LAS VEGAS — With four guys possessing nearly two combined centuries of odds-making prowess, Alexandra White huddled in the back room of the South Point sportsbook and showed she belonged. On Selection Sunday, as CBS television unveiled the NCAA Tournament regional by regional, that quintet compared hoops power ratings and determined point spreads. Book director Chris Andrews had the final say.
Timing was critical. The faster they produced final figures, the quicker the book could post those spreads to its voracious customers. “We differed by maybe two points, often falling somewhere in the middle, as expected,” Alex said.
“Since we were all adjusting after every game and have power ratings for a whole season, they should be relatively close.” Andrews, Vinny Magliulo, Jimmy Vaccaro and Tony Sinisi comprised the grizzled quartet. Andrews had invited Alex, a third-generation handicapper, into the fray two weeks earlier.
Unofficially, it marked 30 years since a female toiled in the backroom of a Vegas sportsbook playing a direct role in shaping point spreads. According to many, Patty Davidson, at the long-gone Stardust under Scotty Schettler’s expert guidance, was the last to do so, from 1986 through 1994. “She has a background from a ‘school’ that so few people, especially a woman, would ever have had,” Davidson said of Alex’s rich lineage.
“She is a Vegas baby. This is her angle. And what a perfect Father’s Day article.
” Andrews dropped by a semicirc.
