Off Shore Gaming Association

Super Bowl MVP Trivia Time!

Like many prop bets, guessing who is going to walk away from the big game with the Pete Rozelle Trophy as Super Bowl MVP is a tough one to figure out. While quarterbacks have hoisted the trophy in more than half (23) of the Super Bowls played, there is a lot of rich and interesting history about Super Bowl MVPs. So if you consider yourself an MVP guru, go ahead and test your mettle with this Super Bowl MVP Quiz!

1 Comment »

The reports are in and last year OSGA members turned a profit using selections provided by top handicappers for member eyes only. As one of the benefits of OSGA membership, top handicappers post selections for free to members, that the general public pays up to $25 for. Overall the five OSGA handicappers went 97-79, a respectable 55%, with Marc Lawrence leading the way.

In fact, the top capper overall was Marc Lawrence, who sent in plays for 50 out of 52 weeks. Overall his selections went 33-17 an astonishing 66% for the entire year! JR O’Donnell and Tony George sadly ended up the year on a losing note while Bob Balfe and Robert Ferringo from Doc’s Sports had winning records. Still, every single ‘capper had at least one sport in which they dominated.

We have felt for many years that there are very few handicappers who are good at all four of the major sports. That belief held true this past year for the OSGA handicappers, outside of Marc Lawrence. Both Robert Ferringo and Bob Balfe only pick football games for our members. Balfe went 10-9 this past season and Ferringo went 17-11 with a 10-4 record (71%) in NCAA Football. Overall the handicappers went 64-54 over the course of the entire football season, winning at a rate of 54%.

The sport that all of the cappers crushed was NBA with an overall record of 20-9 (69%). Tony George led the pack in this category with a 9-4 record (70%) and Marc Lawrence was a close second at 10-5 (66.6%). However, for every ying, there must be a yang, and MLB was the downfall of the three cappers that picked games in that sport. Marc did go 14-10, but Tony George was a dismal 1-8 and JR O’Donnell went just 2-4.

So far this year Tony George and Marc are picking at a winning clip for Members. It’s a long year, and we expect that all of the OSGA Member handicappers will continue with winning selections.

To get paid selections for free from these top handicappers, become an OSGA member.

No Comments »

USGAMINGSURVEY.com needs your opinions! Your answers may shape the future of online wagering and sports betting in the United States!

To help close the astonishing gap of accurate information surrounding potential legalized and regulated online wagering in the United States, USGamingSurvey.com has developed the most accurate response survey to date. Here at OSGA we would appreciate you taking just 5 minutes of your time to potentially help change online gambling laws!  The National Online Wagering Survey is completely anonymous and no personal information is retained in the survey data!

Current online players are urged to participate and help with the fight that  is being waged throughout the United States at both the state and federal level regarding Internet gambling. Whether the survey proves that regulated online gambling in the United States is wanted or that it really is the crack cocaine of the Internet (move over porn), participation is needed from U.S. gamblers to provide accurate information to the right people.

And for spending just 5 minutes there is a great prize being raffled off. Once the survey is completed and the answers are recorded, participants can enter for a chance to WIN a 46″ LCD TV!

After the survey has been closed, a random name will be chosen from all of the survey panelists who opt-in for the drawing. This offer is only available to the first 250 participants and will expire on January 31. Head to usgamingsurvey.com today to take the National Online Wagering Survey and register for this great prize.

USGamingSurvey.com was started by a research group with over 30 years of online gaming experience and OSGA is fully behind their efforts. The group is dedicated to providing top quality gaming research and to give accurate reporting to lawmakers who will shape the future of online gaming within the next several years.

Players should go to http://www.usgamingsurvey.com to get involved. Together we can help to regulate the online gambling industry and leglize sports betting throughout the country.

1 Comment »

Quiz Time!

Think you know a lot about the Super Bowl? Think again. This quiz is tougher than the 1985 Chicago Bears, 1978 Pittsburgh Steelers and 2000 Baltimore Ravens’ defenses combined! We’ve scoured the records of all 44 Super Bowls that have been played to come up with these ten trivia questions to whet your appetite as SB XLV approaches. So, are you feeling lucky? Well are you? Then take the quiz now!

2 Comments »

At the end of football season sportsbooks around the world try to maximize their profits on a just the few games that get played. Instead of 16 or 17 games per week there are just 11 games left once the regular season commences. To get extra action sportsbooks traditionally have put up a TON of proposition bets on the Super Bowl. Now, to maximize volume many books are putting up these same types of ‘prop’ wagers as early as this week’s games.

For the Super Bowl, sportsbooks in the Caribbean and Central America put up hundreds of proposition bets. They range from before the game on the coins toss (BetRevolution already has this up) to how many yards almost any offensive player gets to who scores when and what the final outcome for the each quarter and the game will be, to the exact score! This year we have seen very reputable books put out prop bets galore already . . . on this weekend’s games.

We went through our sportsbook list and found that almost every book is putting out some prop bets already, but the leaders of the early prop bets seem to be Bodog, 5Dimes and TheGreek.

