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WORK TITLE: Sports Betting and Bookmaking
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.thesweetscience.com/editorial-staff/editor-in-chief/21986-arne-k-lang * http://www.cdcgamingreports.com/commentaries/book-review-sports-betting-and-bookmaking-an-american-history-by-arne-k-lang/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2008116781
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2008116781
HEADING: Lang, Arne K.
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100 1_ |a Lang, Arne K.
670 __ |a His Prizefighting, c2008: |b t.p. (Arne K. Lang)
670 __ |a Bookmaking, horse racing, and sports betting, 2016 : |b ECIP t.p. (Arne K. Lang) dataview (born May 1, 1943)
PERSONAL
Born May 1, 1943, in Brooklyn, NY; married; wife’s name Kitt.
EDUCATION:Attended college in Nebraska.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Sociologist and cultural historian; former faculty at Tuskegee University in Alabama, University of Nebraska, and University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Stardust Hotel, Las Vegas, former sports information coordinator; also known as gambling expert, sports handicapper, and occasional publicist and ring announcer.
AVOCATIONS:Boxing history.
WRITINGS
Contributor to magazines, including Boxing Illustrated, Boxing Monthly, and Ring. Editor in chief of the Web site Sweet Science.
SIDELIGHTS
Arne K. Lang was born in Brooklyn, New York, but after teaching sociology at universities in Alabama and Nebraska, he settled permanently in Las Vegas, Nevada. He taught at the local campus of the University of Nevada and worked at the Stardust Hotel as a sports information coordinator. The gambling guru and lifelong sports historian has a special fondness for boxing. At one point he even worked as a ring announcer. Lang became editor in chief of the Web site Sweet Science, which was created in 2004 as a content hub for boxing news, columns, photographs, video clips, and Web logs. His writing has appeared in a number of magazines, including Boxing Illustrated, and in a handful of books.
In Sports Betting 101: Making Sense of the Bookie Business and the Business of Beating the Bookie, Lang asks himself (and answers) 101 questions about the art of sports betting. He defines the terminology and explains the customs. He discusses the math and the odds and introduces the process involved in making a bet. Lang also offers a brief history of sports betting, entertaining anecdotes, and insider information. Although he considered the book to be somewhat out of date, Nick Christenson reported at LV Revealed: “I’m surprised at how much of this information was new to me,” calling the volume “not only informative but extremely entertaining as well.” He recommended Sports Betting 101 to both novices and advanced bettors: “I liked it, and I believe it was well worth reading.”
Lang reveals his inner historian in Prizefighting: An American History. He begins with the origins of boxing in England in the 1700s as a rowdy, bare-knuckle form of street fighting, but he focuses on boxing as an American phenomenon. No history of boxing would be complete–or interesting–without profiles of the lords of the ring and the fights of the century, but Lang also pays homage to the business of boxing as a spectator sport. He writes of the promoters and publicity stunts, the journalists, the geographical markets and their related racial and ethnic dimensions, attendance and box office data, and, of course, the rise of his adopted hometown of Las Vegas as a global mecca for prizefighting aficionados. In his review at Boxing Scene.com, Cliff Rold reported that “Lang explores the depth of the historical connection in entertaining detail.” He compliments the author for “one of the best whole histories on the sport available . . . a worthy addition to the book shelves of the casually curious or the fistic frenzied.”
The author returned to his initial specialty in Sports Betting and Bookmaking: An American History. As in his prizefighting history, Lang sidesteps the scandals to focus on the business, but he expands his scope to include the entire spectrum of sports betting, both within and outside the law. Lang devotes much of his account to horse racing and betting, the boom in racetrack building after the Civil War, and the concurrent growth of offtrack betting. He writes of the increase in racing periodicals and daily racing forms during the Great Depression and the modern-day evolution of satellite video simulcasts that replaced race reporting via telegraph lines. Lang discusses the extension of the betting industry to include wagers on dogs, even people. He covers betting between individuals, which evolved into pool-selling auctions, bookmaking, and the invention of pari-mutuel calculating machines, which occurred as early as 1871. Betting on the outcome of sports matches did not supersede horse racing until after 1950, with the rising popularity of point-spread betting, fantasy sports, and almost anything else on which odds could be calculated.
A Publishers Weekly contributor observed: “This excellent look at ‘America’s love/hate affair with sports gambling’ delivers fascinating insights.” David Schwartz noted at CDC Gaming Reports: “This is an important book to read now because of the rising importance of sports betting to casinos.” He added that Lang also “includes several hard-won nuggets of information that will come as a welcome surprise to even the best-versed historians of sports betting. Most importantly, Lang puts developments in sports betting history into the larger social, political, and cultural context of their time.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Lang, Arne K., Prizefighting: An American History, McFarland and Co. (Jefferson, NC), 2008.
