The surge in sports betting becoming
legal here in the U.S. came at a high price. I consider the awful lines and poor service part of the "10% for the big guy", or in other words - kick backs for the politicians.
Where I live, in Illinois, the penalty was even higher to pay for those outrageous licensing fees. 25 spreads were "tight" relative to others. What a joke. I opened accounts at FD, DK, and River Bets in 2019 for football season and closed them all within a couple of months. Considering the abuse horseplayers have undergone for decades for the "privilege" of committing the sin of gambling, it was rather trivial to spot a poor deal.
Historically, there was a period of time in my life where using a bookie or going to Vegas was profitable for sports. This was from about 1985 to 2005. The end came when the offshore books were closed off from easy money transfers to the updated port authority act. It was sad to see my Pinnacle and IASBets accounts go away. Vegas got much tougher around the same time as more information was becoming available to computer users.
I'm not sure how anyone makes money on the major sports in the U.S. with one of the major player betting accounts. I could believe some of the minor sports or head-to-head plays may be worthwhile, but who wants to bet on Bulgarian cricket matches?
