Sportsbook CEO States He Doesn’t Want Customers that Win

It obvious to anyone running any sort of business that you want to maximize your profit. Depending on your business, there are many ways to do that. One way in which sportsbooks do this is to limit or boot players that win sustainably over a long period of time. Players that are able to consistently win are usually referred to as “sharps” or “sharp players”.

Banning or limiting sharp players has always been a bit of a headscratcher for me. If the ultimate goal of a sportsbook is to balance the bets on both sides of a game then sharp action should be just as valuable anyone else’s. It has also been my experience that a player who wins for three or four years straight can also lose for three or four years straight and maybe even longer. But I digress.

DraftKings CEO Jason Robins recently stated at an “investor summit” that his company basically ‘wants their cake and eat it too’. Robins stated: “This is an entertainment activity. People who are doing this for profit are not the players we want.”

Of course all sportsbooks would prefer to have only players that lose, but mathematically there will be some players that win. This isn’t a bad thing. It’s simple bookmaking.

If you send the message that winning will be punishable at your sportsbook then why would people want to wager there? Sure, much of sports betting is done recreationally, but the ultimate goal is to win money. I mean IT’S NOT A CHARITY!

This is a trend we are seeing with almost all now-legal online sportsbooks in the U.S. If you are caught betting weak lines consistently or winning significant amounts of money over a period of time they will limit you. One player we know personally is limited to $35 per game at one sportsbook and $25 per game at another. Where is the fun in that?

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