Gambling & Journalism

Just before that scene was the famous "Bye-bye belt!" that always makes me laugh

 

Great article, thanks. It was like going into a time machine.
Note that they called a "parlay" a "round robin".

 

SI Vault is really a visit back to my childhood.

The ads are awesome.

U.S. Postal Service; Mail your Christmas packages by December 10 and your cards by December 15.
Fort Pinto: compared to the Model T. Whoops.

Also a story in that one on a 2 year old horse named Secretariat, where trainer Lucien Laurin hints he might just skip the Derby (sounds like because his nose was bent out of shape that Riva Ridge didn't win horse of the year in 1972.

Great stuff.

Sorry for the threadjack. To get back on track, give me the Jets/Giants over 43 and a hook and the Cowboys -3 this weekend.

 

I think I started reading it a year or two later. And all the booze ads stuck out to me.

And look at the college basketball top 20. So many non Power 5 schools! A Long Beach State shout out!

 

I haven't gambled since college; used to make some pretty good change then, though, betting SoCon football because back in the day me and a few buddies knew a helluva lot more about the teams than Vegas did.

I couldn't image trying to gamble today, what with all the built-in advantage the algorithms provide the saviest of bettors.

 

That's the beauty of sports betting, though. You're not playing against better players, like in poker. There aren't situations where it's impossible to win, like in blackjack or slots. When you bet sports, every game is a winner. You just have to figure out which side is the right one.

 

My brother is a pretty serious horse player, doesn't do it for a living or blow every dime he has at the track like our old man did but man, he works at it. Records the local track's races off TV, familiarized himself with horse anatomy so he could understand how injuries impact performance, makes notes of horses he is following, exchanges notes with other handicappers, reads the ink off the Racing Form, scours websites and Twitter feeds for info and there are days when he just gets clobbered at the track. Other days he does well or breaks even.

 

I heard the converse of that ... that the guy bet overs on the second half when each half's total was one-half of the full game's total. With fouling and constant clock-stoppages, the second-half over was easier to achieve.

 

I imagine being a successful sports better is like being any other kind of successful gambler. It's more work than real work. Early in my career, the Phoenix sent me to a blackjack card counting course. Guy's business card said his name (clearly not real) and said he was the Silver Fox. Made it past the first cut of the basic strategy stuff and advanced to the group where he taught us not just card counting, but how not to get spotted by casinos while doing same. Even at the tender age of 30, I knew he was looking for recruits. At the end I told him, "man my job is way easier than yours." He was very disappointed in me. Sometimes, not often, I wonder what it would've been like to join his crew.

 

Your description makes more sense. Seems to be the better angle. The strategy rested on the fact that the O/U betting lines didn't account for the differences in scoring in each half.