Billy Walters was on 60 Minutes (Again) Tonight

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/17/60minutes/main20074738.shtml

Anyone else see this ? I guess this was an update on a segment
aired earlier this year.

The correspondent was no Morley Safer, that's for sure. And
I mean that in a good way.

I read a book once upon a time by Michael Konik, and he
talks about a big sports bettor, among other things. I don't
know if that person, who goes unnamed, was Billy Walters.

Yeah, I remember it when it first came out. Good watch!

Quote: JohnnyQ

I read a book once upon a time by Michael Konik, and he
talks about a big sports bettor, among other things. I don't
know if that person, who goes unnamed, was Billy Walters.

Everyone I speak familiar with the big names in sports betting says that his boss in that book was indeed a thinly veiled Billy Walters.

Sports Books seem to be similar to poker... the casino provides the facilities and the money flows largely from bad players to good players with the casino merely taking a rake. Only for a sports book, the casino takes a rake from mainly the bad players so its the sports book versus the good players.

This network of betting agents is fine but I think the problem was timely communication with them particularly in the pre-cell phone days or when books banned cell phones. Now with computers and instantaneous communication lines move faster. If he is willing to bet substantial amounts on both sides to move the line and then take an even larger position the books must hate him.

I question the usefulness of all those statistics. Knowledge of games and players of long ago can hardly help current games.

I noticed he said he's had losing days, week, and even months. But he said he's never had a losing year.

Based on how much money (and property he owns) he seems to be doing pretty damn good, whatever he's doing.

Having a reputation for being a sharp odds maker probably helps him. Some of his contacts might be told to become talkative and once the word goes out that Billy Walters favors Team X, he can take opposite team through his agents that are not known as being a Walters beard.

Quote: FleaStiff

Having a reputation for being a sharp odds maker probably helps him. Some of his contacts might be told to become talkative and once the word goes out that Billy Walters favors Team X, he can take opposite team through his agents that are not known as being a Walters beard.

60 Minutes touched on this, but the book goes into much more depth about it. Once the writer of The Smart Money, Michael Konik, became suspected of being a BW beard BW had him making small bets the opposite way he wanted to bet at places where he felt a rumor would get going that "BW likes side x." Then when everyone trying to ride BW's coattails bet into team X, moving the line, other beards would come down hard on team Y.

This is the exact same piece they ran last winter.