This is, on the surface, now a blog concerned about gambling and sports betting. Because of this I invoke Blogger rule 3.2.1 Subsection 32 and am going to type some words about the subject above.
If you've not been following along, here's a brief summary:
Back in March(?) Mr. Alexander made some futures wagers on Iga Swiatek to win the French Open at odds in the range of 30-1. These bets apparently varied in size, but some were around the $1000 level which would have paid Mr. Alexander $30K.
Fast forward to today, and Mr. Alexander went to various books to cash his winning tickets. According to Mr. Alexander, all of the books paid him his winnings except one: The Westgate Superbook. According to the Superbook they had cancelled all wagers in that pool and later put up a substitute pool due to the French Open occurring later in the year. Mr. Alexander was refunded his $1,000 and then all Heck broke loose on VSiN.
The brewhaha broke out yesterday morning when Mr. Alexander, on his VSiN morning show, went on around an hour long stem-winder against the Superbook, what he termed their "vague" rules, and the practice of sports books in general not being transparent when bets are cancelled.
This has, as you can imagine, created quite the tempest in the teapot that is sports wagering.
Ignoring the back-and-forth that's going on at VSiN right now (which is a blog post in and of itself, but is also something I consider to be an internal, company matter) what's emerged from all of this are two camps.
First: The 'Your ticket, Your responsibility' camp. - These people feel that Mr. Alexander is 100% in the wrong and that he should have understood the rules when making a bet. In many (not all) cases they know the staff at Westgate and frequent the place. According to their tweets and statements they feel that the Book has zero obligation to notify gamblers of changes, and that the onus lies on the bettor to monitor their own bets.
Second: The "Books are bad" camp. - This group is against the book, has in many cases promised to never play at the Superbook again (I don't believe that but OK) and feels that the books should do anything that they can to ensure bettors know about the status of their bets.
I would like to propose a 3rd camp, my camp.
"I'm responsible for my own shit but the place that I do business can retain my loyalty by practicing good customer service."
In his interview this morning on the VSiN show "Follow the Money" SuperBook Godfather Jay Kornegay felt that the Book did "as much as they could" to notify bettors of changes to their French Open futures by: A. Having a staffer tweet it out on their personal Twitter account and B.) Talking about it on Follow the Money on VSiN. While I will agree this is certainly "something" I do think the book COULD have gone further.
No, I do not think that the Superbook should have "taken a full page ad out in newspapers: (which, besides being a bogus argument also shows just how far behind the times Nevada sports books really are) but I do think they could have done four simple (cheap) things to advertise that a major change had taken place.
1. Put a notice up on their board that French Open wagers have been cancelled. Do one of those *ASTERISKS SURROUNDING A STATMENT IN ALL CAPS* messages, prominently displayed.
2. Put up some signage in the Book stating that all French Open Futures have been cancelled and that a new pool was forthcoming.
3. Put a Pop-up Message on their APP that all French Open Futures have been cancelled and that a new pools was forthcoming.
4. Send an e-mail blast to ALL customers stating that French Open futures were cancelled and that a new pools was forthcoming.
Notice, no where in these, am I asking the book to track the wagers and individually notify the player (which many have suggested), I don't think the onus is on them to that degree. In today's age, with technology being what it is, and given that most bettors place their bets with a Player's Card, and said cards have an e-mail attached to them, it should not be difficult for that to happen. If you don't think that the casinos understand who is betting with them and do not use those card's already for bet tracking purposes you, like NV sportsbooks, are behind the times.
My point is that NV sportsbooks especially have a LONG WAY to go to provide even moderate customer service to bettors. The idea that "buyer beware" and that every bettor has the sole onus of calling into a book to check the status of current wagers is as insipid as saying that the book has the obligation to notify each and every bettor of a change. Neither is true.
As with everything, this will ultimately be adjudicated by the NV Gaming Commission. To be honest, I figure they will rule with the SuperBook because the Commission is not a player's advocate and has traditionally sided with the House.
On another note, one would think that Sportsbooks would be more communicative to it's customers during a pandemic that has thrown everything out of whack and has made improved communication more important than ever. Vegas Sports Betting industry constantly likes to come onto various media outlets and pound their chests that they are "The Industry Gold Standard"
It's past time they started acting like it.
And, if you're a bettor, that's your investment, please take some time to understand at least the basics about it.
Court finds for no one, everyone was wrong and the industry is still a mess. Case Closed.
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