The Olympics

[AYCE]

I mentioned a while ago at here but haven't got any responses.

I would like to post it again.

For this coming Olympics 2000, I would like to see some offers from books (Euro, Aussie, Offshores, whatever). Here are some examples,

1) O/U on total GOLDs for USA, Russia, Germany, China, Aussie, France, Korea.

2) O/U on total GOLDs for the No.1 nation.

3) 0/U total WRs will be broken in Track & Field, Swimming.

4) O/U the men's 100 meter winning time.

5) O/U USA dream team's average winning margin per game.

6) Future bets on M/F tennis single, M/F soccer, M Baseketball - who will finish 2nd, handball, diving, Gym, M/F volleyball.

7) Will G. Davis win a medal? O/U what position will she finish?

8) O/U of players will be tested positive for using illegal drugs?

etc, tec...

Anyone?

[alec]

Just want to support AYCE here.
Actually, I am pretty sure you will have lines on almost all sports during the Olympics at such places as Tipsport. But I don't think you are going to like these lines. No O/U with 1.91 line at least.
Somehow I have never seen a book that offers both sufficient variety of options and has low juice.

[OZ]

AYCE

If you are in the U.S.A, don't think you going to be able to watch the olympics LIVE.

everything will be delayed 12-15 hours on all NBC channels including MSNBC and CNBC

So you better get your bets in early

[AussieVamp2]

Ray,

Good luck, but I doubt it.

Will be interesting to see what the spread firms come up with though.

Oz, where are you, currently?

[AussieVamp2]

--yeah, pretty dumb programming Oz, then again, infomercial make money, but who wouldn't want to watch John Tesh talk about gymnastics on tape dealy???

Quokka hops into Olympic coverage


By John F. Thorsberg, CBS.Marketwatch
Last Update: 12:20 PM ET Jul 8, 2000 NewsWatch
Latest headlines

SAN FRANCISCO (CBSMW) -- The Olympics are one of the crown jewels of sports broadcasting, and Quokka Sports is hoping to share some of that sparkle when it pushes Internet coverage of the Summer Games to a new level in September.

Quokka is partnering with NBC, the General Electric network (GE: news, msgs) that owns the Olympic broadcast rights through 2008, to produce NBCOlympics.com.

Since its move from Australia to the United States in 1996, Quokka has been an online innovator with its “sports immersion” approach. The company’s course started on water with the Whitbread Around the World yacht race, migrated to the mountains with the acquisition of outdoor sports site Mountainzone.com, shifted to racetracks with coverage of Championship Auto Racing Teams races and just last month advanced to the fairway with the purchase of a controlling interest in Golf.com.

Quokka’s interactive sports programming offers real-time data, stunning graphics and reporting plus in-depth profiles and personal stories from athlete scribes.

The next step for Quokka is to expand NBC’s telecast tentacles across the Web with 24-hour coverage of the full slate of the Summer Olympics, which run Sept. 15-Oct. 2 in Sydney.

“It’s not very often that you get the opportunity to take coverage of sport to a new medium, to take the biggest sporting event in the world to a new level,” said Quokka CEO Alan Ramadan, a native Australian.

Because of the time difference (Sydney is 14 hours ahead of New York City), NBC chief **** Ebersol decided to forego live TV broadcasts. With taped programming on NBC, the real-time door is wide open for the Web site.

Some pretty big names have placed their bets on the site’s popularity with the Net sports set. Visa, AmeriTrade(AMTD: news, msgs), GE, General Motors (GM: news, msgs), and IBM (IBM: news, msgs) have all signed up as advertisers on the Olympic site.

No pot of gold

While great numbers of Web surfers will undoubtedly click on NBCOlympics.com, they won’t guarantee a quick profit for Quokka.

“It brings millions and millions of people into contact with our company and with our other sports and the type of coverage we do,” said Ramadan. He is confident he can beat analysts’ estimates that Quokka will generate a profit before the end of 2002.

“I think we’re ahead of that time frame,” he said.

The partnership is a timesaver for NBC, which has leapfrogged into the digital media pond without assuming too much risk, according to David Barteld, special situations analyst for First Security Van Kasper.

“Quokka’s business model, which is attaining growth through more licensing agreements with different sports, is a winner,” said Barteld.

He started coverage of the company with a “strong buy” recommendation and a price target of $18 over the next 12 to 18 months.

“Then there’s the NBC partnership (a four-year deal), which can provide a solid introduction to the top offices of every major sport that’s out there,” Barteld said. “From Quokka’s viewpoint, it validates what they’re doing and uses NBC as a catalyst for their business model.”

The stock, which has sputtered since last July’s debut at $12 per share, climbed briefly to $10 a share after Barteld’s recommendation, but then it dropped off again.

