The odds above show that the Miami Dolphins are +130 and the Buffalo Bills are listed at -150. In North America, the most commonly referred to odds are expressed using either a + (plus sign) or a – (minus sign) in front of them. Today, many operators outsource oddsmaking to some high-tech companies that specialize in creating algorithms to do this role. Oddsmaking now is far more high-tech than it ever was.Ĭomplicated algorithms with hundreds of different data points are the face of oddsmaking today.īack in the day, individual operators would take pride in their in-house oddsmakers and their ability for those people to set accurate lines. Together, this small collection of oddsmakers would brainstorm until they could agree on a number, which would be the game’s opening line.įast forward to online sports betting in 2022, and things have changed quite a bit. When sportsbooks first opened up, odds were set primarily by a few select people who would get together and discuss their thoughts on a game. Today, despite most of us placing bets online and not from inside a Nevada sportsbook, the term Las Vegas odds or just Vegas odds continues to live on. Whether you were inside a Vegas sportsbook looking to make a bet on the game or across the country talking about a particular NFL point spread, you weren’t just talking about NFL Odds you were talking about Las Vegas NFL Odds.īecause Nevada legalized well before anyone else in the US, all sports gambling odds were often referred to as Las Vegas Odds or Vegas Odds because that is where the lines were being set. What Are Las Vegas NFL Oddsīefore the US voted to give every state the choice of whether or not to legalize sports betting, Las Vegas owned the sports betting market. Sportsbooks at the time were referred to as Turf Clubs, and deals were made with local hotel casinos to stay out of each other’s business.Īlthough these Turf Clubs were small independent shops off the strip when they first opened up, it was the beginning of the thriving sports betting industry we know today. In 1949, the first legal sportsbook opened in the state of Nevada.

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