10/11/2005

  Betting Lines are posted at PinnacleSports.com
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by IM Greg Shahade                       
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 In a rather shocking development, it turns out that it's possible to bet on US Chess League matches at Pinnacle Sports, one of the largest sportsbooks on the Internet. Betting lines are posted for each match along with every individual game. Pinnacle Sports quotes a limit of $200 if you are betting on the result of the match, and a maximum bet of $100 if you are betting on an individual game. Minimum wagers on the Chess League are $1.

 Posting lines on chess events is not new at Pinnacle Sports, as they also posted betting lines on the FIDE World Championship. The only difference in that case was a maximum bet of almost $3,000. The USCL lines are obviously a controversial development, as whenever it's possible for money to rest on the outcome of a game, there will be more concern about cheating/fixing games . It's good to see that the betting limits are relatively low for now so that this shouldn't be anything worth worrying too much about.

  On the other hand, the fact that it's possible to bet on league games on such a major online betting service, brings some real legitimacy to the league and could help signifigantly in procuring future sponsorship oppurtunities. It should be interesting to see how things develop, and also to see how Pinnacle's betting lines compare to the predictions of Ron Young, the official US Chess League prognosticator.

 
Update (10/12/2005 12:00 AM) The betting lines seem to already have already sparked notice in the press, as the US Chess League was briefly mentioned in the San Francisco Chronicle at the following link:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/10/11/fool381.DTL
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Below is the blurb as written by the SF Chronicle reporter:

BET MATE: Searching through betting sites can reveal the damndest things. I now have odds on Wednesday's U.S. Chess League matches.

The Baltimore Kingfishers are -450 to checkmate the Philadelphia Masterminds. If you want individual odds, Pascal Charbonneau (Kingfishers) is a heavy favorite (-600) to dust Philly's Norman Rogers.

Oh, yeah, San Francisco has a team. The Mechanics are a slight underdog to the Carolina Cobras and David Pruess is the only Mechanic favored to win his match.



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