It’s another big-betting-event weekend in Las Vegas. People flying and driving in from near and far, eager to soak in the atmosphere. Plenty of give-and-take between bookmakers and bettors. Yep, Bet Bash 2 is underway.
Oh, you thought we were talking about the Final Four?
Well, you can be forgiven for that. After all, March Madness stretches into April this weekend, with the highly anticipated North Carolina vs. Duke clash in a Saturday night semifinal, preceded by Villanova vs. Kansas. Then it’s on to the championship game Monday night.
But built around the NCAA Tournament’s final weekend is Bet Bash, the brainchild of the professional sports bettor simply and widely known as Spanky.
Bet Bash: From Idea To Reality
Spanky is absolutely an in-person kind of guy. He loves being out and about, meeting people, talking it up. So dealing with the COVID pandemic and shutdowns galore for much of the past two years ran far counter to how he prefers to live his life.
Then again, Bet Bash might not exist if not for that difficult downtime.
“During COVID, a lot of conferences got canceled,” Spanky said Friday night during a raucous registration/meet-and-greet at Bar Canada, inside The D Las Vegas on Fremont Street in downtown Vegas. “I had an itch I had to scratch. I felt the need, and I had to do something.”
That something was the original Bet Bash, staged in August 2021 in Jersey City, New Jersey. The conference attracted 275 attendees, a turnout surpassing the founder’s expectations.
“It did surprise me. That was more of like a proof of concept,” Spanky said, before going on to describe that concept. “It’s a sports betting networking conference. I’m trying to bridge the gap between bookmakers and bettors.”
When it came time to plan Bet Bash 2, Spanky was prompted to create the session he’s most looking forward to in this Saturday-Monday event: Sunday’s “Stardust Memories.”
‘A Legendary Panel’
For those who’ve been around sports betting for an extended period, the names on the “Stardust Memories” panel will ring familiar. Roxy Roxborough, Scotty Schettler and Richard Schuetz take you back to the days of the erstwhile Stardust Hotel & Casino, whose sportsbook set the table as the line originator for bettors nationwide.
“That’s gonna be a legendary panel,” Spanky said. “I believe we stand on the shoulders of these giants. These guys pioneered [oddsmaking] and made U.S. bookmaking what it is today. For them to agree to sit on this panel means the world to me.”
Bringing in experts who can provide historical context to the evolution of U.S. sports betting is a key component of Bet Bash. Everyone, even pros such as Spanky, can learn something from those who came before them, as well as those running the industry today.
“The goal is to bring people together,” Spanky said. “People meet each other, they make connections, they collaborate, they learn. And they meet legends like Roxy, Vinny Magliulo, Jimmy Vaccaro, Chris Andrews.”
Another goal: Help those who are positioned on Spanky’s side of the counter gain a little more knowledge with which to beat the oddsmakers.
“I want them to be better bettors,” he said, in a nod to the name of his podcast, “Be Better Bettors”.
Bettor-Bookmaker Relationship
Through the decades, the relationship between bettors and bookmakers at many shops has shifted from cordial to contentious. Spanky hopes Bet Bash begins to build a bridge back to a time when the two sides were more amicable — even as those sides try to pocket the other’s cash. To that end, the 350 attendees at the sold-out Bet Bash 2 include a mix of bettors and professionals from behind the counter.
Among those leading Sunday’s expert panels: Circa Sports sportsbook director Matthew Metcalf; Johnny Avello, a longtime Vegas bookmaker before moving on to head up DraftKings’ sportsbook operation; BetMGM vice president of trading Jason Scott; FanDuel director of trading John Sheeran; and Circa Sports oddsmakers Jeff Davis and Chris Bennett.
Countering the bookies on those panels are several well-known professional bettors, including Alan Boston, Chris Bruno, Elihu Feustel and Zack White. And of course, Spanky, for a session dubbed The Art of Sports Betting.
“I pride myself on maintaining relationships with bookmakers,” Spanky said. “It doesn’t have to be adversarial. Just because we’re trying to take each other’s money doesn’t mean we can’t be friendly.”
And that’s more likely to happen when people get together in person, not over Zoom.
“Nothing beats in-person networking,” he said. “There is no substitute for looking a person in the face, shaking hands and trying to learn from each other.”