Tipsters or Gypsters?

I was cleaning a room up in preparation for painting when I stumbled upon my old stash of "Tipsters or Gypsters?", published by Mike McCusker in the 80's and 90's. I had a few lying around, but was wondering where the majority of my copies had been. I also found the first page of an article written by longtime S.F. Chronicle sports editor, Art Rosenbaum, that discussed "Tipsters or Gypsters?" and McCusker. Rosenbaum occasionally contributed to Sports Illustrated.

McCusker kept tabs on the handicappers of the day and published their annual and multi-year records each year for all to see. He was tough (Rosenbaum calls him "acerbic," I believe). McCusker's editorial blurbs, where he mentioned any hiccups by handicappers in honesty or effectiveness, led most to abandon his ship, mainly because very few handicappers win in the long term. McCusker went from tracking roughly 150 services to about 25 before folding his tent and retiring.

If anyone has an interest, I'll take a photo and post the first page of the Rosenbaum piece.

Yeah, post it up.

I will endeavor to do so, and maybe even get it right side up. I'll post a couple of the college football standings from old "Tipsters or Gypsters?" to go with it.

the linked blog shows ways to spot a scam

the oldest handicapping scam which is probably still out there is calling a game a lock and giving one side to half his customers and the other side to the other half. then he calls back the half that got the winning pick bragging and selling another lock.

http://www.nolandalla.com/10-sure-fi...ice-is-a-scam/

If you like that kind of stuff, Half Smoke, you would have loved "Tipsters or Gypsters?" Mike McCusker, the author and former Seattle Times reporter, was brutal.

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Originally Posted by Half Smoke

the linked blog shows ways to spot a scam

the oldest handicapping scam which is probably still out there is calling a game a lock and giving one side to half his customers and the other side to the other half. then he calls back the half that got the winning pick bragging and selling another lock.

http://www.nolandalla.com/10-sure-fi...ice-is-a-scam/

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That's how I ran into a little trouble with some people that you don't like to have trouble with. I refused to give out both sides and insisted on pushing the side I liked. I figured I was right and therefore all the clients, not half, would be happy. They didn't see it that way.

Here's the first page of the Rosenbaum piece regarding "Tipsters or Gypsters?'

McCusker started with well over a hundred services. Multi-year tracking, however, revealed that most folks do not win, and that reality coupled with McCusker's reporting of business practices and biographical info sent most scurrying. Here are the college football standings from McCusker's next to last "Tipsters or Gypsters?"

Upside down again -- oh well. I was the college profit champ.

Here are the college football final standings for the last year (1990) of McCusker's "Tipsters or Gypsters?"

I repeated as college profit champ. Even with the reduced roster of services, I was proud to be the top profit guy back-to-back years in college football. I was actually top college football profit service three times, which nobody else had ever done.

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redeitz: WOW!!!................very impressive

why don't you be real generous and post some of your picks for the upcoming football season. thanks

Thanks, Half Smoke.

Basically, whatever records services had in "Tipsters or Gypsters?" were actually a slight understatement, as McCusker was real tough with designating spreads to the games. He used a 24 hour window from Friday PM to kickoff Saturday for the college games, for example. If you could have gotten better numbers earlier in the week, too bad. Those better numbers were not applied. McCusker's reasoning, which I halfway agreed with, was that most sports service clients bet the college games within 24 hours of kickoff, so he wanted the records to reflect the average bettor's success using a service. Thus, the games listed as pushes could probably have been won with careful shopping, and a loss or two could have been converted to a push.

McCusker was tough, that's for sure. Every service got its own blurb in the book, and he wasn't shy about inserting comments vis-à-vis business practices or personal history in there.

Are these photos included in the material that you sent to Alan?

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Originally Posted by redietz

McCusker started with well over a hundred services.

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How did McCusker have access to the picks of these services?

1) Of course.
2) The phone services used telepathy. Newsletters used carrier pigeons.

So these photos are among the material that you repeatedly claimed that you could not/would not post in this forum?

To the question of how McCusker had access to the picks....Did McCusker buy picks from over one hundred services?

Did he buy picks from Integrity Sports?

