Betting Houses Offer Betting on Houses

READ MORE: Futures, Housing Market, Pinnacle Sports

Pinnacle Sports, jocked-out home of sports betting galore, has taken a cue from all the Hedge Street boys and started offering odds on the U.S. housing market. Pinnacle has opened betting lines on the median home prices forthe third quarter of the year in more than 40 markets where bettors can wager on the over/under at -105 (i.e., win $1 for every $1.05 bet). No you can’t bet on housing prices in Biloxi, Mississipi or New Orleans, so don’t ask.

You Can Bet Home Prices Will Continue to Rise [PR Newswire]

Just in Time for Footbal Season: Reduced Juice

READ MORE: Juice, NFL Betting, Pinnacle Sports, Side Bets

PinnacleSports is making things very lucrative for football bettors this year, reducing all sides to -104 instead of -110:
Instead of paying $110 to win $100 on the Patriots versus the Raiders in the NFL season opener, customers only have to lay $104 to win $100 at PinnacleSports.com. Using this model, although a player would stand to win the same amount, someone who places five $200 bets a week for all 17 weeks of the NFL season would save an astounding $1,020 wagering at PinnacleSports.com instead of at a traditional sportsbook. While other sportsbooks only offer customers one-time sign-up bonuses of 10-20% with restrictive terms and conditions, PinnacleSports.com customers enjoy savings year round on all sports through the company’s reduced margin wagering. In addition, unlike betting exchanges PinnacleSports.com never charges a commission on winning bets.

Pinnacle Sports Reduces Juice on All Sides [Online Casino News]
Pinnacle Sports NFL [Pinnacle Sports]

Media Loves Gas Price Betting Phenomenon

READ MORE: Event Betting, Gas Prices, Pinnacle Sports

Apparently Pinnacle Sports has established pole position as the online gambling site consistently associated with wagering on the rising gas prices. Their PR team is working extra hard to get them quoted in every single story about the phenomenon. Blow jobs all around!

Today’s story via Yahoo News, however, points out an interesting phenomenon about the wagering and its obvious similarity to “legitimate” oil futures investments:

For those with greater appetite for speculation, the Nymex also offers an electronic auction of investment instruments that are a hedge against changes in the statistical data about U.S. crude-oil inventories released weekly by the Energy Information Administration, part of the Energy Department.

“This word hedge is just a euphemism for `Let’s gamble,’” said John van Schaik, the editor of the New York trade newsletter Energy Intelligence Briefing.

So, there you have it. Those curmudgeons that pester you about your 401(k) should realize that you’re just heavily vested in oil futures. That sounds so much better.

Think gas prices can go higher? You can bet on it. [Yahoo News]
Previously: Thank God We Take a Rickshaw to Work [Oddjack]
More Gas Face Fun [Oddjack]

Reality TV Betting: It’s a Canadian Sing-Song Showdown

READ MORE: Canadian Idol, Pinnacle Sports, Reality TV Betting

So, it’s not just America that goes inexcplicably apeshit for mediocre singers wrapped in canned melodrama. The finals of Canadian Idol have begun and, of course, there are odds. The hockey-loving books at Pinnacle Sports are putting a fella named Rex Goudie as the favorite at 7/4 odds. Now do Canadians lose their oat-y accents when the sing just like the British heavy metal guys used to?

Canadian Idol Odds [Pinnacle Sports]