Originally Posted by
redietz
Mike Lee was in it (pristine rep).
I retired from The Wise Guys two years ago, not in the dim, fog-shrouded past.
Mike Lee was releasing picks to customers after he died (no joke). I don't recall any evidence that he won. You get a "pristine reputation" in Vegas by being a friendly old fart who steers suckers to the sports books. Billy Walters, Fezzik, and other winners did not have "pristine reputations". Instead, they had legal problems because they cost the sports books money.
You enter lots of contests and occasionally win one. The Wise Guys contest was promoted by tout Marc Lawrence. It ended two years ago, but you did not win it for decades in the dim, fog-shrouded past.
Besides, everybody knows that contests are a bad measure of handicapping skill. The Las Vegas Hilton ran the most prestigious handicapping contest, and Fezzik won it twice in a row. He sold a lot of picks in the second season, but they lost money for subscribers at closing lines! Contests impose rules and use non-market lines. Contestants are forced to pick the same number of picks every week. The goal is not to win money, the goal is to win the contest. For example, suppose the leader is .5 games ahead of second-place, with only one NFL game to go. The sharp line is -3.5, but the contest gives you -2.5 for a 10% EV. If the leader takes the favorite, then second place should bet the underdog to get a 40% chance of winning the contest, despite it being a terrible cash bet.
Bob, Billy hired a lot of people to move money because they had access to obscure accounts. But he did not hire you as a handicapper.
