Billy Walters "most dangerous sports bettor in Nevada"

Caught this on 60 mins last night. The guy bets millions a week and put down $3.5MM on the Saints in last year's Super Bowl.

Has a network of "advisors", some for 20+ years, and only he knows the identity of all of them.

Round of golf for a $1MM anyone?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6FAUQ6SFKM[/ame]

I don't believe he is the same guy but I read an article several years ago about a Vegas gambler that bets huge on football, something like $100MM a year IIRC. The article mentioned that he had connections with training staff and traveling reporters so he knew who was hurt/healed before it became public knowledge. This was in the pre-internet days so this info gave him a much bigger advantage than it would today.

 

Cool segment if you know nothing about sports betting.

 

Sounds like the intro to the movie "Casino" and Ace Rothstein.

 

Not sure how to read your post...Educational if you know nothing about the subject or uncool if you do know something?

I probably fall in the middle.

 

Ha! I'm still looking for the article. It was probably 10 years ago I saw it in a Forbes or Fortune or the like magazine.

 

I caught it last night and found it fascinating how he has almost reached a point that by placing the bet he can sway the points spread in his favor.

 

It's not that fascinating and it happens every single day. If you ever have a minute, go to an online sports book and refresh the lines in the minutes leading up to tip-off/kick-off. You'll see the movement for yourself. Guys like Billy are successful because they know exactly when to place their bets.

If you ever place a bet and in the minutes leading up to the start of the game you see the line moving in your favor, consider yourself f@#$%d.

 

When I was younger my grandfather was a trainer at the horse racing track on the Illinois side of St Louis. I spent a couple of summers helping him as he got older with the mundane (s*** jobs, literally!) tasks of caring for the horses during the day. We went to the track every night to watch the races. This was 1987 or so.

You would see the same people there every night, and could tell the guys that would bet bigger money because they would just hang back and watch the odds, then at the exact right time (usually just seconds before post) they would place their bets.

This was before any of the floating casinos in the St Louis area, local gambling addicts had to get their fix at Fairmont Park. Definitely some shady characters at that time.