Expert Panels- August 11th

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Each week Circa Sports opens the weekly college football lines at 11am PST sharp.  The opening of these numbers sets in motion action worldwide and over the next few hours the opinions of many of the sharpest college football bettors battle it out, determining what the line will be.  Bookmakers do their best to adjust to the influx of money pouring in and bettors with various agendas attempt to get down bets on the sides they like, and sometimes the sides they don’t like.  

This panel will examine the process that goes into setting the line by the bookmaker and how they think about adjustments on a week to week basis.  We will also chat with CFB experts and bettors on the other side of the counter to see how they prepare to tackle each week’s slate of games.  With so many games to go thru and limited time to wager once lines are posted, bettors must have a plan for getting down the best bets available to them, often as quickly as possible.  With so many teams and so many changes from week to week, the college football betting market is one of the most interesting and fastest moving betting opportunities available.  This discussion will capture some of that excitement from the participants who shape the line each and every week.

MODERATOR:  Mitch Moss - Host VSIN Follow the Money 

PANELISTS:

Bud Elliott - National CFB Editor 24/7 Sports/Sports Bettor 

Connor Hower - Head CFB Oddsmaker Circa Sports 

Eddie Walls - Pro Sports Bettor

Matt Metcalf - Former Director Circa Sports

Paul Stone - Pro Sports Bettor

Every day numerous professional bettors and bookmakers enter the arena to make their living betting on numbers.  Bookmakers set the lines, bettors bet into them, both hoping to earn enough to justify their existence and make it to the next day.   The process by which betting lines are set can be as complicated or as simple as a bookmaker chooses to make it.  Once the line hits the board though the battle is on, and while similar, no 2 days are exactly alike.  

This panel will examine the day to day grind of being a professional sports bettor as lines are released, limits rise, and bookmakers and bettors compile their positions on the daily slate of games. We will dig into the strategy from the bookmaker’s point of view including how lines are set, how limits are determined, and how they think about building their positions.  We will examine the challenges bettors are up against in today’s market where bookmakers have grown increasingly risk adverse.  Not everything is as it seems and bettors are often forced into a variety of tactics to accumulate positions on games.  

In this discussion we will try to uncover some misconceptions that both parties may have about each other and the way they do their jobs.  The bookie/bettor relationship is a complex one in that for bookmakers to do their job optimally they need the information that the pro bettors provide.  

MODERATOR:   Gill Alexander - Host VSIN A Numbers Game 

PANELISTS: David Frohardt Lane - Co Founder DL Trading 
Glenn Herzog - Sportsbook Manager Circa Sports
Luke Miller - Trader Spanky’s Betting Desk (SIA)
Matthew Davidow - Sports Betting
Mike Craig - Professional Sports Bettor 

Enjoy a complimentary catered lunch during the panels intermission.

For anyone interested in sports betting, Twitter has long served as a valuable tool as well as a town square of sorts for a variety of betting related discussions.  Much of the information that’s vital for professional sports bettors is first disclosed by various sources on Twitter and seems to work its way into the betting line faster and faster each year.  This has led to market efficiency in a way people probably couldn’t have predicted 15 years ago surrounding injuries/weather/etc.  

For this panel we will talk about how valuable Twitter has become in the mass distribution of information for the betting line as well as dive into the current state of affairs and the melting pot of handicappers, influencers, reporters, and pro bettors that Sports betting Twitter has become.  We will examine the roles that the different personalities have in this ecosystem and talk to our panelists about their opinion of how we can make Sports betting Twitter the best version of itself.  There is no shortage of people willing to make their voice heard - whether you’re giving out your best 3 team parlay, reporting on where the action is on tonight's game, or ridiculing a fellow bettor for not being as sharp as they think they are - sports betting twitter is here to stay.

MODERATOR:    Sam Panayotovich - Sports Betting Analyst NESN/Fox Sports 

PANELISTS:   

Darren Rovell - Sports Business Reporter Action Network 

Dave Sharapan - Sports Betting Media Personality 

Jeff Benson - Sportsbook Operations Manager Circa Sports

Joey Knish - Sports Bettor/Content Creator

Rob Pizzola - Pro Sports Bettor/Co Founder The Hammer