Lang, Arne K., Sports Betting and Bookmaking: An American History, Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 2016.
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, May 9, 2016, review of Sports Betting and Bookmaking, p. 61.
ONLINE
Boxing Scene.com, http://www.boxingscene.com/ (March 4, 2009), Cliff Rold, review of Prizefighting.
CDC Gaming Reports, http://www.cdcgamingreports.com/ (August 29, 2016), review of Sports Betting and Bookmaking.
LV Revealed, http://www.lvrevealed.com/ (July 31, 2006), Nick Christenson, review of Sports Betting 101: Making Sense of the Bookie Business and the Business of Beating the Bookie.
Sweet Science, http://www.thesweetscience.com/ (March 15, 2017), author profile.
Unable to copy from website.
Sports Betting & Bookmaking
Personal acknowledgements and introduction, including wife's name Kitt.
=====
Prizefighting: An American History
Lengthy first-person preface
This work brings a fresh perspective to the history of modern prizefighting, a sport which has evolved over several centuries to become one of mankind's most lasting and valued sporting attractions. With his primary focus outside the ropes, the author shows how organizers, publicity agents, and political allies overcame both legal and moral roadblocks to make fisticuffing a lively commercial enterprise. The book begins with the clandestine bare-knuckle fights in eighteenth-century London, and ends with the vibrant, large-scale productions of modern Las Vegas "fight nights." Along the way, he explains many of the myths about antiquarian prizefighters, describes the origins of slave fight folklore, and examines the forces that transformed Las Vegas into the world's leading venue for important fights.
Review at Boxing Scene.com, http://www.boxingscene.com/
Wed Mar 4, 2009
Prizefighting: An American History – A Review
By Cliff Rold
Author: Arne K. Lang
274 Pages
$55 Hardcover
McFarland Publishing (www.mcfarlandpub.com)
Order Line: 800-253-2187
It’s never belonged completely to its shores. It wasn’t birthed there. However, from the late nineteenth century to now, the United States has been largely the center of the boxing universe. For those who may have forgotten, sociologist Arne [[Lang explores the depth of the historical connection in entertaining detail]] in Prizefighting: An American History, originally released in October 2008 and available in stores and on-line.
Lang is perhaps most familiar to readers as a sports handicapper and former Sports Information Coordinator at the Stardust Hotel.
Boxing, like Baseball, has amassed an impressive library over the years. Like Baseball the sweet science has so many unique ties to the events of the 20th century, along with enough dark corners to fuel any pot boiler, its history always up for dissection. With so many having having attempted the task over the years, it becomes the author’s responsibility to create fresh takes when they put the sport under the scalpel.
Lang, for the most part, accomplishes the task.
What makes Prizefighting unique would depend on the eye of the beholder. For those new to the history of boxing, the book serves as a good primer to acquaint the reader with the bulk of the milestone figures and events in the sports past.
For those with an active interest in the sport, those wondering what a general history will provide which they haven’t read elsewhere, the book will provide just enough a fresh slant to keep their interest.
Rather than focus purely on the fights and fighters, Lang’s work concentrates on the nature of events. The fights and fighters are still unavoidably at the center, but the lights are shined brightest on promotion and publicity, geography and gates.
The book begins with a first and second chapter which act largely as preface on those terms, beginning the tale across the pond in the vibrant 18th century British boxing market. Introducing readers to figures like James Figg and Jem Mace, detailing not only some of their results but also tactics used to garner publicity for bouts which weren’t always legal. The interest of royalty in the sport and the blind eye it could create for its unsavory element has lasting parallels to the present.
Once settled in America, readers are treated to stories told many times (Dempsey, Rickard and the Raid of Shelby) and others less so (the positive effects of Rocky Marciano on hometown gamblers).
Among the most interesting parts of Lang’s work is a focus on the early relationships between the press and the sport. Lang reminds readers how common it was, and still occasionally is, for writers to get involved with the business side of the sport. Journalists acting openly on the side as publicists or getting caught up as hidden parts of the promotion of major events, assisting ballyhoo if you will, gets a hard look. So too do the strong ethnic and racial waves which have dominated the sport.
For fight fans born after the days of Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey there is ample red meat as well. For most of the last one hundred pages, Lang looks at how the sport gravitated towards Las Vegas with special attention paid to the eras of Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Mike Tyson.
If the book suffers a lull, it is in the chapter focused directly on Ali. Ali has had so much written about him, so many documentaries made, that it’s hard for any author to make him feel fresh as a subject. While the point for Lang is in looking at how Ali’s career traced through the rise of Las Vegas and specifically the fights he had in that town, it all feels a bit cumbersome, retreaded.
