He would have made a lot more money if he were betting part of his paycheck on every game all season instead of simply claiming the $3,000 given to the contest winner, but that doesn’t trouble him. With a 12-3 record in Week 18, Schmerin leapfrogged from second place to finish 156-111, with a 58% winning percentage well ahead of the classic 52.4% threshold a sports bettor needs in order to beat the vig in the industry. He beat the house, if he were actually betting
He just beat out 51 sportsbook management peers nationally in the Bookies Battle contest of Gaming Today, in which they pick every NFL game against the spread throughout the season, with their predictions and results publicized for all to see. The 30-year-old native Pittsburgher was a middle-class kid who excelled at tennis, rode it to a college scholarship, and fell afterward into the casino business - and the growing sports betting industry - because it was something new and interesting and he didn’t know what else to pursue.īut now Schmerin is not only running the busiest of Pennsylvania’s 17 retail sportsbooks, he’s pretty good at handicapping sports - at least when it comes to NFL football. Max Schmerin, sportsbook manager at the Pittsburgh Rivers Casino, didn’t grow up as some young version of a Las Vegas wise guy studying game odds, betting his allowance, and sweating out the outcome of the latest chapter of the Steelers-Ravens rivalry.
