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DraftKings CEO Jason Robins appeared with VSiN at the grand opening of their sportsbook at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut Wednesday. He was asked to explain himself for a comment he made recently that bettors seeking profit are ‘not the players we want’.
"I think I probably could have chosen my words better," Robins confessed to the VSiN crew. "But it was also taken out of context. What I had said was, I clarified this on CNBC, is we don't want professionals".
By "professionals" he explained, "We don't want the Billy Walters types who are throwing money on one side and trying to manipulate the lines and move them one way and messing around with the ecosystem. That's not good for anybody. That's not good for the bettors. That's not good for the operators. We don't want people who are setting up operations and trying to do things to manipulate the ecosystem."
Walters is arguably one of the most successful sports gamblers in history.
With @DKSportsbook opening up at @FoxwoodsCT today #FollowTheMoney @MitchMossRadio & @paulyhoward caught up with CEO Jason Robins at the grand opening pic.twitter.com/h22N5NXZpI
— VSiN (@VSiNLive) December 8, 2021
So, too, is one Gadoon “Spanky” Kryollos. Few regulated books in the Garden State want his business, or otherwise make it close to impossible for him to make a profit by drastically reducing his limits.
Spanky, who will be holding a massive sports betting networking event in Vegas this spring, took umbrage with Robins comments, suggesting he is being ill-advised by those around him.
"If I can flip just one dressmaker to a bookmaker, it would have all been worth it," he tweeted as a teaser to get folks listening to his podcast.
"I can speak with confidence, I know what the right thing to do is," Spanky says during his podcast, explaining that his opinion is shared by those who have operated in the regulated Vegas market for years as well as several of the biggest offshore sportsbooks.
"When a sports bettor places a bet, the most important thing a bookmaker needs to understand is, there are no WHY(s). He's not entitled to the WHY. The WHY is the sports bettor and it stays with the sports bettor. The reason why he placed the bet. Some people, for example, might bet the New York Giants on the spread. Let's say it's a +7. They might bet them because they are a Giants fan. Great! They might bet them because they think that the 7 is a good spread. They get a lot of points. That's great. There are so many different angles, so many different reasons, why a sports bettor is going to place a bet on the Giants. The bookmaker is not entitled to the WHY.
"Any bookmaker that thinks he's entitled to that is fooling themselves."
I welcome all bookmakers and bettors or anyone that’s interested in sports betting to listen.
— spanky (@spanky) December 9, 2021
If I can flip just one dressmaker to a bookmaker, it would have all been worth it.
Be Better Bookmakers. https://t.co/ImIkB74yee
Others offended by Robins comments include Joe Brennan, Jr., who along with former State Senator Ray Lesniak, helped ensure sports betting's legality in the Garden State and beyond in the USA, tweeted:
"So: DK likes 'somebody who's winning just 'cause they're good' But: DK gets to define what kind of 'good' is acceptable."
This prompted one of Brennan, Jr's followers to respond: "They want the blind squirrel who finds a nut 4 times a month, not the squirrel who knows where all the nuts are."
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
