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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The opening rounds of the NCAA tournament aren\u2019t just the biggest basketball games of the season, they\u2019re also one of the biggest gambling events of the year. The state of Nevada even handles more money for college basketball\u2019s postseason than it does during the Super Bowl. From the first game of the first round until the title game 20 days later on April 9, thousands flock to Las Vegas and put their money on the line.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most of the betting is concentrated to the first two rounds of the tournament, during which five-figure bets are common, as is consuming alcohol. The Cosmopolitan said they went through 36,000 beers during the first three days of last year\u2019s tournament.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To get a feel for how Vegas handles the Big Dance, &lt;em&gt;Sports Illustrated &lt;/em&gt;spoke with three casino executives: Johnny Avello, executive director of race and sports operations at the Wynn Las Vegas; Brian Benowitz, senior vice president of casino operations of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas; and Jason Simbal, vice president of risk management for CG Technology, which operates The Cosmopolitan\u2019s sportsbook.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;How do you set your betting lines?&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Johnny Avello:&lt;/strong&gt; I have what you call power ratings on every team. So when I say every team, I\u2019m talking about the major schools that play week in and week out, starting from November right up and through March. Those ratings are adjusted on a weekly basis based on the team\u2019s performance ... Once I have all [the] matchups, I go to those ratings and make my numbers, and then I release those numbers that night.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jason Simbal:&lt;/strong&gt; We have on staff an analytics side of the company, which is a bunch of guys who are making the opening lines. These guys are watching the Selection Show just like you, me and everybody else; and as the matchups get set up, they\u2019re putting together the point spread. We\u2019ll have a general knowledge of probably about 50 of the teams, or even more, that are going to make it. There are usually some questionable bubble teams, so we already have all the data and the research done for 95% of the field. It\u2019s just a matter of who is playing who, so once the matchups become set in stone, we\u2019ll put all that math together and then those guys will create a line and send those out to my team, which is responsible for putting out the line and making it available for betting. Within about 60 to 90 minutes after those matchups are announced, we are ready to go and start taking bets.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;What\u2019s the scene like in your casino and on The Strip as a whole?&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200B&lt;strong&gt;JA:&lt;/strong&gt; It\u2019s mayhem everywhere, to be honest with you, but at the Wynn, I walk in the door at 6:30 in the morning on Thursday, the first day. That happens to be St. Patrick\u2019s Day this year. I\u2019ll walk in the door and every seat will be taken in the sportsbook ... Anywhere where there\u2019s a bar area with TVs, it will be filled. That\u2019s the experience of the first round of the tournament. Everywhere has every seat or every spot taken up.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brian Benowitz:&lt;/strong&gt; The atmosphere really throughout the entire casino for the first two days is lunacy. There\u2019s people up early in the morning, they start lining up by 6 a.m. to try and get a seat in the race and sportsbooks all over town ... It\u2019s a ton of fun for a long period of time. You never know quite what\u2019s happening because there\u2019s always various cheers throughout the entire casino as people are rooting things in, a long-shot hit something, buzzer-beaters, things like that. It is really a kick.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;How much college basketball do you watch during the season?&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;JS:&lt;/strong&gt; I watch a ton. More than I\u2019d like to sometimes, it seems. For example, on Saturday, I was watching games from eight in the morning until six at night, and then checking scores of the games after I\u2019m gone. So it\u2019s definitely a lot. As the NFL winds down and ends, the college basketball season picks up because between NBA and college hoops, that\u2019s really all we have right now in terms of things that get a lot of volume, and with college basketball, there\u2019s just so many games.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;What\u2019s your typical day like during the opening rounds of the tournament?