OT 42-1

[Las Panteras]

The new 30 for 30 on now......

The night Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson

ESPN is replaying the fight now.

Tyson knocks down Douglas in the 9th,

Douglas ends it in the 10th

Well worth watching now

 

[BFo8]

My old boss was hired at Caesars about a week before that fight. Book lost almost 500k when Douglas won and he said he was afraid to answer the phone the next day because he thought he might get fired.

 

[bwh05]

My old boss was hired at Caesars about a week before that fight. Book lost almost 500k when Douglas won and he said he was afraid to answer the phone the next day because he thought he might get fired.

How did they lose money? Did that’s many people take Douglas at 42-1?

 

[BFo8]

How did they lose money? Did that’s many people take Douglas at 42-1?

Ignore my earlier post, I’m confusing that with the first Tyson/Holyfield fight. That’s the one where Tyson opened up as a 25-1 favorite and got bet all the way down to 5-1. Books lost millions.

To be honest I think only a couple places even put up a number on Tyson vs Douglas.

 

[BFo8]

Now that I think about it it’s amazing that Tyson got knocked out as both a 42-1 favorite and a 25-1 favorite.

Probably will never see anything like that ever again.

 

[bwh05]

Ignore my earlier post, I’m confusing that with the first Tyson/Holyfield fight. That’s the one where Tyson opened up as a 25-1 favorite and got bet all the way down to 5-1. Books lost millions.

To be honest I think only a couple places even put up a number on Tyson vs Douglas.

Ok, even at 42-1 I was thinking the only $$ on Douglas would have been people that did it as a joke.

 

[BFo8]

Ok, even at 42-1 I was thinking the only $$ on Douglas would have been people that did it as a joke.

There’s always people that will bet $10 or $20 on the biggest + number on the board hoping to hit the lottery. Most notable were the few people that bet small amounts on Leicester City at 2500-1 a couple years ago. I know of one book in Vegas that lost over a million on that one.

 

[Las Panteras]

From the 30 for 30.....no book in Vegas would take action in this fight except Sonny Vaccaro at Ceasars (??)

He was interviewed in the show and said he had to keep raising the odds to get anyone to bet on douglas.

He also said the USA hockey team was only 3-1, yet this was considered the greatest upset in American sports.


Vaccaro claimed it was Douglas beating Tyson and wasn't even close

 

[bwh05]

From the 30 for 30.....no book in Vegas would take action in this fight except Sonny Vaccaro at Ceasars (??)

He was interviewed in the show and said he had to keep raising the odds to get anyone to bet on douglas.

He also said the USA hockey team was only 3-1, yet this was considered the greatest upset in American sports.


Vaccaro claimed it was Douglas beating Tyson and wasn't even close

Wow I can’t believe it was only 3-1 in 1980

 

[BFo8]

Wow I can’t believe it was only 3-1 in 1980

Me neither. I didnt think Vegas even booked the Olympics at that time. I do remember someone asking former Wynn sportsbook Director John Avello what he thought the odds would’ve been and he said he would’ve made the Soviets a 3 goal favorite and had them about 15/1 on the ML.

I think there were quite a few people that realized going in that the USA team was pretty good, but not nearly on Russia’s level. Getting blown out by them in a game right before the Olympics started didn’t exactly inspire confidence.

 

[BFo8]

From the 30 for 30.....no book in Vegas would take action in this fight except Sonny Vaccaro at Ceasars (??)

He was interviewed in the show and said he had to keep raising the odds to get anyone to bet on douglas.

He also said the USA hockey team was only 3-1, yet this was considered the greatest upset in American sports.

Vaccaro claimed it was Douglas beating Tyson and wasn't even close

Actually the bookmaker in the family is Sonny’s brother Jimmy Vaccaro. To bring this topic full circle Jimmy V just announced he is leaving Las Vegas to head back home to Pittsburgh and help out getting the Rivers and SugarHouse sportsbooks up and running.

I think at his age he would not be doing any bookmaking, but he’s a real interesting guy to talk to and very approachable. It’s kind of the end of an era with him leaving town, guy is a real character.

 

[Pittx9]

Actually the bookmaker in the family is Sonny’s brother Jimmy Vaccaro. To bring this topic full circle Jimmy V just announced he is leaving Las Vegas to head back home to Pittsburgh and help out getting the Rivers and SugarHouse sportsbooks up and running.

I think at his age he would not be doing any bookmaking, but he’s a real interesting guy to talk to and very approachable. It’s kind of the end of an era with him leaving town, guy is a real character.

I was gonna say, the vegas bookmaker that was in the tyson/Douglas 30 for 30 was Jimmy was it not? Sonny Vaccaro is the “shoe guy”, also himself been in a couple 30 for 30s. The Jimmy V NC State Championship team one as he was good friends with Jimmy V and he actually had a whole 30 for 30 about himself too.

 

[paulbl99]

My old boss was hired at Caesars about a week before that fight. Book lost almost 500k when Douglas won and he said he was afraid to answer the phone the next day because he thought he might get fired.

There were probably passed out mgrs in every book in town when that news hit Vegas , or if they had it on TV there

 

[Las Panteras]

Actually the bookmaker in the family is Sonny’s brother Jimmy Vaccaro. To bring this topic full circle Jimmy V just announced he is leaving Las Vegas to head back home to Pittsburgh and help out getting the Rivers and SugarHouse sportsbooks up and running.

