‘Never bet more than you can afford.’ Dawn Lupul’s Betting Terms 101 and other wagering advice

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/04/2021 (2001 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dawn Lupul talks about sports betting with the enthusiasm of a child getting birthday presents, or in her case as a very young schoolgirl growing up on the outskirts of Edmonton, reaping the benefits of cashing in a ticket at the track.

“When my dad (Silver, a chemical engineer) got his first standardbred horse, I was six years old, so I’ve been in the sports betting world forever,” Lupul recounted with a wide grin. “My mom (Adeline) and dad would go watch the horse (Ann Avalon) race at Northlands Park and I would wake up in the morning to a little pile of money in my room because they’d bet $2 for me.

“That was better than the tooth fairy.”

For Lupul, it was the beginning of a lifelong connection to horses and betting that’s taken her on a journey to being a racing analyst at Northlands Park, an owner and trainer in the Alberta racing industry, and almost 11 years working for Woodbine Entertainment as a television commentator that included becoming the first woman to call a thoroughbred race in Canada in 2014.

Her work with the TVG Network in the U.S. caught the attention early this year of BetUS, an online sportsbook and casino, which was looking in February for a co-host to join football Hall of Famer Warren Sapp and Basketball Hall of Famer Gary Payton on its “Unfiltered” weekly podcast. One practice show steering the two hall of famers through conversation on sports, entertainment and current events convinced Lupul — and the producers — that there was immediate chemistry with the trio.

“I love interviewing people and I know who the stars are with the show,” said Lupul, who’s yet to meet Sapp and Payton in person because COVID-19 has kept her in Toronto.

“My No. 1 job is to make them look as good as possible, and there’s a mutual respect. We have fun.”

An experienced bettor (“I’ve done it for a living. Is it easy? No.”), Lupul is welcoming the potential legalization of single-event sports betting in Canada with open arms. (Lawmakers passed a bill to legalize single-event sports betting Thursday, sending the legislation to the Senate.)

“You can’t have those cheesy parlays,” she said, referring to the multiple-game wagering that’s been the modus operandi of sports betting in Canada until now.

With the expectation that legal wagering will attract a flood of wagering neophytes, we asked Lupul to give us a condensed version of Betting Terms 101.

American odds/money lines (most commonly used by sportsbooks and bettors): “When you’re getting a team at +200, you bet $100 to get $200 back. A minus means that’s how much you have to bet to get $100 profit. You get a team at -138, you’re paying $138 to get back $100.”

Betting lines: The bookmaker or sportsbook sets gambling odds and determines the favourite and underdog teams in a game/match.

Sharps: “Those are the ones the books pay attention to because they have an inordinately high win strike rate. A lot of these people do mathematical models for betting … there are a lot of MIT grads who built these great models. Sportsbooks will adjust their lines based on what sharps are doing (with their wagers).”

Wise guys: “They will spin you … tout one team to this group of people, tout the other team to another group and then tell you that they were right. You’re a sharp, you’re to be respected. If you’re a wise guy, you’re being watched.”

Squares: “That’s what they call the public. To have success in betting, you really have to look at the numbers. You have to reduce things to a number. Squares bet teams, sharps bet numbers.”

Modelling: “That’s a big part of (betting). Back in the day, sharps would have a notebook and they’d look at their information and say ‘this player is injured, so I’m going to adjust this.’ Now everything is on computer. You want to reduce everything to a number and take the emotion out of it.”

Systems: “A short turnaround in basketball, when a team is playing back-to-backs and you bet against them in the second game, that’s a system. This year the Lakers have been (hitting) the under because they’re playing such tight defence and not scoring a lot. The under has been a cash cow.”

Betting on events that happen during games: “That can be very dangerous because you have to decide very quickly. Odds come up and you can get into something you shouldn’t have.”

Prop bets: “I like props. It’s a yes or no. It’s all over-unders, totals, will so and so get three receptions, will LeBron get 20 points?”

Since picking up losing tickets with her brother on the Northlands Park grounds as a youngster, Lupul has done more than her fair share of winning by betting on racing, the NFL, NBA and NHL.

“I love the mental gymnastics it affords. I love the fact that so many different people are attracted to it. You get your wise guys, your sharps … nuclear physicists who try to come up with the ultimate formula to bet and make money. Watching the battle between books and bettors. It really is a battlefield.”

She also has some words of advice to the expected flock of newcomers.

“Betting can be very, very seductive,” she said. “Have a budget, and never bet more than you can afford. Understanding how quickly things can go south is very important.”

Steve McAllister is the editor-in-chief of The Parleh sports betting newsletter. A freelance contributor to the Star’s Sports section, he is based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @StevieMacSports