&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;JA&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;:&lt;/strong&gt; As the bets are coming in, my staff is adjusting the lines as the bets come in. But they\u2019re also calling me [saying], \u201CThis guy wants to bet so much a game, this guy wants to bet $50,000 or $100,000,\u201D whatever the bet might be. So I\u2019m getting calls on extended-limit wagers. Then the games, once they start, they\u2019re staggered. So they go from about nine in the morning to nine at night for the first three days. And then Sunday the formats are a little different. I\u2019m in the middle of all that\u2019s going on, my staff calling me, asking me questions about this guy wants to bet this or that. We\u2019re also doing halftimes on every single game, putting up second half lines when the first half is over. And then we\u2019re adjusting the prices on the future books as these teams win and lose, taking them out, adjusting the odds on a team to win maybe the region or the whole thing. For me, my staff, all my ticket writers, it\u2019s just an ongoing hectic process for three days.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BB:&lt;/strong&gt; It\u2019s making sure the experience on the casino floor is ready to handle the volumes that we\u2019re going to have. That we have appropriate staffing at all levels, that we open the proper amount of dice games, that the games that are in front of the new race and sportsbook are open in time for the guests to get here. We\u2019ve got to make sure we have enough cold beer. It\u2019s amazing the amount of beer we go through. You\u2019ve got to make sure you start chilling it early.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;How much is bet on the tournament as a whole?&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200B&lt;strong&gt;JS:&lt;/strong&gt; The state of Nevada publishes a revenue report so you can look up the handle. I pulled the March reports for the last couple of years, and if I extrapolate what we do during the NCAA tournament and use that as a sample of the whole, somewhere between $200 and $225 million in total handle is what the state will do on the NCAA tournament.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BB:&lt;/strong&gt; There are 16 games on Thursday and 16 games on Friday, and the games speak for themselves. There\u2019s always one starting and one stopping and halftime wagers and things like that. People parlaying the overs and the unders. For the Super Bowl, you have one game that starts. And then there might be a halftime wager and things like that. So there\u2019s just far, far more volume in tickets written.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;JS:&lt;/strong&gt; Yeah, the quantity of tickets written is about four times [that] of the Super Bowl. Another thing [Benowitz] mentioned is parlays (which are two or more bets linked together). [They] are huge. We\u2019ll do over 10% of our full-year\u2019s volume of parlays just on those first four days. That\u2019s huge.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;What do you consider a big bet?&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;JA&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;:&lt;/strong&gt; During the tournament itself, the first portion of it, it\u2019s not unusual to see multiple five-figure bets. $20,000, $50,000\u2014those types of bets. There\u2019s going to be those types of bets on all the early rounds. When we get to the Final Four or the final game, you may see bets that are in the six-figure range, a couple hundred thousand, those type of bets. The money just gets a little big bigger when you\u2019re down to isolated games.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;Do you ever feel bad when people lose money to you?&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;JS:&lt;/strong&gt; Feel bad? I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s the way I would put it. No matter how good you do, there are people who win. There are two sides of the game. We never are lopsided 100% in a game. There\u2019s always someone that\u2019s going to win and there\u2019s always someone that\u2019s going to lose.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BB:&lt;/strong&gt; We\u2019re more about managing the experience and the excitement level. Players win and players lose. We\u2019re happy when our guests win, and we\u2019re there for them when they lose.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;Who do you like this year?&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BB:&lt;/strong&gt; I like the experience level of Kansas, and I think the Big 12 is playing by far the best basketball. I\u2019m going to go with Kansas to win it all.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;JS:&lt;/strong&gt; I would say from a team that\u2019s got relatively long odds but definitely has a chance, I would maybe take a flier on West Virginia. They\u2019re in like the 30-to-1 range. The Big 12, as [Benowitz] mentioned, is excellent. They\u2019ve quietly become the second-best team in that conference, so I think they\u2019ve got a good shot at long odds, so I\u2019d say bet a little, win a lot. Try that.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;JA:&lt;/strong&gt; Kansas is playing well right now, so I expect Kansas to be in the mix. In the mix means making it to the Elite Eight, Final Four, that type of thing. Winning it all, you need some breaks along the way. Other teams that you might look at, Xavier has had a great year and they look really tough at times to knock off, a team like that could also be in the mix.\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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