N.Y.-based startup The Crowd’s Line is looking to be a "high-tech challenger" to Las Vegas sports books with gambling lines that are "crowd-sourced from individuals who are motivated by rankings to provide expert advice,” according to James Covert of the N.Y. POST. The Crowd's Line Founder Anthony Lage then “sells his lines to publishers and broadcasters,” with the company "embedding widgets carrying game predictions on sites like Fox Sports, CBS Sports and SB Nation.” Lage claims that his product has been “anywhere from 10 to 20 percent” more accurate predicting NFL games than Las Vegas sports books this season. But fans "can’t place bets with The Crowd’s Line." The service "merely provides predicted scores of games to help bettors make smarter wagers.” Down the road, Lage “aims to build an online marketplace for stats-obsessed sports fans.” The widgets -- in addition to game lines -- would "feature the rankings of the top individual predictors.” In the meantime, the company is "compiling reams of valuable new stats each weekend on fan sentiment -- for example, whether a team’s home base tends to be overly optimistic, and by how much” (N.Y. POST, 11/1).
