Wall Street Firm Uses Algorithms to Make Sports Betting Like Stock Trading
Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2012 12:37 am
Cantor has generated a lot of buzz with the original technology behind its sports book operation, especially the eDeck tablets—touchscreen wireless devices that can be used to bet from anywhere in the casino. But the cornerstone of the operation is a piece of number-crunching software called Midas. It functions like the predictive computer programs that Amaitis dealt with on Wall Street: Midas acquires information, processes it, finds mathematical patterns and correlations, and uses all of that to divine the ever-shifting odds of sporting events. The system is robust enough to handle the play-by-play handicapping that keeps Jimmy E. glued to every pitch of the Tigers-White Sox game. During basketball season, things move so quickly that the bettors at the M have about eight seconds to consider a wager before the odds change.
Amaitis insists that Cantor Gaming’s departure from the traditional style of sports books is the future, and some casinos are coming around to the idea. The Venetian and Palazzo, situated on the northern end of the Strip, launched Cantor’s sports operations technology last fall. The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino just made a deal, and the Tropicana will be Cantorized by year’s end. “This is going to become Wall Street in the desert,”? Amaitis says. “We are not building a sports-betting operation; we are building a trading operation.”?
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/ff_midas/all/
Amaitis insists that Cantor Gaming’s departure from the traditional style of sports books is the future, and some casinos are coming around to the idea. The Venetian and Palazzo, situated on the northern end of the Strip, launched Cantor’s sports operations technology last fall. The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino just made a deal, and the Tropicana will be Cantorized by year’s end. “This is going to become Wall Street in the desert,”? Amaitis says. “We are not building a sports-betting operation; we are building a trading operation.”?
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/ff_midas/all/