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In 2017, the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) made it legal for Nevada sportsbooks to offer prop bets on the NFL Draft. The new betting initiative is been popular offshore. However, it got off to a relatively slow start in Nevada. Perhaps the slow start was in part because there were only 17 NFL Draft propositions available last year.

Football is king in the betting world so it’s no surprise to see NFL Draft betting return. The slow start for NFL Draft proposition bets in Nevada hasn’t scared sportsbook operators from offering the NFL Draft prop bets in 2018. William Hill was one of the first to offer NFL Draft wagering opportunities in 2017 and are the first to open wagering on the 2018 NFL Draft.

This year the NGCB is allowing Nevada sportsbook operators to offer even more NFL Draft prop bets. There are more nearly twice as many NFL Draft bets available in Nevada this year.

William Hill is offering 31 different prop bets on the draft at their 108 sportsbooks around Nevada and on their mobile sports wagering app.

Unlike offshore sportsbooks, NGCB regulations have very strict rules for wagering on the NFL Draft. These wagers may only be bet until the end of the business day on April 25. That’s two full days before the draft. That decreases the potential for funny business. To avoid any confusion the only official source of results is NFL.com.

Types of NFL Draft prop bets in Nevada

There are essentially two types of bets available for the NFL Draft in Nevada this year. There are prop betting opportunities for schools and positions as well as player matchups. Most of the NFL Draft prop bets available are the number of players selected.

Number of Alabama Players Selected in the First Round
Over 4 -110
Under 4 -110

Quarterbacks Drafted in the First Round
Over 5 – 120
Under 5 +100

This year NGCB is allowing specific NFL Draft player propositions. William Hill is offering a few different options, including the following.

Draft Position Matchup
Josh Rosen -1.5 -160
Sam Darnold +140

Player To Be Drafted First
Sony Michel +110
Nick Chubb -130

Betting odds are subject to change as money is wagered. Don’t be surprised to see different odds available on the William Hill sports wagering app or at one of their sportsbooks.

Sports betting regulation and expansion key for Nevada

Sports betting is heavily regulated by NGCB, so there aren’t as many opportunities available at brick and mortar casinos as there are offshore. Additionally, not all sportsbook operators offer NFL Draft betting opportunities. To date, William Hill has been the most aggressive sportsbook to offer NFL Draft bets.

NGCB may be behind the offshore sportsbook operators, but they’re slowly catching up. They’ve added 30 non-traditional prop wagering opportunities in various sports since the beginning of 2016. For reference, they only added 14 new wagering opportunities between 2011 and 2015.

Expect to see more unique sports wagering opportunities ahead for Nevada. Prop bets and in-play wagering have already helped increase betting handle in Nevada. Mobile wagering makes it much easier for sportsbook operators to implement new options. Additionally, Nevada will want to stay ahead of the competition. In addition to offshore sportsbooks, the potential legalization of sports betting in other states in the United States will increase competition for sports betting dollars.

The post William Hill Has Some Betting Propositions For The NFL Draft appeared first on Play Nevada.

Who said online gambling was for millennials? According to an internet betting study out of Rutgers University posted online by New Jersey casino regulators late last month, there was a …

To say things went off the rails for the Heartland Poker Tour during its latest stop in Las Vegas, Nevada would be an understatement.

Things began to go haywire before the series even started at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino, and the series was a public relations disaster for the mid-major poker tour and the Westgate throughout.

You keep using that word; I do not think it means what you think it means

When is a tournament guarantee not a guarantee? When it comes with a lot of fine print.

For several years, some poker tournaments have been using the word guarantee, when what they really mean is an estimated prize pool. If you read the fine print of some events with prize-pool guarantees you’ll discover that it’s not a guarantee, but simply based on attendance estimate.

To be fair, the HPT does have legitimate guarantees, but there is a minimum threshold that needs to be crossed before they kick in.

According to the HPT website for the Westgate series:

“Guarantee will not be offered for Event #1 with less than 250 entries; #3 – 60 entries; #4 – 60 entries; #5 – 60 entries; #6 – 40 entries; #7 – 300 entries.”

Basically, the HPT was willing to slap a $500,000 guarantee on its $1,650 Main Event ($1,440 + $210), but only if the event reaches 300 entries, which would put the HPT on the hook for up to $68,000 in overlay.

But as some tournament structure watchers have pointed out, for HPT events the rake is removed before the overlay is calculated. So, in the event of an overlay, the minimum rake they would collect is $63,000, while at the same time paying out a $68,000 overlay: worst case scenario, the tournament loses $5,000.

Still potential for $70k overlay. That’s significantly different from “estimated” pool with zero chance of money added.

With that said, we’ve responded quite a few times on this. We’ve heard loud and clear that players prefer no guarantee and will pull future guarantees.

— Heartland Poker Tour (@HPTPoker) April 7, 2018

But the loose use of the word guarantee (I don’t have much of an issue with it) was just the beginning of the HPT’s Westgate problems.

Westgate-Gate

With the registration period coming to a close the worst case scenario was unfolding, and the HPT and Westgate would be on the hook for close to the full overlay.

And that’s when this happened:

End of reg for the @HPTPoker Main Event we chose to pay a portion of the entry fee for select VIP. Full $1,650 entry$ accounted for in the $500k main event that continues through 4/9. WR is upholding all prize packages & guarantees are being upheld.  Good luck to the participants

— Westgate Las Vegas (@WestgateVegas) April 8, 2018

Essentially, with the tournament on the hook for $68,000, they decided to pay half of the entry-fee for certain players. Since each entry would reduce the overlay, this was a win for the tournament — the final tally was 329 entries.

