Although I’m a big fan of sports, I rarely bet on any. First off, it’s very confusing. You’ve got spreads and points and over unders and all sorts of things like that. I just want to bet on the team I think is going to win; but apparently there is much more to it that that.
Fortunately, just in time for (American) football season, the Los Angeles Times has printed a how-to guide for idiots like myself. A True Spectator Sport, by Marc Cooper, runs through some of the basics that one should take into consideration while at a Vegas sports book, as well as recommending a couple of good reads to help out.
It doesn’t go into too much detail, but Cooper, most importantly, includes a sidebar article summing up the best sports books in Vegas. This, folks, is where you can sit down and watch 30 screens of every imaginable sport with a few hundred of your closest sports-fan friends. And if this isn’t cool enough, waitresses will swing by and serve you free beer even if you’re not betting (they just assume you are).
Can life get any better than this for sports fans? I don’t think so.