Gaming Articles
Las Vegas Profile: Ken White of LVSC
By By Jeremy Martin
Jan 20, 2004, 13:23

Ken White is no stranger to challenges. He started off in the sports betting industry as a ticket writer and wound up being the one many in the business looked to for solid numbers. At one point, he pursued a professional baseball career before an injury ended his dream. He has competed in and won several handicapping contests that featured some of the best in the business.

White, however, may be facing his biggest challenge yet. He is part owner and Chief Operating Officer of Las Vegas Sports Consultants, the nation’s leading oddsmaking firm. The company has been treading water for the last several years since Roxy Roxborough, it’s long-time owner, retired from the industry. White’s challenge is steering his company according to his bold vision for its future as well as filling the shoes of Roxy, who was a well-respected figurehead in the sports betting world as well as the unofficial industry spokesman. If the press needed a quote, they usually came to Roxy first.

Now LVSC and its prominent leader’s role belong to White, a Southern Nevada resident since 1969. When he heard CBS SportsLine was auctioning off the company in early 2003, he put together a potential ownership group that consisted of himself and three Las Vegas attorneys. The group had the high bid and took over operations of LVSC on Nov. 25.

White’s first order of business involves improving service for his 60+ clients in Nevada and overseas. He also hopes to build bridges with entities such as like the government, the professional sports leagues and the National Collegiate Athletics Association. These relationships, he says, are crucial to the future of sports betting in America.

“If I have to go to Washington D.C. to fight for sports betting, I will be the first guy there,” says White. “Anything I can do to help sports betting out in the whole country, I’m going to do it. I think it’s something that should always be here. It’s been here for a long time and it’s hard to believe it will be going away.”

In addition to the government, White would like to create a rapport and open the lines of discussion with the NCAA, which he says is a former client of LVSC, and the pro sports leagues. He feels that shared information could benefit everyone.

“I could be dreaming about that but I am going to try and make contact with these leagues and try to work on a relationship with injuries and any information they may have in exchange for any information they may need oddsmaking wise,” he says. “If they need to call somebody and find out if there is a certain amount of money on a game, (LVSC) would be someone they could consult.

“If they have an inkling that a college team is fixing games, I would love to be able to tell them ‘here are the ratings I have and here’s the way they have played the games. This is what they have done in the past. Yeah, they have underachieved and who knows if it is because they are fixing games or if they are just playing poorly and the coach is doing a bad job.’ We can give them that type of information. I think that would be a big help to the NCAA. I think it’s a long shot, but I am going to try. I am going to try and become their friend instead of their foe.”

The first order of business, however, will be helping his sportsbook clients win money. This NFL season has been tough on the books, one of the worst seasons in recent years. White looks to bring his workaholic-like regimen to LVSC as well as his prowess for crunching numbers.

“My No. 1 goal coming in here was to make sure the numbers stay as good as they were before and if not make them better,” he says. “The second goal is to make improvements to our (Sports Signal Gold) odds screen and our current information product to our client.”

In order to determine how to best service his customers, White plans on pounding the pavement and surveying sportsbook managers about their wants and needs. He has a few bold ideas for the future but he first needs to gauge interest in some of these new ideas.

In the near future he might consider releasing two lines to his subscribing books. Currently, LVSC submits an oddsmaking line to their clientele. This is the “true number” of where the consulting firm sees a particular game falling. White is debating whether to expand that service to include a bookmaking line that reflects the best number a sports book can set their line at in order to get two-way action or have a vested interest on the “right side” of a game. The bookmaking line should be similar to the closing line at most betting shops.

“I am very confident in my numbers and where the numbers are going to go but we would like to have something on paper so that we can show (books) ‘here’s the proof,’” he says. “It’s easy to go out and say that your numbers are the best or the line moved to your number 70 percent of the time. But I would rather have the proof.

“One good thing is that I know exactly what they want. I think I know what they need and I know that they need the information and they don’t want to be left in the dark. (The books) love to know which way the professionals are going to bet the game and which way the public may bet the game.”

LVSC has already started to utilize new technology that wasn’t previously used by the firm, says White. He has implemented a computer program that comes up with two lines for each sport for five consecutive days. LVSC is already using this program to assist with their hockey lines and they plan on expanding its use to other sports in the future. Soon, the program will calculate lines for the entire year to help books post futures lines.

Like many others in the industry, White had an interest in sports at an early age. In the early 1970s, his father Peter, a professional sports bettor and White’s mentor in the industry, published a sports annual called College Sports Today. White started helping his father with the publication when he was nine-years old and by the time he had entered his early teens he was already an expert on players and statistics.

Peter had moved the family to Las Vegas so he could legally pursue his career as a sports bettor. The younger White initially had plans to play professional baseball, but hamstring problems ended that dream and he wound up taking a job writing tickets and helping with parlay cards at the Santa Anita Race and Sportsbook. Within months, his supervisors saw his potential and he was making NBA numbers for the book.

White’s next stop was the Fremont Hotel and Casino, where he firmly established himself as a rising star in the industry. After making the sportsbook “a lot of money” with his numbers, he decided to go into business for himself. He started Nevada Sports Executives, a much smaller competitor of LVSC, which he ran for 15 years before taking over his new firm. During his years at NSE, he served clients that included top Las Vegas sportsbooks such as the Stardust, the Mirage and Binion’s Horseshoe.

In addition to running NSE, White also sold selections for VegasInsider.com and he was always a strong contender in some of the most prominent handicapping contests in Las Vegas. White won the Stardust Invitational back to back in the mid 1990s and he set a record in winning the Barley’s Big Brew Contest by hitting 69 percent in the NFL one season. Even with his busy schedule, he still found time to be involved with baseball, for Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, where he coached for nine years.

Even though LVSC has no competition in the industry now that NSE has been disbanded, White says that his clients will provide all the competition he needs.

“I think our competition will always be our clients,” he says. “That we continue to give them good numbers, that we continue to give them good service and supply them with the information that they need. I will be competitive with that to make sure they stay happy.”

For more information visit Doc, who has been in business for more than 30 years at www.DOCSPORTS.com

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