Glisan On The El Cortez Sportsbook Switch

[Jeff Jones]

I couldn't find another thread on the David Glisan piece on Station's acquiring the El Cortez sportsbook, so I'll start one. The guy is prolific, and the quality of his stuff doesn't drop. But enough about him.

Finally, a sportsbook that made a move I can like. A Station's out downtown is excellent. Southpoint is still available mid-Strip at the Palms. With most of the Stations located in the hinterlands (particularly the south-southeast corner of the Valley, this move by El Cortez to Stations will give a Station's out downtown, north end of the Strip (Palace) and south end of the Strip (Wild Wild West.) That be good. Very "Coast-like."

With the Strip fast approaching being renamed CantorLandia and downtown on the way to becoming WilliamHillLandia, we need some acquisitions to go our way.

By the way, for you non-Spanish speakers, El Cortez translates into English as The Cortez.

 

[Squarepants]

Re: Glisan On The El Cortez Sportsbook Switch

Muchas thanks on the translation, JJ, that would have got right by me otherwise. : ^)

For me personally, it was more convenient to have a South Point out there than a Stations out. But that's one of those things that just depends on personal home and work location, contests that you're in, etc.

This does help make the point I've made in other threads (and the point I made about this move over on Dave Tuley's site) -- that that there's nothing stopping others from trying to do the same things that Hill and Cantor are doing and will be doing as the economy recovers.

Gaming approval is required of course, but that has not stopped entirely new players from entering the field, like Cantor and Brandywine (Lucky's) in the past few years. Jumping out front gives firms an initial competitive advantage. But if the barriers to entry into the same field/to doing the same thing are surmountable, you can just about book it that competitors will join the fray.

I guess Stations being on the same hunt that Cantor is on could lead to a further reduction in outs if they take over an otherwise independent out. But in this case it's just a change out, not a lost out.

 

[Squarepants]

Re: Glisan On The El Cortez Sportsbook Switch

I believe that, ultimately, all that competition and eventually having new players enter the marketplace is going to be good for sports bettors.

 

[Jeff Jones]

Re: Glisan On The El Cortez Sportsbook Switch

I believe that, ultimately, all that competition and eventually having new players enter the marketplace is going to be good for sports bettors.

Perhaps. But it looks to me like these casinos are ready to farm out the sportsbook business to anyone they can, and get this sports gambling albatross off their necks.

 

[Squarepants]

Re: Glisan On The El Cortez Sportsbook Switch

Yep, it'll be interesting to see how it all plays out over the next 3 to 5 years, particularly once the economy -- finally -- picks back up in earnest.

If we wound up with only a handful of operators running all the books, on the Strip and elsewhere, that would kinda' suck.

But if we start seeing -- for example -- standalone books again in addition to the casino books and multiple competitors entering the marketplace, that could be interesting, even if we still were saddled with the federal online gaming ban.

Can only wait and see how it plays out over the longer term. Short term, it's definitely pressuring the number of independent lines, although this particular move, in and of itself at the one property, had no such effect.

 

[Viejo Dinosaur]

Re: Glisan On The El Cortez Sportsbook Switch

Yep, it'll be interesting to see how it all plays out over the next 3 to 5 years, particularly once the economy -- finally -- picks back up in earnest.

If we wound up with only a handful of operators running all the books, on the Strip and elsewhere, that would kinda' suck.

But if we start seeing -- for example -- standalone books again in addition to the casino books and multiple competitors entering the marketplace, that could be interesting, even if we still were saddled with the federal online gaming ban.

Can only wait and see how it plays out over the longer term. Short term, it's definitely pressuring the number of independent lines, although this particular move, in and of itself at the one property, had no such effect.

Too bad the Gene Maydays of yesteryear couldn't see what is happening...

 

[High Times]

Re: Glisan On The El Cortez Sportsbook Switch

The only reason this is happening is because the Casinos are gutless/spineless.

Can't even come close to gambling on their side and sports books have a little bit of gambling associated with them...

But not really

 

[Squarepants]

Re: Glisan On The El Cortez Sportsbook Switch

You had me Googling, Viejo, as I started flying out here in about 1996. Knew the general history, but not the specifics.

sports betting history - vegas sports betting information

Will be interesting, indeed, if standalone's (even if run by multi-book operators like William Hill at least at first) make something of a comeback. Sufficient capitalization is an issue, though, for any truly independent standalone operation, as the Sport of Kings demonstrated, in spades.