The traditional bets regarding who sill score first and whether there will be a score in the last 2 minutes of the half are available at many sportsbooks for this weekend’s games. Other sprotsbooks increase their offerings with more traditional props such as how many yards Joe Flacco will throw for and how many catches Hines Ward will get. But Bodog has also put up a couple that encompass the entire football weekend – all four games. They are calling them Weekend Special Bets and they are the first of their kind that we have ever seen in Super Bowl prop betting.

WEEKEND PLAYOFF SPECIALS – Who will record the Most Passing YardsAaron Rodgers (GB) QB 7/4
Ben Roethlisberger (PIT) QB 7/2
Tom Brady (NE) QB 7/2
Matt Ryan (ATL) QB 7/1
Joe Flacco (BAL) QB 15/2
Matt Hasselbeck (SEA) QB 15/2
Jay Cutler (CHI) QB 10/1
Mark Sanchez (NYJ) QB 10/1

WEEKEND PLAYOFF SPECIALS – Who will record the Most Rushing Yards
Michael Turner (ATL) RB 5/2
BenJarvus Green-Ellis (NE) RB 4/1
Rashard Mendenhall (PIT) RB 5/1
Matt Forte (CHI) RB 5/1
Ray Rice (BAL) RB 15/2
Marshawn Lynch (SEA) RB 9/1
James Starks (GB) RB 10/1
Shonn Greene (NYJ) RB 10/1
LaDainian Tomlinson (NYJ) RB 12/1
Danny Woodhead (NE) RB 18/1

WEEKEND PLAYOFF SPECIALS – Who will record the Most Receiving Yards
Roddy White (ATL) WR 9/2
Greg Jennings (GB) WR 9/2
Mike Wallace (PIT) WR 5/1
Santonio Holmes (NYJ) WR 15/2
Anquan Boldin (BAL) WR 8/1
Wes Welker (NE) WR 9/1
Johnny Knox (CHI) WR 12/1
Braylon Edwards (NYJ) WR 12/1
Mike Williams (SEA) WR 14/1
Hines Ward (PIT) WR 15/1
Deion Branch (NE) WR 16/1
Derrick Mason (BAL) WR 18/1
Michael Jenkins (ATL) WR 18/1
Donald Driver (GB) WR 18/1
Ben Obomanu (SEA) WR 20/1
Devin Hester (CHI) WR 20/1

5Dimes may be the book that has the MOST NFL props posted for the 2nd round of the playoffs. They have over 100 props for each one of the games on the board. They also have gotten creative with offerings like “Will there be more than 6 punts by any one team?” and several where the winner of the first half is tied in with a wager in the second half . . . for each game! And The Greek has offerings for cross-sport matchups between the NFL and NBA games of the day. There are props for players where Baltimore’s Joe Flacco (NFL) pass completions compete against Miami’s LeBron James (NBA) points scored. Craziness, right?

But the wagering doesn;t end there. There are several places that will allow Live Wagering on these games (as well as many of the bigger games each week). 5Dimes has slowly become the king of this, eclipsing the downtrodden initiators of live betting, WSEX. They will have wagering during every commercial break of all four games. Other books that feature wagering during the game are
Bookmaker, Diamond, Hollywood, BetED, YouWager and BetPhoenix.  Bodog has a great piece of software with a variety of In-Game selections and a full tutorial on live betting.

Though most of these types of wagers should only be played for fun or as a diversion, because the odds are not ‘true-odds’ and are generally man-made, there are plenty of options offshore for the NFL playoffs. Frankly, I like over 6 punts in the Baltimore/Pittsburgh matchup . . . pick either team.

2 Comments »

Every year we see a new crop of online sportsbooks come onto the scene. Back in 2008 one of them was Brobury Sports. This book was started by several partners who had a wealth of experience in the gaming industry. Unfortunately, we have been told by Brobury Sports that as of today they are no longer taking new players or any new deposits from existing ones and will shut their doors as of next Tuesday.

This is not a situation where players should panic! Players have the option to request a withdrawal, play out their account balance or transfer their balance over to Sportsbook.com (rated Premier by OSGA). All Brobury accounts will merge with Sportsbook.com on Jan 18th, so players who are seeking a withdrawal are urged to cash out by this weekend to avoid any problems. Existing Brobury Sports account holders who do not want to take a withdrawal will have their accounts merged into Sportsbook.com and they will be able to login with their Brobury details. If a player already has an account at Sportsbook.com, the funds should be transferred over to that account.

According to our database, Brobury Sports has never had an issue with payments and did see strong growth in 2010. But even with a dedicated team, solid funding and using the support services of industry giant Sportsbook.com to mitigate costs, the management group grew inpatient. In the ultra-competitive business of online gambling, the company simply did not generate a large enough player base in three years to remain sustainable on its own, and thus, as the note to us said, “it was decided, with much regret by all involved, to close the business.”

All Brobury players will be notified this week of the merge and the options available to them. All payout methods are available to players looking to withdraw, but players whose active accounts have less funds than the minimum withdraw requirement, will have their account merged into a Sportsbook.com account.

We are sorry to see this up and coming book shut its doors, as they did a fine job during this football season. However, we are glad to see that Brobury is engineering their closure in the right way for both the players and the industry.

1 Comment »