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Legends in Sports Betting

Published by admin on July 17, 2017

We would like to notice right away that there is no Hall of Fame of sports gambling whatsoever. There is none, but we believe it should have been made as we need to somehow highlight the people who reached grand success in sports betting. Has this hall existed, it would have been situated in Las Vegas.

This American city has recently lost the status of the center of world sports betting due to financial problems, but it is still a great city for bettors which means a lot. First five people I will tell about below have to take their honorable places in this hall as they made a great impact towards sports betting world. We won’t be slow, we will steadily tell about everything little by little.

Charles McNeal

Don’t be too upset if you hear this name for the first time. Trust us, even the most loyal to betting gamblers aren’t familiar with the ones who made a lot for sports gambling. McNeal is an inventor of handicaps, which made a real revolution in sports betting world.

Before this great invention, all the bets were managed only with the help of the odds. Like they bet on hockey matches. As the number of teams with great selection of players was overwhelming in football and basketball, so sometimes bookies could have given odds of 12 to 1 and this significantly decreased interest towards betting on this match.

Back in the days Charles used to work in the bank for the minimal wage. He once decided to visit a baseball match and place he bet, as did many people. He did enough for leaving his job and fully dedicate himself to betting.

Some time later bookmakers of Chicago made restrictions on McNeal’s bets as he was winning all the time with almost zero losses. After these restriction Charles opened his own sportsbook, where he presented his own invention. There was time when McNeal didn’t accept bets for several years as criminals were seriously interested in his business and he continued to place bets himself.

Bob Martin

When we speak about odds forming, there is Bob Martin and the rest. Martin was gambling since the young age and he started to accept bets later. Martin was a successful bettor before becoming a part of the loud scandal about rigged matches in college basketball in 50s of XX century.

After that Martin was left aside. So bob decided to move to Las Vegas in order to escape criminal charges. In his new residence he started to make odds for leading bookmakers of America.

People were just waiting for the odds made personally by Bob Martin and soon after they were released spread them with the help of the phone all over the country. In the end of 70s, namely in 1977 Martin once again was accused in breaking the law and sentenced to 13 months in prison. Bob Martin passed away in 2001.

Sonny Reizner

There are colorful characters in any activity or industry, such person in sports betting world is Sonny Reizner. Reizner used to be the head of the famous sportsbook Castaways Hole.

This sportsbook one of the first bookmakers on the territory of Las Vegas. Sonny Reizner was very active in sports betting world and one of his ideas was first competition of football bets with handicaps of Castaways Challe. Those bets were predecessors of famous Hilton Supercontest, which is still popular nowadays.

Reizner seriously promoted sports betting business in Las Vegas and was one of the initiators of side bets to Super Bowl. Sonny has sassy thought. One of such thoughts was accepting bets on the event “Who killed J.R. Kennedy?”

In order for the event to be closer to sports world, Reizner made one of the potential killers Dallas team coach Tom Landry. Let us notice that the project wasn’t approved and launched by the Gambling Commission of Nevada state. Before retirement, Sonny Reizner was the owner of several sportsbooks.

Mort Olshan

He is remembered thanks to his top-notch publications about bookmaker business with many interesting and important information. Aside from that, Olshan was the founder of famous Gold Sheet. Olshan’s rating became the criteria of quality for the industry and the detailed descriptions of the game became legendary.

Jim Barnes

If you’re willing to find a person who gives a great impact for the whole bookmaker business, that has to be Jim Barnes. His magazine was the main newsmaker in 80s last century. Those was not traditional news – it was about how to place the bets right. Today it’s hard to find a cope.

Barnes was known as an expert on college basketball he was working in for more than 10 years and he started to issue his magazine after moving to Las Vegas. Kim Barnes was the author of many methods he was making forecasts to college basketball.

He is the creator of method when he takes a game as a part of some sort of streak of the following games. Barnes has recently stopped his activity as a forecaster but his business will exist for a long time.