Figures released by the Nevada Gaming Control Board indicate that Nevada’s Sports Books saw a 17% drop in profit from basketball wagers when compared to the same period in 2006. Opinions on why this is vary, however many agree that there is less general betting interest in the NBA. NCAA basketball and its March Madness tournament however consistently bring good results every March.
John Avello is the director of race and sports operations at Wynn Las Vegas. "The (17 percent) is not really a surprise. People just don’t care about the NBA regular season.” Avello also said that NBA figures in March have declined over the past three years. He does, however, expect it to flatten out.
"I think it has reached rock bottom," he said. "The Lakers and Celtics are not the teams they were and the superstars seem to be drawing less attention from the public. However, in betting, the gap between March Madness and the NBA narrows. There is no doubt that the NBA can’t compete with the NCAA tournament as a more attractive event."
"The NBA is the only league that allows teams to tank games,” said Tom Foster, race and sports supervisor at the Golden Nugget, "Teams are trying to get as many ping pong balls (for the NBA draft lottery) as they can."
"In 2006, we were hammered in the NBA," Foster continued. "This year we were ready for the tanking. We recognized when Paul Pierce would have a phantom injury or when Michael Redd would be benched in Milwaukee games for the final quarter. The lines here were adjusted and bettors didn’t want to bet."
Basketball fans and bettors alike acknowledge that the NBA is "big-market driven" and that sports gamblers, knowing the New York Knicks were out of the playoffs in late March, may have been swayed by the adjusted odds and opted to sit those games out.
It would seam that the decline in NBA betting during March did not apply to all sports books in Nevada. The Las Vegas Hilton’s SuperBook reported that their overall handle was up on the NBA in March 2006.
