Michael Roxborough was interested in the gambling world since he was a young man in 70s Vancouver. He used to hang out around the race track and the Vancouver Stock Exchange.
He was known as Roxy and he worked as a bookie, he took bets on NFL and NHL games. Back then he used to spend time at different dives, hanging around many different people.
Back then, he didn’t know that he would play such a significant role in making sports betting a billion-dollar industry. He said that he was a small-time bookmaker back then and that he earned extra money doing other things on the side.
The Differences between Sports Betting Then and Now
Before we get into how Roxy Roxborough changed the sports betting world forever, let us look at some of the differences between sports betting in the past and how it has changed today.
First of all, Nevada legalized gambling and sports betting in 1931 and it was the only place you could make a legal sports bet. While today it is legal in many states after the Supreme Court ruled that states were free to pass their own laws on sports betting in 2018, back then not so much. In 1975 the first sportsbook inside a Las Vegas casino was opened at the Union Plaza.
In 1983 with the advancement of satellite television, which made it possible to broadcast sporting events, sportsbooks in Nevada started opening up. The difference here is that today most of us have TVs in our houses where we can easily watch sports, but back then it had just recently spread. Nowadays sports betting is available to use anywhere and anytime thanks to online casinos like canadacasino.ca. Online casinos are growing rapidly, changing sports betting in a big way. Increasingly, people are placing their bets at online casinos, which has had a profound effect on sports betting.
The popularity of online casinos for sports betting can be attributed to a variety of factors:
- Convenience is a crucial factor. Putting a bet online is much easier than doing it in person, so more people are able to take advantage of these services.
- Additionally, online sports betting is more accessible than traditional gambling. A sports betting site can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection. More people than ever before are now able to wager on their favorite teams when they are watching sports.
- As a final point, online sports betting provides better odds than traditional methods. This is due to the different regulations governing online and land-based sportsbooks, which gives them more flexibility and freedom to customize bets and odds.
With that being said, let us get on with the story of Roxy Roxborough and how we influenced sports betting.
How It Happened
Roxy, back then, would call Las Vegas trying to learn the odds that were put out by the Churchill Downs. Back then it was hard to get good information and Scott Schettler said that he used to have cleaners at the Las Vegas airport collect newspapers from the airplanes so he could get updates from the sports sections from around the nation. Roxborough moved to Nevada in 1975 and Schettler hired him to set odds at the Stardust Casino.
He later started Las Vegas Sports Consultants which set odds for casinos all around the world. In 1983 the Stardust Casino started using the information provided by LVSC. Signing Stardust was a huge deal for the company, after all, it was a prestigious and known casino.
He used computers to gather data and analyze information which he then used to set the odds. Using technology was a very effective and efficient way to set the odds. He grew sports betting into a massive legitimate industry.
He sold the company back in the 90s but it is safe to say that he paved the way for modern-day oddsmakers. He was the first to introduce formulas and computers into that industry, making it what it is today.
The differences between sports betting back then and now are huge, especially after the Supreme Court ruling that favored sports betting. Today it has evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry and back then it wasn’t even close to what it is today. And the man who played a huge role in the evolution was Roxy Roxborough, he set the tone and paved the road for sports betting today.
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