I've been thinking about this for a while. There are a lot of different kinds of books and each have their own codes of honor and their own advantages and disadvantages.
A books:
Pinnacle: Low vig, high limits. Very useful for arbers. The main disadvantage of playing at pinnacle is you are probably going to lose unless you either play in the shallow pools ($50 dollar limit soccer), or are very good. It has been said that pinnacle isa sportsbetting operation masquerading as a sportsbook. That is half right. They are a sportsbetting operation but also a Walmart clone. Pinnacle tries to be as honorable as possible. If you take a shot at pinnacle they might offer you a choice: Keep the bet or keep your account (if you choose the bet, after it finishes your account gets transfered out to the location of your choice). I chose to keep the account when it was my turn after I had taken a line put up in error. Pinnacle won't kick out steam players or arbers as they don't harm pinnacles business model. Part of that is because pinnacle IS the market in most sports, so any steam hits pinnacle first, ergo the arbers who pick off other books are simply helping pinnacle get out from under a bad position. If you play with Pinnacle you should know what to expect: Safety, low vigs, sharp lines.
TheGreek: Chase steam here and you get booted. The Greek would really prefer to take all bets via phone but that isn't feasible and they know it. The Greek has also been known to cancel bad lines somewhat aggressively, but do so before the game in question comes to pass. They can offer opinionated lines and do offer high limits when you call in, so they have their place in the world. Also, they too are safe.
CRIS and company: Similar to the Greek. They too are aggressive about canceling lines put up in error, but they have a code of honor that you can generally respect. They nickel and dime you to death if you are a small player, but that is their way of saying that you aren't worth their time.
WSEX: If you are sharp expect to get limit capped and sent to Matchbook. Such is life. Your money is safe. Oh, they too hate steam chasers.
Matchbook: They won't be the wave of the future until either they or one of their clients starts putting up sharp lines with decent limits well in advace of the games. Sometimes you want a dime on Penn @ Yale on Tuesday when the game is Friday. Again, your money is safe.
These books all deal with shot takers in their own way, and we can agree they are reasonably fair. They are A books and you can have a safe and happy life just playing at them. However, if you are in this business for money, and you are in this business for money, aren't you? If you are in this business for money you probably do not want to limit yourself to just these A books. Why should you play at a place where your money isn't 100% safe?
Value. Advantage players seek out value. Bonuses? Promotions? GREAT! Soft lines? Slow moving lines? Books that have misvalued props for 4 figure limits? And that allow you to parlay them? WONDERFUL!
Books that allow you to Parlay -27.5 and over 41? And then allow to parlay +27.5 and under 41? SIGN ME UP!
There are correlated parlays and then there are correlated parlays. If you were playing multiples of these you knew what you were doing. It is one thing to bet the home team and the under in a baseball game. There is covariance that can turn two good lines into one positive ev bet. It is another thing to lay under 41 and +27.5. Let's not put our head in the sand and pretend that Sportsbook.com is going to retroactively cancel -1 parlayed with over 60. We may never find out the entire story and sportsbook.com is almost certainly deserving of a D- rating, but I'm betting a bunch of shot takers just got kicked in the balls.
If I am conflating shot takers with advantage players, well, the line is thin and it is a matter of personal honor. Did anyone really cry for the guy in the movie Casino who got the hammer to his right hand? I mean, it isn't like sportsbook.com could give these players the choice.
D- books have their place in the world. They offer 10% deposit bonuses and +7.5 when the rest of the world is at 7. They do not offer you a gunslingers mentality and a sense of fairness. Deal with it. The players that got nailed lost the one real bet they made: That they would get away with it.
They didn't get away with it. Now they have one Hell of a bad beat story. So be it. We all have bad beat stories. Move on.
P.S. I know that I am taking the role of Rush Limbaugh at the Democratic Convention. I also know that SBR is the ACLU for players (an evenhanded ACLU, but I digress). Flame on, but if we are in this for money (and we are in this for money), then sportsbook.com has their place in the world. Different strokes to move the world.
