN.com, fubuTV and SiriusXM 204.
Yo, Vinny, love your Post articles, Paisano! My favorite sport is hockey. Where does it rank in terms of betting handle and can you please explain how to bet on it? How do my Devils look? — Lenny from Bay Ridge
Vinny: Thanks, Lenny. While hockey handle is not as high as football, basketball or baseball, it has grown in betting popularity. For years the handle was very light. Two factors changed all that: When Wayne Gretzky went to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988, hockey interest at the betting counter saw a major increase. But the biggest percentage increase from one year to the next occurred last year when the Vegas Golden Knights were born and their Cinderella slippers cashed betting ickets all the way to the Stanley Cup finals.
To illustrate the betting options for hockey, let’s look at the game between your Devils and the Sharks on Oct. 14:
If you bet the money line, you are picking a team to win the game (it includes overtime and the shootout): here, you bet $120 to win a profit of $100 (for a return $220) on the Sharks. Or bet $100 to win a $100 profit (for a return $200) on the Devils. On the puck line, it’s compa- rable to betting point spread: a $100 bet wins a $200 profit (for a return of $300) if Sharks win by at least two goals. Conversely, you would put up $230 to profit $100 (a return of $330) on the Devils, but they must either win the game or lose by only one goal. As for the total, you are wagering on the total number of goals scored by both teams in the game. Note that the winning team in a shootout receives one goal on the final score.
As for the Devils, we opened them at 50/1 to win the Cup and posted their a Over/Under point total at 92½. Some interest has shown and as of this writing they are 40/1. Enjoy the season!
Hey Vinny, I hear and read a lot about analytics these days. Do you believe in them for sports betting? — Jim in San Francisco
Vinny: Like many other business applications, analytics and sabermetrics play a role in sports betting, Jim. From the betting side, more people are creating models to determine their choices of which teams to bet or not bet. In fact, VSiN has an entire show, “A Numbers Game,” broadcast Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-noon, that goes into analytics in great detail.
As for my side of the counter, like my colleagues at the South Point and I have said many times, we need to be aware and receptive to new perspectives and how people approach wagering.
From the bookmaking side, we do utilize analytics to an extent. But I believe they are best served by combining them with the human element — the nuances of years behind the counter. Consider this: On Oct. 8, the Saints led the Redskins 43-19 (up by 24) with two minutes remaining. The Saints had the ball in Washington territory. Drew Brees already had set the all-time passing mark; the game was all but done. Yet, some operators who strictly rely on algorithms for their in-game wagering had the Saints posted as 26½-point favorites assuming they would kick a field goal to put the game on 27. What the algorithm didn’t know was the Saints went into victory formation and were killing the game. Algorithms are fine, but they don’t have eyes or breathe.
Vinny, long time Knicks fan here. I know it’s not the early ’70s or even the Patrick Ewing era, but is there any chance the Knicks make the playoffs this year? — Kevin in Flushing
Vinny: I hear you, Kevin, and I can still hear some vintage Marv Albert: “…rebound DeBusschere, ahead it goes to Frazier, cross-court to Barnett, into Reed, out front to Bradley, top-of-the-key jumper — YESSSS!” It still gives me a chill.
But now the cold truth: The Knicks remain in a rebuild, while the Celtics, 76ers, Raptors and Bucks are the Eastern Conference’s top four betting choices. Next come the Wizards, Pacers, Pistons and Heat.
Can the Knicks make a push for the eighth spot? That will depend largely on when Kristaps Porzingis returns and how much he plays. They won 29 games last year and we opened this season’s win total at Over/ Under 30 at the South Point. They’ve been bet down to 28. Let’s hope they compete, get healthy and look at some nice free agents next spring. How would Kevin Durant look in a Knick jersey?