At the recent Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, moderator Jeff Ma and guests discussed the very hot button topic of whether or not sportsbooks kick out sharp bettors. The answer is unequivocally yes. And if they don’t technically “kick them out” they certainly have ways to may life a lot more difficult by slashing limits or offering different lines that what the public sees on an odds screen. BettorIQ’s own Andrew Lange and Eric Waz touched on exactly that on a recent podcast. Lange had a short-lived experience with Heritage while Waz noted various instances of similar behavior out of William Hill. Speaking of William Hill, Ma grilled William Hill’s chief marketing officer about the practice saying the ever-growing sportsbook giant has earned a reputation of not being “sharp friendly.” William Hill claimed these stories were untrue and went so far as to say it “wanted people to win” — a Trumpian statement if there ever was one. We’d love to hear about your experiences — both good and bad — with sportsbooks. Drop us a tweet @BettorIQ.

“Let me be clear: It’s not our publicity,” replied Otterman, whose company runs the Monmouth Park sportsbook and also offers its own app. “We have been the victim of getting that reporting. It is not true. We do not kick out winners. When folks have not been allowed to play, there is a lot of other reasons that actually go into it. There is so much more to the customer story.

“I think we were picked on a little bit because we’re the biggest bookmaker in Nevada and with the most amount of customers, so it’s easier to get picked on. But that is not true. We actually do want people to win. As we were talking about, it is fun —”

“But the most important thing is about the transparency and the authenticity of it. We offer fair odds — you know, for every other business, we offer a price, and people pay the price or they don’t. And there is nothing that is going on underneath, or behind the curtain, that we don’t feel comfortable with. We want consumers to have a good time and have fun with sports betting.”