from Doug Kezirian of ESPN,
"Every morning when I got the profit and loss sheet, basketball we did good, baseball we did good, we lost again in hockey," South Point oddsmaker Jimmy Vaccaro said, referencing the Knights' 8-1 start to its inaugural season. "That's when you knew you had to deal with it differently than you normally would."
Until this year's record hockey handle, bookmakers rarely noticed the sport. In fact, in its monthly revenue reports, the Nevada Gaming Control Board groups hockey with tennis and golf in a category labeled "Other," while football and basketball warrant separate distinctions.
"When I started in the 70's, we didn't even book hockey," Vaccaro said, sharing that odds were first posted in the mid-80's. "Hockey wasn't even on our mind. Nobody even asked for it."
In Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, the "Other" category's handle was $214 million during the months of hockey's regular season (October to March). That is a 36 percent increase from $157 million of the previous hockey calendar, which pre-dated the Golden Knights.
"There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that about 40 percent of the people betting hockey now never bet it before the Golden Knights came," Vaccaro said.
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