When the point spread came out for the Super Bowl a couple of weeks ago, I knew in my heart of hearts that the Steelers would easily cover. Luckily, I have a large head and, of course, large head = large brain, right? So if I'm using 10% of my large-headed brain and someone else is using 10% of their regular-sized brain, logically, I would have the superior brain, right?
But intellect has very little to do with gambling, so I deduced (using my superior intellect) that I should not gamble .. because it is illegal and makes me poorer more than 50% of the time. So I did not bet, and saved myself from losing $5.50 (bookies take 10% of gross on a loss ... or so I've heard).
What does this have to do with anything? Not sure. But my friend, Ben Eckstein (shown above), makes a living giving point spreads on sports and other associated "wager-able" contests and produces our "America's Line" column which gives odds to more than 100 newspapers in North America.
Here are Ben's odds for this year's Oscars for best picture.
“Slumdog Millionaire” -1/2
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” - 4/1
“Milk” - 8/1
“Frost/Nixon” - 12/1
“The Reader” - 15/1
*Note the headline spelling as "Oskar " in tribute to the lead character of the Swedish vampire film "Let the Right One In" which I saw last weekend and is a cool, cold film.
-JG
Comments