Curd, bookmaker credited with creating ‘juice,’ dies

Thursday, May 16, 2002 | 9:58 a.m.

Ed Curd, who developed the $11 for $10 "juice" wager that today is the basis for sports betting in Las Vegas, and was one of the innovators of the point spread in the 1940s, died Sunday at his Lexington, Ky., home. He was 94.

The Associated Press listed his age as 98, but did not give a date of birth. Curd told Mort Olsham's Gold Sheet, a top industry publication, in its Oct. 10, 1987, issue that he was born May 8, 1908.

Curd is considered by experts to be one of three bookmakers to have developed the point spread. The others were Billy Hecht and Charles McNeil.

In the mid-1930s, Hecht posted a single number spread. In 1941, Curd, a horse player, bookie and big time gambler, developed the system where players wagered $11 to win $10. The book keeps the $1 from the losing bettors, which is called the vigorish, or "juice." McNeil incorporated Hecht's and Curd's innovations into his own.

This resulted in increased participation in gambling, creating a tremendous interest in sporting events far beyond fan support. So much so, newspapers started printing point spreads to satisfy reader demand, and still do.

The purpose of the point spread is to make two teams seem equal for betting purposes even if one is far superior. The point spread, in effect, gives a three-touchdown underdog 21 points to tack on to its final score. That encourages betting on both teams.

"Curd was a pioneer for sports betting in Las Vegas and elsewhere," said Howard Schwartz, manager of the Gambler's Book Club in downtown Las Vegas.

Schwartz said in the store's archives is one of Curd's old notebooks. "He kept meticulous records of the players, their statistics and the games -- all of it done by hand long before there were computers," Schwartz said.

As a young man, Curd worked in a stockyard and started his gambling career betting on high school games, according to the Gold Sheet.

In the 1940s, Curd ran the Mayfair Bar on East Main Street in Lexington, where an upstairs phone room took bets from all over the country. But he eventually got into trouble with the law over tax issues. Curd sold his Kentucky farm in 1952 to settle the tax debt, according to the Gold Sheet.

Curd's friends included late oddsmaker Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, whose syndicated betting column began in the Las Vegas Sun, and late legendary Kentucky basketball coach Adolph Rupp.

Curd is survived by his wife, Pauline Curd of Lexington; a son, Ed Curd Jr. of Florida; and a grandson, Ed Curd III of Las Vegas.