What is a "bad line"?

[Don Best]

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[thegreek]

Hi Guys,


Last night I put up my overnite moneylines.
Cal Santa Barbara is a 9 point favorite and the corresponding moneyline I made -475/+375.
The problem was by clicking on the wrong team I mistakenly made Fullerton State the Dog -475.
I had numerous players not only bet on Cal San Bar at(+375) on straight bets but a whole heap of parlays involving this obviously wrong moneyline. In the past when I have made these sort of mistakes, if they are small mistakes (and I believe 2 points is a small mistake) I leave the bets alone. But if I make a large mistake, as is the one I just mentioned (where it is obvious and the players is trying to take advantage)I will definitely delete the play.
Any time a customer of mine that has made a mistake on his/her wager (online or phone), as long as the game has not started I always delete that wager. The only time I won't delete is if it is a large wager and it caused me to move my line or like last Saturday a player asked me to delete 20 plays because he wanted to change one team.

[Cons]

If a book puts up a line of -6, and it gets backed to -10 (the book looks at this as a mistake on their part), then bets should not be cancelled. By mistake I mean a careless mistake, like line reversal. If everyone has the game at -16 and this book has +16, then this is an evident line reveral.

But if a book thinks -6 should be the opening line, and it gets bashed way down, then they shouldn't be able to say: "Um, our mistake. Bad line." Because this line was not put up mistake. It might have been an underestimation on the BM's part, and that's too bad.

If shouldn't cancel a bet where the line they thought would balance the action turned out to be way off. A 'bad line' is supposed to be a mistake, a careless mistake, a line that was never supposed to go up in the first place.

But if a book voids all bets simply because they decided to set the line at a level which turned out to be off, pull your account and stay clear. And let us know as well.

[buckeye]

How about the "deadline" for renege-ing on a bad line? Is it tip-off, kick-off, tee-off, etc., or is it still apropos for a book to renege anytime they find a mistake, like when they enter the results?

I had a book reverse a mistake 5 days after they made it, without notification of the mistake, or notification of the reversal. They had made a mistake on who won a match. I am not really complaining, as it was obviously graded incorrectly, but is there a "statute of limitations" on how long it stands before they can "change" it? If I had emptied my account, what could they have done to get the incorrectly credited $ back?

[krackman]

Funny thing this subject should come up this very evening PLEASE GIVE ME AN OPINION ON THIS.....
Tonight at 6pm e.s.t. I went to the web site of a popular book(who shall remain nameless for now)And was going to bet Phoenix suns at -200 on the money line.I tried to bet 1000 laying 2000 and it would only let me put in 500 this happens sometimes with them so I called and said" I would like to lay 2000 to win 1000 on phoenix suns on the money line " the operator puts me on hold and comes back and says ok so you want 2800 to win 1000 on the suns I said the line is -200 he said sorry it is now 280 we had the wrong line up.I talked with the Manager who knows me because I have bet 2-3 dimes on a side already this year with him and did not get anywhere I told him I could of bet 1000 to win 500 on the screen(which I should of)but didn't. He said well we would of canceled your bet and not honored it since we had the wrong line up.
CAN YOU GUYS TELL ME DO ALL BOOKS DO THIS..???
Like I told him that means any bet I make with you guys I now have to worry that you did not like the line you put up therefore you will cancel all of our bets.

I usually do not do this I told him let me tell you how my day starts out sir! I check each of my 8 offshores for an advantage line call it what you want advatage/bad/low/steam/line and then bet in it if I see fit.You are now telling me you will cancel my wager if you have a advantage/bad/low/steam line well I just eliminated you from my daily line search.
Should I mention the name of this book? I mean up until now they have been solid with me great promos,they pay,and are one of the friendliest joints out there.So I did not feel the need to mention names till I get opinions.

[Aus12]

All books that I can remember looking at reserve the right to void a game for posting a line that in there words "is an obvious error". I have no problem with this as I too have made the occasional mistake when placing a bet... I can count the number of times this has happened on one hand, and each time the books I have used let me cancel it when I immediatly called saying I had made a mistake.

That being said, the people entering the lines on the computer are also human and are prone to the occasional mistake. If this is not a regular practice then I don't have a problem with it... but if this is something that happens with frequency I would quickly pull my money and move on to another book.

krackman it sounds to me as if what you describe is just an isolated incident and I would probably just think that someone had made a mistake when entering the line. If your happy and it has never happened before, no big deal... if it happens agin, then I'd be upset.

[BigMoney]

krackman, I think you got screwed. This is one of the reasons I prefer to bet online.

But if ever I get a confirmed bet, and it is cancelled later because of only a 1-2 point pointspread difference, or -200 vs -280 moneyline difference, I'll go ballistic. This book deserves to be exposed for bad practice.