Minnesota gaming executive questions profitability of sports betting

Not everyone is excited about the emergence of sports betting in New Jersey and the rest of the states within the USA scrambling to legalise the industry.

John McCarthy, the executive director of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, went on the record this week regarding sports betting and the potential for those casinos to turn in big profits.

He claimed that “Sports betting (has) somewhat of a limited profit margin.”

The statement could be taken as a deflating comment for those looking for widespread sports-betting availability in the state of Minnesota.

It can also be interpreted as a comment from a man who sees a clear threat to his existing profit models.

Certainly, there will be costs for casinos when it comes to running sports-betting operations. Staff staying on top of odds and news related to the odds is a big deal.

Often sportsbooks will close their markets at important times. But staff asleep at the wheel when it comes to key developments can mitigate a sportsbook’s profit margins significantly.

Sports betting certainly isn’t all good news for those that offer betting lines. Anyone familiar with the gambling career of the late-great Chip Reese will probably remember him as a great poker player. However, Reese was also known for making tons in the world of baseball betting. There are people that can beat the odds that the casinos try to stack in their favor.

But if there was a state where casinos stood to profit from sports betting you would actually think, from one point of view, that it would be Minnesota.

There’s one type of sports punter that bets on who they think will win and another who bets on who they hope will win.

Minnesota sports fans have only hope after decades of failure from their main franchises.

Partisan Minnesota sports fans haven’t actually backed a team for a title correctly since the 1991 World Series. That year the Minnesota Twins won the Fall Classic with Jack Morris and Kirby Puckett as two of the key players. Since then the Twins, the NBA‘s Minnesota Timberwolves, the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, and the NHL’s Minnesota Wild have all combined for ZERO league titles. If there was anywhere that casinos wanted to take in sports bets, then Minnesota is the place.