A books:
Pinnacle: Low vig, high limits. Very useful for arbers. The main disadvantage of playing at pinnacle is you are probably going to lose unless you either play in the shallow pools ($50 dollar limit soccer), or are very good. It has been said that pinnacle isa sportsbetting operation masquerading as a sportsbook. That is half right. They are a sportsbetting operation but also a Walmart clone. Pinnacle tries to be as honorable as possible. If you take a shot at pinnacle they might offer you a choice: Keep the bet or keep your account (if you choose the bet, after it finishes your account gets transfered out to the location of your choice). I chose to keep the account when it was my turn after I had taken a line put up in error. Pinnacle won't kick out steam players or arbers as they don't harm pinnacles business model. Part of that is because pinnacle IS the market in most sports, so any steam hits pinnacle first, ergo the arbers who pick off other books are simply helping pinnacle get out from under a bad position. If you play with Pinnacle you should know what to expect: Safety, low vigs, sharp lines.
TheGreek: Chase steam here and you get booted. The Greek would really prefer to take all bets via phone but that isn't feasible and they know it. The Greek has also been known to cancel bad lines somewhat aggressively, but do so before the game in question comes to pass. They can offer opinionated lines and do offer high limits when you call in, so they have their place in the world. Also, they too are safe.
CRIS and company: Similar to the Greek. They too are aggressive about canceling lines put up in error, but they have a code of honor that you can generally respect. They nickel and dime you to death if you are a small player, but that is their way of saying that you aren't worth their time.
WSEX: If you are sharp expect to get limit capped and sent to Matchbook. Such is life. Your money is safe. Oh, they too hate steam chasers.
Matchbook: They won't be the wave of the future until either they or one of their clients starts putting up sharp lines with decent limits well in advace of the games. Sometimes you want a dime on Penn @ Yale on Tuesday when the game is Friday. Again, your money is safe.
These books all deal with shot takers in their own way, and we can agree they are reasonably fair. They are A books and you can have a safe and happy life just playing at them. However, if you are in this business for money, and you are in this business for money, aren't you? If you are in this business for money you probably do not want to limit yourself to just these A books. Why should you play at a place where your money isn't 100% safe?
Value. Advantage players seek out value. Bonuses? Promotions? GREAT! Soft lines? Slow moving lines? Books that have misvalued props for 4 figure limits? And that allow you to parlay them? WONDERFUL!
Books that allow you to Parlay -27.5 and over 41? And then allow to parlay +27.5 and under 41? SIGN ME UP!
There are correlated parlays and then there are correlated parlays. If you were playing multiples of these you knew what you were doing. It is one thing to bet the home team and the under in a baseball game. There is covariance that can turn two good lines into one positive ev bet. It is another thing to lay under 41 and +27.5. Let's not put our head in the sand and pretend that Sportsbook.com is going to retroactively cancel -1 parlayed with over 60. We may never find out the entire story and sportsbook.com is almost certainly deserving of a D- rating, but I'm betting a bunch of shot takers just got kicked in the balls.
If I am conflating shot takers with advantage players, well, the line is thin and it is a matter of personal honor. Did anyone really cry for the guy in the movie Casino who got the hammer to his right hand? I mean, it isn't like sportsbook.com could give these players the choice.
D- books have their place in the world. They offer 10% deposit bonuses and +7.5 when the rest of the world is at 7. They do not offer you a gunslingers mentality and a sense of fairness. Deal with it. The players that got nailed lost the one real bet they made: That they would get away with it.
They didn't get away with it. Now they have one Hell of a bad beat story. So be it. We all have bad beat stories. Move on.
P.S. I know that I am taking the role of Rush Limbaugh at the Democratic Convention. I also know that SBR is the ACLU for players (an evenhanded ACLU, but I digress). Flame on, but if we are in this for money (and we are in this for money), then sportsbook.com has their place in the world. Different strokes to move the world.