Paying half the buy-in for 25 players (I don’t know the actual number) would cost the tournament $16,500 (assuming they didn’t collect $165 rake from these entries but did collect the $45 staff fee). More importantly, by getting these players to put in $825 of their own money (totaling $20,625) they managed to reduce the overlay to just $26,240.

Assuming 304 full-price entries, had the tournament not offered the half-price buy-in it would have:

• Collected $50,160 in rake and $13,680 in staff fees
• Owed $62,240 in overlay
• Net of -$12,080

When all is said and done, by paying $16,500, the tournament significantly reduced its overlay liability.

• Collected $50,160 in rake and $14,805 in staff fees
• Owed $26,240 in overlay
• Net of +$7,420

Needless to say, this didn’t sit well with a lot of people, particularly one Allen Kessler, who described the potential overlay the tournament might be on the hook for as little more than a rake reduction.

No, HPT there wasnt a $26,240 overlay. The rake was just reduced from a ridiculous $1440+210 to a normal rake of $1520+130

Easy math.

329 x 1520 = $500K

The rest is rake. No overlay.

Cmon @PaulOresteen … pic.twitter.com/NuPc7qdRm0

— Allen Kessler (@AllenKessler) April 8, 2018

In addition to the definition of “guarantee,” and the half-priced entries, Kessler is arguing that the HPT uses an inflated rake as a backstop against overlays.

Mistakes have been made

The good news is the HPT is working on coming up with terminology that is amenable to the community.

Not trying to shift blame. We made the wrong decision and won’t do it again.

I was genuinely confused to see players say they’d prefer no guarantee but understand that those few don’t speak for all.

— Korey (@HPTKorey) April 7, 2018

The tour also seems as frustrated as its players when it comes to the half-priced entries that were selectively given out.

According to Jeremy Smith, the HPT’s Tournament Director, letting certain people enter for half-price was a Westgate decision:

I did not ok this. It was a Westgate decision.

— Jeremy Smith (@HPTJeremy) April 8, 2018

Thanks @SavagePoker Yes I had no say so in this. It was a Westgate decision.

— Jeremy Smith (@HPTJeremy) April 8, 2018

 

The post Heartland Poker Tour Comes Under Fire For “Guarantee” And Half-Priced Entries appeared first on .

About a month ago, representatives from Mercer County thought they’d landed a whale of a client: Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem.

Now, a month later, they’ve got no satellite casino and Sands doesn’t exist, technically. Yet county leaders and developers are doing their best to court casinos still in the running for the state’s final five satellite casino licenses.

Penn-Northwest Development Corp CEO Randy Seitz hopes his company will be involved in building a satellite. He also said that while hard luck has hit the county, there’s still hope of Mercer County landing one of the mini-casinos afforded under the gambling expansion bill.

“We’ve been sending letters out to major casino license holders and doing everything we can to let folks know that Mercer County has an interest in casinos,” Seitz told Mercer County newspaper The Herald.

Mercer had a satellite for a few hours

The hapless county’s satellite saga started in February at the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s fourth satellite casino auction.

The auctions happen in Harrisburg. All casinos interested in getting a license submit two vital pieces of information:

• Their bid amount for a license and
• The coordinates of where they want to build

At that fourth auction, Sands was the apparent winner. They submitted the highest bid and provided coordinates for a location that fell within Mercer County lines.

However, in what many consider and unfathomable blunder, Sands’ coordinates fell within a 15-mile radius of Mount Airy’s satellite casino in Lawrence County.

Thus, the PGCB announced that they’d invalidated Sands bid. instead, Parx’s ownership group, Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment Inc., won the fourth license.

Just a few weeks later, Sands’s ownership, Las Vegas Sands Corp.,  announced they intended to sell their casino for $1.3 billion. The buyer was Wind Creek Hospitality, a company affiliated with an Alabama Indian tribe.

So, Mercer County lost its satellite casino. Then the casino company that intended to build the satellite announced it was leaving the state. All within a month.

Small chance Mercer strikes a deal with Mount Airy

Of all the outcomes that Mercer could have predicted, an invalidated bid was probably at the bottom of the list right next to scoring a casino through Mount Airy.

However, Seitz indicated that he and Mercer County representatives would be happy to talk with Mount Airy about building the casino’s satellite in their county.

The idea here is that, while the majority of the 15-mile buffer zone around the casino’s bid is in Lawrence County, there is a portion of it that passes through Mercer County.

A new satellite, Seitz said, would be a great fit for the more than 6 million people who visit the county’s outlet mall.

“I don’t know if Mt. Airy is interested in a casino in or around the outlet mall, but if they are, we’ll gladly meet with them and discuss making Mercer County a casino location.”

The post Mercer County Had Some Bad Beats, But Still Hope For A Mini-Casino appeared first on Play Pennsylvania.

New York Assemblyman Clyde Vanel advised to watch the Assembly bill to license and regulate online poker over the next few weeks, because the number of co-sponsors is about to skyrocket.

The post Can NY Finally Thread The Needle On Online Poker? ‘We Have A Good Shot Of Getting It Through This Year’ appeared first on Online Poker Report.