I think at his age he would not be doing any bookmaking, but he’s a real interesting guy to talk to and very approachable. It’s kind of the end of an era with him leaving town, guy is a real character.

You are correct. It was jimmy V

 

[RaleighPittFan]

I was gonna say, the vegas bookmaker that was in the tyson/Douglas 30 for 30 was Jimmy was it not? Sonny Vaccaro is the “shoe guy”, also himself been in a couple 30 for 30s. The Jimmy V NC State Championship team one as he was good friends with Jimmy V and he actually had a whole 30 for 30 about himself too.

Sonny gets credit from bringing Ben Howland to Pitt.

 

[Mikefln]

Now that I think about it it’s amazing that Tyson got knocked out as both a 42-1 favorite and a 25-1 favorite.

Probably will never see anything like that ever again.

Take it for what you will from Teddy Atlas. Personally I see what he is saying and I agree to a point but at the same time I think he goes too far. This is long 25 minutes.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Wow I can’t believe it was only 3-1 in 1980

There is literally no way that is true.

That's someone making up a number to try and make their point sound better. The Russians went 5-3-1 in games against NHL teams in the run up to the games, and as anyone who was around at that time would tell you the NHL teams were all trying to win those games, they were "exhibition games" in name only. The US team played four games against NHL teams, and lost them all. The Russians had already won games at those Olympics by scores of 16-0, 17-4 and 8-1, and in the game before the played the Americans they beat the Canadians 6-4, and everyone thought the Canadians were a lot better than the Americans.

 

[bubba31]

i watched the 30 for 30 and Vacarro did in fact quote 3-1 as the odds for that hockey matchup.

That does sound way low.

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

Now that I think about it it’s amazing that Tyson got knocked out as both a 42-1 favorite and a 25-1 favorite.

Probably will never see anything like that ever again.

Yes totally weird combination of events to make that happen. An all-time dominant start to his career, though over a disproportionately large amount of light heavyweights he could just overwhelm with incredible punching power. Then you have a mental head case issue on top of that, activating itself more and more as his career goes on. And he had enough dominating fights before Holyfield to set up another big upset sized line scenario.

But Tyson did struggle a bit, even in his prime, with a few bigger fighters. 6'5" Mitch Green took him through all 10 rounds (easy decision though.) Ditto for same sized journeyman Jose Ribalta. Tony Tucker grabbed his way through 12 and the decision was at least somewhat close. There was a mediocre white guy Mike Jameson who went 5 rounds after Tyson had all those first round knockouts of glorified crusierweights. He started that trend of the big guys who would jab jab jab then hold. Take the points deduction for excessive holding then jab jab jab with superior reach. The difference with Douglas besides the mental edge he had that day was he was also just flat out a better puncher than the other problematic bigs and landed those huge upper cuts, not just the jab.

 

[happjack]

i watched the 30 for 30 and Vacarro did in fact quote 3-1 as the odds for that hockey matchup.

That does sound way low.

Remember the line is set or moved so the house gets action on both sides, they make their money off the vig. People were betting or going to bet on pure patriotism so that's the main reason for the lower odds.

 

[Las Panteras]

Remember the line is set or moved so the house gets action on both sides, they make their money off the vig. People were betting or going to bet on pure patriotism so that's the main reason for the lower odds.

That makes sense

 

[McKee Place]

Watched that bout at Calecos. Not on purpose, just a coincidence I was there. I think true for most there as well. Hardly anyone was paying attention to it at first, perhaps just glancing to see the inevitable destruction of Douglas. By the time it ended the place went crazy

 

[SUPERTODD]

Take it for what you will from Teddy Atlas. Personally I see what he is saying and I agree to a point but at the same time I think he goes too far. This is long 25 minutes.

View embedded media

Teddy Atlas loathes Tyson. He actually pulled a gun on him when Tyson was hitting on his, possibly daughter or niece (?), and threatened to kill him. Teddy knows boxing, but anything he says regarding Tyson should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Remember the line is set or moved so the house gets action on both sides, they make their money off the vig. People were betting or going to bet on pure patriotism so that's the main reason for the lower odds.

But that still makes no sense. Because you'd get a lot of people throwing small bets on the US to be able to say they made a bet like that, and then you get one or two sharps who would look at a line like that and see how ridiculous it is and bet more money than dozens and dozens of patriots combined.

I'm pretty sure BFo8 has it right, I really don't think that any Vegas books put out an actual line on the game. I can't find anyplace on the web that substantiates a 3-1 line, or any line for that matter.

 

[happjack]

But that still makes no sense. Because you'd get a lot of people throwing small bets on the US to be able to say they made a bet like that, and then you get one or two sharps who would look at a line like that and see how ridiculous it is and bet more money than dozens and dozens of patriots combined.

I'm pretty sure BFo8 has it right, I really don't think that any Vegas books put out an actual line on the game. I can't find anyplace on the web that substantiates a 3-1 line, or any line for that matter.

They could have capped the max bet on the game to something like $100? But it’s totally possible they didn’t take action on the game and when asked by the press just tossed the 3-1 out there.

On Tyson - Douglas, I was babysitting my little cousin that night and when my aunt and uncle got home they totally thought I was jagging them when I said Tyson got knocked out.