Some investors have been spooked by Quokka’s heavy burn rate, but Ramadan’s efforts to double his $50 million war chest by raising $50 million from new strategic investors could bear fruit in the very near future.

Barteld said investors have had a difficult time understanding the difference between Quokka’s approach and other Web sites use of streaming audio and video.

Digital data

“They (investors) think we are just going to be watching TV on the computer,” he said. “Quokka is the perfect example of how it’s going to be much more than that ... It’s not just digital audio and video, but digital data.”

In its coverage of Championship Auto Racing Teams (MPH: news, msgs), Quokka puts racecar gauges on the screen so viewers can get a driver’s-eye view of the action. Monitors show athletes’ pulse and heart rates that meld with images from multiple camera angles. The same technology cropped up last week when sprinter Michael Johnson agreed to let Quokka hook up special sensors so Web site visitors could almost feel his quick-as-the-wind performance in a pre-Olympics race.

“If they ever cover the NFL, they’ll put a sensor in some guy’s shoulder pad and as he smashes across the line of scrimmage, you’ll be able to see how many psi (pounds per square inch) he gets from the impact,” Barteld said. “That’s the kind of digital information that they can translate over the Internet in this format.”

[AYCE]

OZ,

Don't know how many events will be live, but I guess some will be on NBC, maybe late night or early morning though.

Right now, most books that offering lines are just on some track N field and swimming events, to me, thats not something I will be interested in this moment.

There are too many variables to consider to bet on an isolated single event that will be played about 2-3 months from now.

Something like O/U golds is really what I would like to see.

I want to see how far can those BMs go.

Alec,

I know that. And in fact, I don't expect -110 on these offers (if there is any), I am willing to play them on -115 (give them an extra 5 for the margin of error).

I actually think these are the books that "can" do it,

DAS
Centrebet
Itops
WH

Books "can't really do it" BUT maybe willing to "try it/copy it",

Olympics
Carib
Canbet

Of course, not counting some of the east Euro books that Alec had mentioned.

[alec]

AYCE,
Do you think that Intertops has qualified oddsmakers who can come up with the odds for the bets you mentioned? May be so. Just want to know your opinion.
On William Hill. I think they don't like those O/U low juice bets. I have no doubt that they "can" though. And it is hard for me to imagine them offering tennis from the beginning of the tournament.
I believe that Centrebet is the best in your list for the given purpose.
Btw, is it possible to watch Centrebet's odds without opening an account with them. After they redesigned their site I can't do it.

[AussieVamp2]

funnily enough on William Hill, saw they had AFL pointspread only betting on their website

1.90 either way - bit generous for them

[AussieVamp2]

Not that I'm a bookie, Ray, but I don't think I would want to come up with odds for over/unders on medals, and do all that work for a bet of limited appeal to a lot of people except maybe some quite cluey athletics punters.......?

[AYCE]

I won't under-estimate Itops.

Although their lines may not be the sharpest in the world, but they are one of the few guys that willing to try everything.

Such as SEA Game soccer match, crazy props like Rodman/MJ return, etc.

WH, of course they can do it, but again, even if they will, don't expect to see some sharp lines.

Alec, we are on the same page here, I think the Aussie books are the one that we should expect to have some of my playable lines.

O/U for -115 to -120 on those offers are still acceptable to me.

Trust me, if the BMs are smart enough, those offers can easily turn into sucker bets.

AV, believe it or not, you can spend less than 2 hours to have a set of good lines for all those O/U that I have mentioned.

Remember, its "good line", not "to predict the outcome".

[This message has been edited by AYCE (edited 07-10-2000).]

[boris]

Alec,
At Centrebet, click on 'competitions' to see their prices. Stupid, I know, most people associate that with gifts/prizes/quizzes etc, but .....

I'd suggest the best options for medal totals will be from the UK. To do those sort of markets, you have to start researching stuff like synchronized swimming, and no self-respecting human wants to do that.....

And two hours' research on something like that wouldn't even cover one country AYCE, you'd get absolutely caned by the pros. Been there, done that, not pretty.

BetInternet and Bet&Win also have markets up at this stage. For Aussies, www.sportsbet.com.au have plenty on offer, but at this stage, online betting is still 'coming soon'.

[AussieVamp2]

Boris,

If you want to bet online with SportsBET you can use WA version

[OZ]

AV

I'm in perth

australin books will be betting on most team sports amd maybe on australia medal tally

who is g davis

o/u on drugs 0-5000 -110 +5001 -110

o/u get caught on drugs 0-4 -110 +5 -110

[AussieVamp2]

Thanks Oz,

I actually posted the Olympics stuff they had up in another thread.....

[AussieVamp2]

Perth, Melbourne, Canberra, Singapore!

now, we just need a smart South Australian ;-)