In Business Las Vegas, November 16th, 2007
Speakers and panelists acknowledged the link between sports and gambling is growing stronger even as critics of sports wagering are growing louder.
At this week's Global Gaming Expo, the opening keynote speaker was a prominent sports writer and commentator and an entertainment panel encouraged G2E attendees to use sports events to market their casinos.
While the gaming industry has skirmished with professional sports leagues and college sports administrators about wagering on games, hundreds of casinos from
California
to
Connecticut
are using sports events to get people in their doors, even though wagering on sports events is only legal in
Nevada
.
"There is a natural and altogether healthy relationship between sports and gambling that goes back to antiquity," said award-winning
Sports Illustrated writer
Frank
DeFord
in his G2E keynote speech.
DeFord
said baseball is as popular as it is because it's a good game to bet on, with a number of variables possible with each game, inning, play and pitch. In the early days of the sport, he said, there were sections in the bleachers set aside for gamblers.
Aside from the notorious "Black Sox" scandal of 1919 when Chicago White Sox players were accused of throwing games in the World Series, professional sports generally have been scandal free,
DeFord
said.
"You're always going to have some breaches of faith, but as long as we have sports books, there will be no major chicanery in sports and leagues," he said, repeating an often-repeated
Nevada
axim.
He noted that the National Basketball Association hasn't appeared to have taken a hit in popularity, despited "one low-life, scumbag ref," a reference to the scandal involving former NBA official
Tim
Donahy
, who was caught wagering on games he officiated.
"Of all the things that infect pro sports like drugs and illegal substances ... gambling is far, far down on the scale."
Industry leaders seem to agree with a panel encouraging the hosting of sports events to market casinos.
While the sport of choice for panel
moderator
Al
Bernstein
is boxing, other events can be staged to get players in the door for longer periods of time and VIP customers to the gaming tables.
Bernstein and panelist
Chris
Baldizan, vice president of entertainment
at Mandalay Bay, said a television component can produce added value because the name of the property is displayed prominantly in sports broadcasts.
Panelists said boxing and mixed martial arts have continued to be important casino draws.
Bernstein
said he wasn't sure the brutality of mixed martial arts was a good match, but his appreciation for the sport has grown.
Baldizan
said an unexpectedly good sports draw for him was a professional dart-throwing championship. Panelists also applauded sponsorships with golf tournaments and billiard events.
But not every good idea turns out to be a winner.
Panelist
Tony
Holden
of the Buffalo Run, a tribal casino in
Miami, Okla.
, said big crowds came to his property for an attempt to break a record motorcycle jump.
Stunt motorcycle jumper
Trigger
Gumm
of
Australia
was injured in the event in July 2006.
While Holden and his team said they did everything right in the marketing event, the end result wasn't what the casino had hoped for.
