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The vast numbers of people - a captive audience carried over from the Selection Show some would say - provided ample opportunity for online bookmakers to capitalize Sunday night. Instead, most of the online gambling websites have opted to post their March Madness lines some time early morning.
"Big mistake!" says Don Shapiro of Gambling911.com. "Hundreds of thousands of people were searching for odds immediately following the show and those books that offered them will no doubt be the beneficiaries.
Even TheGreek.com - usually among the first to get the lines up - was unusually slow this Sunday. Granted, he was still among the first, if not THE first up. PinnacleSports.com got their lines up within two hours after the Selection Show had ended, but they do not take U.S. customers. Of the Gambling911.com sponsors, Bookmaker.com was the first up, coming in the same time as The Greek and Pinnacle. Each of these caters to a rather large percentage of professional bettors. While they may have been slower to get lines up than would be expected of these shops, each still gets an A- for being able to capitalize on the impatience of sports bettors looking to get action immediately following the bracket determinations.
Gambling911.com, we should add, had its imaginary lines up within the first hour and before anyone else. Imaginary as they may be, most of the lines released by the actually online bookmakers were identical or within a half point. No need for these guys to get all the lines up...just focus on the more competitive games.
SBG Global was somewhat on the ball (no pun intended). They had lines up on all the NCAA Tournament games just prior to midnight. SBG caters more towards the recreational player base. They get a "B" since they missed out on that initial three hour traffic boost, but still managed to have their lines up overnight with traffic more brisk than normal. Make no mistake about it, SBG Global is going to make a killing over the next four days and will enjoy brisk business beyond that point.
"Monday through Thursday will see substantial traffic and a steady stream of signups if last year is any indication," Payton O'Brien, Matriarch of the Gambling911.com website said.
Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
