07.05.2004
Why the odds dropped in Klitschko-Brewster
Boxingscene has confirmed through several sources that the mystery as to the odds dropping in Vegas the morning of the fight may be no mystery at all. It may be just a matter of connections and supportive friends. Lamon Brewster may be promoted by Don King but it may be his manager Sam Simon who inadvertently caused the plunging odds. Rather than be something sinister it may well be the power of television and the ties and friendships created along the way.
Several sources have reported that the morning of the fight large amounts of money poured in on Brewster to defeat Wlad. What has not been reported is that a group of 40 or so friends of Brewster manager Simon were placing large wagers. The size of the bets ranged from $50,000 to $100,000 brought to the bookmakers not from mob types but from believers in a guy that has been successful in all he touches.
Simon has been a director, producer, writer, or creative consultant on show such as Cheers, The Drew Carey Show, The George Carlin Show, The Garry Shandling Show, Barney Miller, Norm, The Tracy Ullman Show, and Men Behaving Badly.
Sam Simon may be best known for Co-producing the long running shows The Simpson’s. Airing in 1989 the show has collected a total of 12 Emmy’s. This kind of success and years in Hollywood creates friendships with people that can easily afford to drop five and six figure bets with the casinos.
A veteran of nine amateur fights with a record of 6-3 Simon would attend fights with his grandfather and was a huge Frazier fan in his youth. Simon was also an alternate for the first night of Celebrity Boxing on Fox. He began his relationship with Lamon Brewster when Freddie Roach told him of Brewster’s managerial difficulties.
Attorney Berstein writes in his letter to the U.S. Attorney
"First, as reported by Dean Juipe in the April 19, 2004 Las Vegas Sun, the odds on the bout posted by both Mandalay Bay and Pinnacle, leading offshore sports books, plummeted from 11-1 in Mr. Klitschko’s favor to just 3.5-1 by fight time. As Mr. Juipe pointed out, this “could only happen if there was a huge influx of money wagered on [Mr. Brewster.]” The question, of course, is why? To be sure, odds change in the days and hours before a fight, but experience shows that it is virtually unheard of for them to change so dramatically in such a short period of time.
Your investigation will reveal that Mr. Brewster was understandably a heavy underdog and that nothing in the public domain gave any cause for such a drastic change in the betting line. On the other hand, if a drugging of Mr. Klitschko was planned in advance, that fact would easily explain why there was so much “late money” bet on Mr. Brewster.
In this regard, it should be noted that identifying unusual changes in the odds has been an effective weapon in ferreting out the fixing of sporting events. As reported on March 31, 2002 by Edward Epstein of the San Francisco Chronicle: “The [gaming] industry also claims that Nevada casinos have tipped off the FBI to a few college basketball point-shaving scandals over the past several years by looking for unusual betting patterns on games.” Further, a key ground for the general consensus that the March 1999 draw in the Lennox Lewis/Evander Holyfield bout was the product of corrupt judging, was the fact that the odds on that fight went from 11-5 in Lewis’s favor to “pick ‘em” by the time of the fight. Of course, the swift change in the odds on the Klitschko/Brewster fight were far more dramatic and therefore much more indicative of foul play. "
What isn't addressed is Simon's friendships and supporters.
Boxingscene will be following up on this development further today.
KeithTerceira@aol.com
Quelle: http://boxingscene.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1253
