Sports betting: Gladys Knight and some of the zany things that happened in the last year

It was last summer, July maybe, and I was having a conversation with a casino executive. Sports betting had come to Atlantic City, and we were talking about the Borgata’s plans to build an expanded sportsbook.

The ban on sports betting outside of Nevada had recently been overturned by the Supreme Court, and there was optimism in the air. The Eagles just won the Super Bowl, for God’s sake. Anything was possible. This was going to be fun.

Except, a year later, it’s not been all fun. There have been controversy and aggravation and bad beats mixed in with the frivolity.

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William Hill-US, which operates the sportsbooks at Tropicana and Ocean Resort in Atlantic City, paid out $1.19 million to one of its Las Vegas customers after Tiger Woods’ stunning win at the Masters in April. Guy put 85 grand on Tiger to win at 14-1. FanDuel said it paid out $2 million.

Tiger went 11 years between winning majors. Plenty of money was lost on him during that time.

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The emergence of PropSwap has been fascinating. PropSwap is basically a hedge company that allows bettors to trade potentially winning bets to avoid risk.

A guy in November put $1,500 on Texas Tech to win the college basketball national title at 200-1 odds. As Texas Tech continued to advance through the tournament, his ticket grew in value. At one point, former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant offered $50,000 for the ticket, which would have been worth $300,000 if the Red Raiders won the title. Texas Tech lost the championship game to Virginia in overtime.

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It’s not been much of a problem for bettors, but New Jersey regulators prohibit sportsbooks from offering lines on games involving state schools or college games played in the state.

Golden Nugget was fined $2,000 back in January for posting lines on the Rutgers-Indiana and Columbia-Princeton football games. “It’s not going to be ignored,” said Dave Rebuck, director of the division of gaming enforcement. “Next time, there will be heavier sanctions.”

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Early in the football season, Week 2 to be exact, FanDuel got stung by a bad line it had posted for an in-game bet during a Broncos-Raiders game. Denver was down by two but driving.

FanDuel, at its Meadowlands sportsbook, mistakenly posted an in-game line of Denver at 750-1 to win the game. FanDuel eventually owned up to the mistake and paid one opportunistic bettor $82,000. “Above all else, sports betting is supposed to be fun,” FanDuel said. “As a result of a pricing error this weekend, it wasn’t [fun] for some of our customers.”

It was the right decision on behalf of the integrity of all the businesses entering new markets.

Mainstream sportsbooks don’t offer odds on popular noncompetitive propositions such as the Academy Awards or where Kevin Durant might sign in the summer. But offshore ‘books, illegal in the United States, certainly do.

That’s why the Super Bowl national anthem was hilarious.

Legendary R&B singer Gladys Knight belted out "The Star-Spangled Banner” in 1 minute, 49 seconds. Or so it appeared. Knight then stretched out the final note for another 12 seconds. The bookies had the over/under around 1:52. There was mayhem among those who played the under or the over 1:49. It wasn’t any better for those taking the action, either. BetOnline.ag was so flummoxed it decided to just pay everybody.

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