Longtime Las Vegas oddsmaker Art Manteris, who helped ignite the modern prop bet craze with a single wager on William “The Refrigerator” Perry, has released a memoir detailing four decades of sportsbook history. His book, “The Bookie: How I Bet It All on Sports Gambling and Watched an Industry Explode,” includes behind-the-scenes stories about Mike Tyson’s stunning 1990 loss to Buster Douglas and ethical dilemmas involving inside information.
The prop bet that started it all came at Caesars Palace before Super Bowl 20, when then-ticket writer Chuck Esposito suggested posting odds on Perry scoring a touchdown. The Bears defensive tackle had scored just once in the regular season and hadn’t carried the ball in the playoffs. Bettors pounded the bet, which opened at 20-1 and closed at 2-1. Perry scored late in the third quarter of Chicago’s 46-10 win, costing the sportsbook $250,000.
“We lost an astounding $250,000 on a single prop, a huge amount at that time, and I was sick over it,” Manteris wrote. But instead of being fired, he received a congratulatory call from Caesars chairman Henry Gluck, who noted the worldwide publicity the wager generated. Today, prop bets account for the majority of Super Bowl handle.
Manteris also dishes on Tyson’s defeat, writing that the then-heavyweight champion was secretly being treated for gonorrhea. “Dr. Elias Ghanem, the chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, who also happened to be my personal physician and friend, told me that Tyson was being treated for a severe bout of gonorrhea,” he writes. Tyson entered the ring lethargic after heavy doses of prescription medication, according to Manteris.
The book recounts Manteris’ greatest ethical quandary: receiving a tip before the 2015 Mayweather-Pacquiao fight that Pacquiao was hurt. He protected his book by raising Mayweather to minus 200, rather than going public. Mayweather won a unanimous decision, and Pacquiao was later revealed to have been injured. “I had never before had inside information of that magnitude, and it changed my whole outlook,” Manteris wrote.
Other anecdotes include sitting next to comedian Rodney Dangerfield at the Hagler-Hearns fight, where Dangerfield snorted cocaine during the national anthem, and celebrity bettors like Pete Rose, Phil Mickelson, Charles Barkley, and Jaromir Jagr — the latter of whom lost so consistently that Manteris refused to raise his limits. “Jagr was so bad at sports betting, we actually felt guilty, and had to put the brakes on him,” he wrote.
