The number of handicapping enthusiasts participating in contests from coast to coast continues to grow each and every year, and Michael’s Handbook brings you up to date on all of the action. Handicapping contests give horseplayers a chance to test their skills and see how they measure up against local players at their home track or all over the country.
Investing in College Basketball provides a comprehensive set of tools and techniques for successfully wagering on college basketball. It shows how the returns winnings — from investing in college basketball can be far greater than investing in stocks and bonds. These returns can be achieved by anyone with an interest in basketball, basic mathematical skills, and a computer with spreadsheet programs and Internet access. The power of the methodology is demonstrated by actual investing results for the 2003-2004 season of the Atlantic 10 Conference. The book includes an analysis of investment outcomes for the A-10 Conference, the working papers for assessing each team, and the analysis of each game for which an investment was made. There are extensive examples of how theory is applied in analyzing actual games and showing how good analysis consistently pays off.
May The Horse Be With You: Pack at the Track By Harvey Pack with Peter Thomas Fornatale
If there were a picture next to the word “horseplayer” in the dictionary, odds are it would be the familiar visage of Harvey Pack, the legendary and curmudgeonly face and voice of racing to generations of New York racetrack denizens. In May the Horse be with You: Pack at the Track, Pack reflects on over a half century of racing’s most memorable people, places and moments. From his seat in the grandstand as a childhood fan, to his decades of dedicated work behind the microphone and in front of the camera, Pack recalls a lively life at the track amidst millionaires, busted-out bettors, and ever-changing crew of wagering compatriots.
Pack, with the help of author Peter Thomas Fornatale, tells Runyon-esque tales from his seven decades as a racing fan, highlighted by the characters he was fortunate (and unfortunate) enough to meet. In the end it wasn’t the celebrities or racing superstars that Pack connected with best, but the regular racetrack “Joe.” Whether one finds himself lumped with the hundreds of fans who risk the rent money or just a casual $2 across-the-board bettor, it’s the everlasting comradeship associated with being a horseplayer that Pack and so many others are drawn to day in and day out.
This fun and witty expose of horse racing in America goes behind the scenes at the track, providing a serious gambler’s-eye view of the action. Ted McClelland spent a year at tracks and off-track betting facilities in Chicago and across the country, profiling the people who make a career of gambling on horses. This account follows his personal journey of what it means to be a horseplayer as he gambles with his book advance using various betting and handicapping strategies along the way. A colorful cast of characters is introduced, including the intensely disciplined Scott McMannis, “The Professor,” a onetime college instructor who now teaches a course in handicapping, and Mary Schoenfeldt, a former nun and gifted handicapper who donates all of her winnings to charity. This moving account of wins, losses, and personal turmoil provides arealistic look at gamblers, gambling, and life at the track.
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.
