The Sphere: How a Venue Became a Media Format
On September 29, 2023, U2 opened a 40-show run of “U2:UV Achtung Baby Live” inside a 366-foot-tall globe just east of the Las Vegas…
How Super Bowl Week Took Over Las Vegas
When the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime at Allegiant Stadium on February 11, 2024, the game was in…
How Progressive Jackpots Work
On 21 March 2003 a 25-year-old software engineer from Los Angeles put about 100 dollars through a Megabucks machine at the Excalibur in Las…
How Betting Odds Are Set: Inside the Trading Room
The popular image of an odds compiler is a man with a cigarette and a form book, scribbling prices on a whiteboard. That world…
Atlantic City and Las Vegas: Two Recovery Stories
America’s two gambling capitals went dark within days of each other in March 2020, and the parallel largely ends there. Las Vegas reopened on…
Cash Out: How It Works and What It Costs
Cash out is the most successful product innovation in betting since the accumulator. Betfair introduced it on its exchange in 2011, letting customers lock…
The Overround Explained with Real Examples
Every bookmaker’s price list contains a hidden number, and it is arguably the most important one in the entire industry. The overround is the…
Slot Volatility Explained
Two slot machines can advertise identical 96 per cent return-to-player figures and still behave like entirely different games. One pays small amounts on every…
How Cirque du Soleil Rebuilt Itself After 2020
In March 2020, Cirque du Soleil went from running 44 productions around the world to running none in a matter of days. The company…
The Envelope Error: What Moonlight vs La La Land Changed
With one category left on the night of 26 February 2017, the 89th Academy Awards had run almost without incident. Warren Beatty and Faye…