We Irish love our sport and we also love a flutter. We all want to ‘Beat the Bookies’, to experience the joy of winning money and having our judgement vindicated. John Duggan, who has been putting his neck on the line every week for eight years by tipping on national radio, guides you through the big events of the sporting calendar. From Cheltenham to the Champions League, from Augusta to the All Ireland Finals, John has experienced all the highs and lows of sports betting. There have been wins and losses, and now there are reasons. Beat the Bookies opens the door to the rewards and pitfalls of this very Irish pastime. This book tells you what you need to know to maximise profits and beat the bookies at their own game!
A riveting inside look at the lucrative world of professional high-stakes sports betting by a journalist who lived a secret life as a key operative in the world's most successful sports gambling ring. When journalist Michael Konik landed an interview with Rick "Big Daddy" Matthews, the largest bet he'd placed on a sporting event was $200. Konik, an expert blackjack and poker player, was no stranger to Vegas. But Matthews was in a different league: the man was rumored to be the world's smartest sports bettor, the mastermind behind "the Brain Trust," a shadowy group of gamblers known for their expertise in beating the Vegas line. Konik had heard the word on the street -- that Matthews was a snake, a conniver who would do anything to gain an edge. But he was also brilliant, cunning, and charming. And when he asked Konik if he'd like to "make a little money" during the football season, the writer found himself seduced . . . So began Michael Konik's wild ride as an operative of the elite Brain Trust. In The Smart Money, Konik takes readers behind the veil of secrecy shrouding the most successful sports betting operation in America, bypassing the myths and the rumors, going all the way to its innermost sanctum. He reveals how they -- and he -- got rich by beating the Vegas lines and, ultimately, the multimillion-dollar offshore betting circuit. He details the excesses and the betrayals, the horse-trading and the paranoia, that are the perks and perils of a lifestyle in which staking inordinate sums of money on the outcome of a single event -- sometimes as much as $1 million on a football game -- is a normal part of doing business.
'Football looked at in a very different way' Pat Nevin, former Chelsea and Everton star and football media analyst Football – the most mathematical of sports. From shot statistics and league tables to the geometry of passing and managerial strategy, the modern game is filled with numbers, patterns and shapes. How do we make sense of them? The answer lies in the mathematical models applied in biology, physics and economics. Soccermatics brings football and mathematics together in a mind-bending synthesis, using numbers to help reveal the inner workings of the beautiful game. This new and expanded edition analyses the current big-name players and teams using mathematics, and meets the professionals working inside football who use numbers and statistics to boost performance. Welcome to the world of mathematical modelling, expressed brilliantly by David Sumpter through the prism of football. No matter who you follow – from your local non-league side to the big boys of the Premiership, La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A or the MLS – you'll be amazed at what mathematics has to teach us about the world's favourite sport.
This unique book delves into a number of intriguing issues and addresses several pertinent questions including, should gambling markets be privatized? Is the ‘hot hand’ hypothesis real or a myth? Are the ‘many’ smarter than the ‘few’ in estimating betting odds? How are prices set in fixed odds betting markets? The book also explores the informational efficiency of betting markets and the prevalence of corruption and illegal betting in sports.
Alan Tripp, a man some call a genius and others call a criminal, became the world's most successful private bookmaker. He was Australia's most convicted SP bookmaker and was the prime target of gaming and vice squads around the country in the 1980s. Nichola Garvey recounts the drama and intrigue of the life of Alan Tripp.
In 1956, two Bell Labs scientists discovered the scientific formula for getting rich. One was mathematician Claude Shannon, neurotic father of our digital age, whose genius is ranked with Einstein's. The other was John L. Kelly Jr., a Texas-born, gun-toting physicist. Together they applied the science of information theory—the basis of computers and the Internet—to the problem of making as much money as possible, as fast as possible. Shannon and MIT mathematician Edward O. Thorp took the "Kelly formula" to Las Vegas. It worked. They realized that there was even more money to be made in the stock market. Thorp used the Kelly system with his phenomenally successful hedge fund, Princeton-Newport Partners. Shannon became a successful investor, too, topping even Warren Buffett's rate of return. Fortune's Formula traces how the Kelly formula sparked controversy even as it made fortunes at racetracks, casinos, and trading desks. It reveals the dark side of this alluring scheme, which is founded on exploiting an insider's edge. Shannon believed it was possible for a smart investor to beat the market—and William Poundstone's Fortune's Formula will convince you that he was right.
Imagine what it would be like to turn your back on the nine-to-five drudgery of normal working life and risk everything you've ever had on the fate of a horse race or the outcome of a ball game. In the gambling fraternity, Harry Findlay has earned legendary status. He has been skint dozens of times, won over £20 million and spent just as much. But he will not change. Fearless and formidable, bullish and bombastic, there is no one in the gambling game who can match Harry's style and seismic impact. When he first ran a betting slip through his fingers as a 16-year-old, Harry said he had been handed the keys to the Magic Kingdom. Gambling has taken him all around the globe, enjoying five-star travel and a gourmet indulgence at the world's biggest sporting events. In his much-awaited book, Harry recounts the mind-boggling tales behind the thousand and million pound multi-sport bets that will make ordinary punters shudder including the day he wagered £2.5 million on a rugby match. It is a remarkable life story of ups and downs. Aged 21 years old, he served nearly a year in some of Her Majesty's toughest jails. Who'd have thought he would go on to own Big Fella Thanks, winner of the Derby at Clonmel and the most famous dog to come out of Ireland and be part owner of the legendary racehorse Denman, who carried his colours to Gold Cup glory. Harry's subsequent controversial disqualification from racing destroyed him, despite the ruling being overturned on appeal. Most fascinating of all, Harry tells how he has survived and continues to work his magic in the gambling world, and still believes in his own special talent to read sports events and to continue to stay one step ahead of the internet companies that flood our minds with the temptation to risk so much. Harry Findlay: Gambling For Life reflects one man's extraordinary passion for gambling. How he cannot live without it. And how he knows that, even if he loses all of his money, he can never be a loser.
This book by King Yao, author of the widely-acclaimed Weighing the Odds in Hold 'em Poker, should be used as a guideline to sports betting rather than a blueprint. The sports betting market changes and adapts quickly. The underlying principles shown in this book should help the reader adapt and continue to make good bets even when the market changes.
"An elegant and amusing account" of how gambling has been reshaped by the application of science and revealed the truth behind a lucky bet (Wall Street Journal). For the past 500 years, gamblers-led by mathematicians and scientists-have been trying to figure out how to pull the rug out from under Lady Luck. In The Perfect Bet, mathematician and award-winning writer Adam Kucharski tells the astonishing story of how the experts have succeeded, revolutionizing mathematics and science in the process. The house can seem unbeatable. Kucharski shows us just why it isn't. Even better, he demonstrates how the search for the perfect bet has been crucial for the scientific pursuit of a better world.
During the course of 30 days in early 2009, Richard Roeper risked more than a quarter million dollars on practically every method of gambling in America. This title both celebrates and details the pitfalls and lures through Roeper's stories about his lifelong affair with gambling.
