Ask A Bookmaker With Jay Kornegay: Degenerate? Really?
Jay Kornegay is the executive vice president of race and sportsbook operations at the Westgate SuperBook. He started in Lake Tahoe and moved to Las Vegas, where he opened the Imperial Palace sportsbooks in 1989 and the Superbook in 2004.
There is a perception that betting on NFL preseason games is only done by degenerates. However, the majority of the handle that we take in on preseason football games comes from sharps. The sharptons are always looking for information to take advantage of stale lines. If a sharp player were to play a sport like ping-pong, it would be a very aggressive move by us.
There is limited betting on preseason football markets. The sharps focus on sides and totals. The betting menus surrounding preseason games are limited to first-half, second- half markets and moneyline bets.
Mobile betting makes it harder to identify sharp customers. The process is still the same. The focus is on educated players and who should be categorized as sharps and other categories. It's more challenging for the operators to handle the sharp plays via mobile because they come simultaneously.
The preseason games are a lot tougher to handicap than regular season games. The games dominated by educated play. It's basically the bookmakers versus the sharps. Almost every wager that a sharp player makes is based off of information. The information is vague, concrete and in between. There are more direct quotes from coaches. If a player is well-respected and does well with information, the wagering moves more aggressively.
The SuperBook has a higher handle for preseason NFL games than for regular season MLB games. Brewers-Cardinals was probably the most popular game on the baseball board last Friday.
The Baltimore Ravens have won 21 straight preseason games dating back to 2015. The team hasn't made it out of the second round of playoffs in that span. If a marquee player, like J.K. Dobbins, is playing well in a preseason game, it can move the futures line.