Thankfully, it only lasts for a chapter.
Lang even gives a fair look at the modern evolutions, the rise of Eastern European fighters and markets and the superstar turn of American Floyd Mayweather Jr., providing readers [[one of the best whole histories on the sport available]] in the market.
Altogether, it’s [[a worthy addition to the book shelves of the casually curious or the fistic frenzied.]]
- See more at: http://www.boxingscene.com/prizefighting-an-american-history-review--18759#sthash.FPvGID8G.dpuf
=====
Sports Betting 101
Lang answers 101 questions about betting sports, some that even the most experienced bettor has trouble understanding or explaining to others. What are key numbers? What is a middle? Who makes the betting line and the outlaw line? Who determines the rotation? When can a bookmaker alter the terms of a bet? How relevant are betting trends? What is the Kelly Criterion and the good and bad sides of it? 190 pgs, paperback, 1992
Review of Sports Betting 101
LV Revealed, http://www.lvrevealed.com
Reviewed by Nick Christenson, npc@lvrevealed.com
July 31, 2006
Sports Betting 101 is an introduction to the intricacies of sports betting that includes information on the math, the language, the business, and the mental approach of this subject. Basically, the author asks himself 101 questions (hence the second meaning in the title) about sports betting that are aggregated into 11 chapters. These questions run the gamut from how the 11-to-10 house edge originated to an examination of the pluses and minuses of betting parlays rather than straight bets.
All the important issues that a beginning sports bettor would need to know are covered here. The terminology is explained, the basics of making a bet are covered, and the math on which sports betting is based is explained simply yet thoroughly. The introductory material lacks the silliness that fills many introductory books on sports betting, which is welcome. This is as good an explanation for beginners as I've read.
Lang's book also contains a great deal of advice on betting sports. There are occasional places where I have a mild disagreement with the phrasing of some of what he says, but there's no passage in the book I can point at and say, "This is wrong." Moreover, I believe that most of the advice given is not only correct and colorfully written, but displays a deep wisdom about what it takes to be a winning sports bettor. I was surprised at how much I liked the vast majority of the explanations contained in this book.
Sports Betting 101 also contains a great deal of history and background about sports betting. I found all of this material to be [[not only informative but extremely entertaining as well.]] In retrospect, [[I'm surprised at how much of this information was new to me.]] Lang fills this book with historical curiosities, inside industry insight, and fantastic stories. It's rare that I read a gambling book that is both entertaining and educational, but this is an example of one that succeeds at both.
As an introduction for sports bettors, Sports Betting 101 succeeds admirably. I have no problem recommending this book as a good place for novices to begin their sports betting education. Even though I don't think advanced sports bettors will learn a lot of deep secrets from Lang's book, I anticipate that it will contain enough new information and good advice, and will provide enough entertainment value, that I'll recommend it for this audience as well. [[I liked it, and I believe it was well worth reading.]]
The one downside is that the book does feel a bit dated by now. There's no mention of Internet sports betting, or even the Internet for that matter. The number and availability of many bet types the book discusses has changed considerably since the book was written. Some of the data and trends that Lang discusses are no longer valid, although the author's general advice regarding them is as sound as ever. It would be nice if the book were more up-to-date, but that doesn't prevent it from being valuable to sports bettors.
Since this book is published by a small independent press, finding a copy can be tricky. For those who are interested, the best place to go is the source. This book can be picked up at or ordered from the Gamblers Book Club in Las Vegas.
Capsule:
Sports Betting 101 is good book for beginners looking for a thorough introduction to the world of sports betting. This book is filled with good information, solid advice, and informative and entertaining stories. The target audience is beginners, but even though advanced sports bettors probably won't increase their win rate, Lang's book will still be worthwhile. I recommend this book for just about anyone with an interest in learning more about sports betting, but I especially recommend it as arguably the best introduction to the topic in print.
From Amazon.com:
About the Author
Sociologist Arne K. Lang has taught at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, the University of Nebraska, and Tuskegee University. A leading authority on the history of boxing and the history of American sports gambling, he lives and writes in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Sports Betting and Bookmaking
Publishers Weekly.