I sent Mr. Mendelson the blurbs written by McCusker throughout the books and the front cover introductions of the books themselves. What I posted here are simply the college football standings, without McCusker's commentary. So basically these represent one "Tipster or Gypster?" component of three such components in "the package." As the college profit champ, I thought it okay to post these as they pertain to me, and I quoted the standings years ago with McCusker's blessing.

Gotcha!

Note to Half Smoke and others not into this forum's history. Coach Belly has been on some anonymous gotcha crusade trying to catch APs (and me) in half-truths. He's not doing too well. A lot of other things were in that package, obviously, than simply "Tipsters or Gypsters?"

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Originally Posted by redietz

I thought it okay to post these as they pertain to me, and I quoted the standings years ago with McCusker's blessing.

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So did it become OK to post this stuff today? Why didn't you post it when asked repeatedly to do so months ago?

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Originally Posted by redietz

Note to Half Smoke

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The ditz has not truthfully answered the question of how McCusker had access to the picks.

Did he pay the services for their picks? Did the services provide him the picks for free?

I didn't post the other material from "Tipsters or Gypsters?" because it's McCusker's copyright. I could have directly quoted it, but somehow I don't think that would have convinced certain anonymous posters. I have quoted the standings before on this forum. I quoted I was a back-to-back profit champ. I quoted that I had three college profit titles. I just didn't provide a screenshot. I guess certain anonymous posters weren't paying attention.

To paraphrase kewlJ, it's pretty easy to tell who's telling the truth here and who's not. Anonymous coach belly hasn't quite figured it out. Or maybe he has.

Besides, perhaps I'm using some special effects to create the illusion of a 1990 publication. Yeah, that's the ticket. I need to get them upright next time, though, eh?

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Originally Posted by redietz

I didn't post the other material from "Tipsters or Gypsters?" because it's McCusker's copyright.

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"the other material" ?...you repeatedly refused to post any material...but now you are posting it. OK.

What about the picks from the services? How did McCusker have access to picks from over one hundred services?

Did the services provide their picks to him for free? Did he subscribe to them all? Did he subscribe to Integrity Sports?

Did he pay you for your picks so that he could compare your picks to over one hundred other services?

You are incorrect. I offered to post any material I myself had written wherein the rights were mine or had returned to me. But you and certain other anonymous posters had no interest in bio pieces from small papers, or the op-ed from the CDT, or the back-and-forth with Carl Sagan. I didn't push them because they are only tangentially related to Las Vegas or casinos or this forum. Mr. Mendelson, however, had all of them.

People can make decisions on who is telling the truth and who's a hack. Usually it's pretty clear.

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Originally Posted by redietz

I offered to post any material I myself had written wherein the rights were mine or had returned to me.

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You never offered, nor did you ever post any material that was included in the package sent to Alan...until yesterday.

You were repeatedly asked to post something, and you repeatedly refused to post anything.

"Why should I?" was your typical response. Well...why did you?

Anyway...what about the picks from over 100 services?

How did McCusker access them in order to compile his standings?

Did the services provide them for free? Did McCusker subscribe and pay?

Did Integrity Sports supply the picks for free?...or did McCusker pay for them?...or is there another scenario?

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Originally Posted by redietz

People can make decisions on who is telling the truth and who's a hack. Usually it's pretty clear.

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Answering the above questions would help with the decisions...as does avoiding the questions.

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Originally Posted by coach belly

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Originally Posted by redietz

I offered to post any material I myself had written wherein the rights were mine or had returned to me.

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You never offered, nor did you ever post any material that was included in the package sent to Alan...until yesterday.

You were repeatedly asked to post something, and you repeatedly refused to post anything.

"Why should I?" was your typical response. Well...why did you?

Anyway...what about the picks from over 100 services?

How did McCusker access them in order to compile his standings?

Did the services provide them for free? Did McCusker subscribe and pay?

Did Integrity Sports supply the picks for free?...or did McCusker pay for them?...or is there another scenario?

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Originally Posted by redietz

People can make decisions on who is telling the truth and who's a hack. Usually it's pretty clear.

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Answering the above questions would help with the decisions...as does avoiding the questions.

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I'm not avoiding them. I'm simply not answering you. Now if kewlJ or mickeycrimm or Dan Druff ask the same questions, I'll answer them. LOL. Boss belly, some anonymous dude searching for gotcha moments like Don Quixote.

Case solved :)