Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
Something just happened that has slipped under many radars. Delaware has de-criminalized sports gambling. A bit. For the state.
In Delaware they have decided to run sports betting, on parlays basically. No word yet on if they will be allowing straight up bets against the spread. This ESPN story, which was done before the legalization is OK, but very funny in parts.
Looking at the latest Intrade figures, Chicago is looking like the odds on favorite to get the racket known as the Olympics at this point. As an interesting footnote, it only took three comments to figure out why Steven Levitt’s neighborhood was looking so clean as of late.
This is great news for me, as the City of Chicago will absorb all of the debt, traffic, and mayhem that the Olympics will bring and I will get the benefit of being able to watch three of the Olympic cycling events from here in Madison. I will also not need to buy a ticket for either of the road events, which pleases me greatly as I never want to give any money to the Olympic racket. No new facilities will need to be built, and there will be minimal traffic hassle here in Madison. I will also get to watch the athletes train, and ride the courses, an added bonus.
Cross posted at LITGM.
Michael Lewis is a great journalist and author of several books that are highly recommended by Dan and I. “Moneyball” tells the story of the Oakland A’s, and how they used statistics and a novel view of baseball to win a lot of games on a small budget, as well as the story of Billy Beane, who went from a can’t miss, 4 tool prospect to an MLB bust, and then on to revolutionize baseball as manager of the A’s. “The Blind Side” explained the evolution of the left tackle in the NFL from an also-ran to one of the most important positions on the field, along with a lucid an excellent description of the evolution of passing offense, which sadly enough has apparently never been read by our beloved Chicago Bears. The book also featured Michael Oher, who was plucked from total obscurity to starting on Ole Miss, the only team that knocked off eventual NCAA champion Florida last season. For non-sports related items, Michael Lewis also wrote the famous book “Liars Poker” which explained the rise of bond trading at Salomon Brothers and is a Wall Street classic.
Recently Michael Lewis wrote an article on basketball that appeared in the NY Times magazine – to find the article go to the NY Times site and type in the title of the article in the search engine – “The No-Stats All-Star”.
In this article, Michael Lewis takes on basketball the same way he took on baseball and football, above. He is attempting to do what the best journalists do – tie in the “human element” with an original analysis of a complex topic. The key to Michael Lewis’ writing is that his human element actually matters and isn’t just fluff to glue the story together.
For a long time I have wondered here and elsewhere why there is no state sanctioned sports betting. It isn’t like gamblers aren’t betting on sports in areas where there is no legal way to do so.
From what I have heard, you can simply walk into pretty much any bar and get “parlay cards“, or bet on games online.
Since these activities are already going on, why have states been so anguished about setting up organized betting for them? We all pretty much have lotteries where we can bet on RANDOM numbers, so why not on sports games? Vegas has dialed in the sports betting ratios and how to run a sports book long ago; there aren’t any real secrets in that realm. Set the spread so you get half the bets on one side, half on the other and collect the “juice” or “vig“. Simple as that.
Even a simple playground can provide the tools for a great workout. I did this workout myself today, and can report that it is moderately challenging. Harsh language in video.