263.19 (May 9, 2016): p61.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Sports Betting and Bookmaking
Arne K. Lang. Rowman & Littlefield, $38 (272p) ISBN 978-1-4422-6553-0
Sportswriter Lang's new book is a fascinating look at the history of legal and illegal horse-race and sports betting in the U.S. It combines his
previously demonstrated strengths as a gambling expert (Sports Betting 101: Making Sense of the Bookie Business and the Business of Beating
the Bookie) and a cultural historian (Prizefighting: An American History). The strength of Lang's work comes from his deciding not to focus on
the "rogues and scandals" that have been common elements of early writings about horse racing; instead he looks at the history of playing the
ponies as a "robust industry" well fitted to sociology and entrepreneurial studies. His book is an unusual view of the history of America, and
includes the racetrack-building boom in the years following the Civil War "accompanied by a parallel boom in off-track betting"; the 1905
opening of Belmont Park in New York, "one of the last great spectacles of the Gilded Age"; the surge in racing papers published during the
expansion of horse racing in the Great Depression; and the technological advance of simulcasting satellite video feeds of races to nonracetrack
locations, which revolutionized off-track betting. [[This excellent look at "America's love/ hate affair with sports gambling" delivers fascinating
insights.]] (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Sports Betting and Bookmaking." Publishers Weekly, 9 May 2016, p. 61. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA452883368&it=r&asid=01e57d1e2d81c5bcd879ee21ec5893e7. Accessed 6 Feb.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A452883368
Commentaries
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Book Review: Sports Betting and Bookmaking: An American History, by Arne K. Lang
August 28, 2016 at 12:21 am
By David Schwartz
Share1
516JVSpDfALWith casinos having expanded to most of the United States, and international markets more uncertain than certain, the next major frontier for gambling expansion seems to be sports betting. The American Gaming Association is now making major push for the broader legalization and regulation of sports betting, while professional sports leagues, the bulwark of past opposition to legal sports betting, are softening their stances. As we stand at the cusp of a historic expansion of legal sports gambling, Arne Lang’s new history of sports betting and bookmaking is an essential read.
Lang starts with his description of how betting on horses, dogs, and people developed with a look a Leonard Jerome, who more than anyone else was responsible for making thoroughbred racing a mainstream sport throughout the United States. That is the entry point into an examination of the racing scene in New York City, which for much of the second half of the 19th century dominated American racing. Lang artfully recreates that racing milieu.
leaderboard-understanding-pandl-recording
Professional bookmaking flowered in Gilded Age and in early Progressive New York, and much of current race and sports betting traces its lineage to the innovations of those days. Lang traces the sequential development of what we would today call peer-to-peer wagering, pool-selling, bookmaking, and pari-mutuel betting.
Initially, horse backers bet with each other. Bettors typically owned or had some connection to the horse they backed. Next, pool selling allowed sellers to conduct an auction; the highest bid got the favored horse, next highest the next favored, and so on. Then bookmakers set odds for each horse and accepted bets from the general public. Finally, pari-mutuel machines, which debuted in the United States in 1871, mechanically calculated the correct payouts to winning bettors, minus a commission for the operator.
Lang also chronicles the growth of off-track betting, taking it from the late 19th century “pool room” to later OTB establishments and the race and sports books of Las Vegas. Betting away from the track (or stadium) was an important element of contest wagering, since it broadened the participation base; to get action, bettors did not have to spend a day at the track, but could merely stop in an urban pool room to catch a telegraphed description of a race and, of course, lay down some bets.
There have always been opponents of betting on races and sporting contests. Lang tracks how anti-gambling crusaders, from Anthony Comstock to William Travers Jerome to Fiorello LaGuardia to Estes Kefavuer, enjoyed (often temporary) triumphs that drove betting underground.
Due to a variety of factors, for all of which Lang gives ample consideration, team sports betting began to displace horse race betting in popularity in the second half of the 20th century. Lang tracks the rise of point spread betting on football and basketball and the general upswing in sports gambling, up to and including the very recent skyrocketing (and fall to earth) of daily fantasy sports and New Jersey’s challenge of PASPA.
[[This is an important book to read now because of the rising importance of sports betting to casinos]]. From a revenue standpoint, sports books are minor contributors: Nevada casinos get about two percent of their total gaming win from sports betting. But, as noted above, industry leaders now perceive sports betting to be the new frontier for American gaming companies. So for the next several years, expect sports betting news to dominate media coverage and gaming conferences. Reading Lang’s brief, well-written history will give you a better appreciation for all of the dynamics in play with the fight to legalize sports betting, as well as the role of race and sports betting in American life.
Lang’s book succeeds at telling the story of sports betting and bookmaking’s history in an accessible, readable way, and[[ includes several hard-won nuggets of information that will come as a welcome surprise to even the best-versed historians of sports betting. Most importantly, Lang puts developments in sports betting history into the larger social, political, and cultural context of their time]], demonstrating that nothing happens in a vacuum.
With football season just upon us, expect even more scrutiny of our national sports betting policy (or lack thereof). Having read Sports Betting and Bookmaking will give you much better insights into that debate.516JVSpDfAL
Sports Betting and Bookmaking: An American History (July 2016, 291 pages with glossary, index) is published by Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, Maryland). ISBN 978-1442265530