by David Purdum, ESPN
This was the first football season for a rookie class of American bookmakers, who launched their careers in one of the new sportsbooks popping up in states around the nation.
Many of the rookies running sportsbooks had never taken — nor made — a legal sports bet. Past bookmaking experience, in this case, might not have been viewed as a positive, since it was likely illegal.
Some of the newbies moved over from other departments at the casino, such as the poker room, accounting or even valet. They were tasked with opening a sportsbook and managing the action from rabid local fans eager to bet on the home team.
From Oregon to Iowa and from Pennsylvania to Mississippi, handling the home-team bias has been part of the learning curve for new sportsbooks in states that now offer sports betting. Even the veterans in Las Vegas are revving up to get a taste of what it is like to book the hometown NFL squad, when the Raiders arrive in Sin City. There’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.
The largest bookmaking companies that operate in multiple states have rarely been affected by home-team bias. For the most part, companies such as Caesars Entertainment and William Hill offered identical lines and odds in every jurisdiction. Some Mississippi sportsbooks were a half-point high on LSU in the NCAA championship game against Clemson, but, overall, there have not been widely varying point spreads and odds at the big books.
It’s a different story, however, at the smaller, regional sportsbooks.
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