Deadspin article on RJ Bell and Pregame
Fat Polamalu
Senior Member
How Americas Favorite Sports Betting Expert Turned A Suckers Game Into An Industry
http://deadspin.com/how-america-s-favorite-sports-betting-expert-turned-a-s-1782438574
http://deadspin.com/how-america-s-favorite-sports-betting-expert-turned-a-s-1782438574
Comments
Let's hope more outlets pick up on it.
I know your playing golf throw a couple of plays this way. There use to be about 3/4 guys Kas was one and others. Always looked forward to your golf threads.
Holy scamanoly!!!!!
Haven't been playing as much as I would like OT. Just some futures here and there, and they've been lousy. Had Lowry at 105-1 this weekend, which didn't end well. Ill have a thread for Ryder Cup for sure. Kashmir and Durito used to have some golf plays. Also there was that one fella who was getting caddie tips that were pretty good I think.
Had Lowry too at 125-1 .
I had seen that it went up around that at pinny before the first round and thought about taking another dip. On Sunday I figured he would come back to the pack a bit but didn't expect a +6 round. Disappointing but I love Lowry as a player though. I might take another shot on him in The Open.
RJ pays for a lot of his radio slots. The shady part is that they don't have to say "this is a paid advertisement" like any other commercial. If you want to hear some absolute trash, listen to this interview today on ESPN in Las Vegas:
Interview with RJ, where the hosts admit they didn't read the article and just let RJ rant about mostly unrelated garbage.
http://www.lvsportsnetwork.com/episode/623-mitch-and-pritch-rj-bell-int/
Then the hosts rant about how RJ's critics, despite admitting they did not even read the article, and say "For all of you pathetic losers who bet $5 parlays for a living...go to hell" which is the beginning part here:
http://www.lvsportsnetwork.com/episode/623-mitch-and-pritch-stadium-funding-debate/
The three highlights for me were
1) RJ mocks the author for spending a year meticulously researching everything, quite time consuming since you have to uncover all RJ's lies
2) RJ admits he lied about being the valedictorian of Ohio State but blames the NY Times for the lie LOL. (Note that the article never says Ohio State confirmed he graduated 1st like he claims, and it would be rather odd a 3.97 GPA would be good enough to finish #1 in a school that large. A 3.97 at my smaller, more competitive school wasn't even good enough for single digits.)
3) RJ says the timing of the article publication is suspicious with Vegas having just been awarded an NHL team.
GroovinMahoovin has been aware of this article since March of 2015, so nothing in the article is new to me, but yes it's a fantastic article.
Yea, can't think of his name but he was pretty good. Thanks for quick reply.
I'll be back this fall. I've been spending a lot of free time on modeling NBA full game totals and 2H plays. Learned a lot last year and anticipate a really good fall but you never can tell. Hopefully they don't make any big rule changes.
Still playing golf here and there. I really wish there were more books that would line the small market golf matchups.
Priceless!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bb1lvykgmoxt0ni/rj.mp3?dl=0
People asked Mitch Moss why it was deleted and he said "I don't know. GET. A. LIFE."
They archived it both as just the interview segment and the full show. The full show now has a gap in it, like some tout version of the Watergate tapes.
Classic!!
Have to or choose not to? I am not sure why the FCC has decided to leave sports alone when it comes to this..I hear the same shit from Fox Sports on Sundays during the NFL..Jeff Allen joins them before the 1:15pm Pacific kicks with his BS "Parlay Bailout of the year"...
http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2012/02/articles/44000-fine-for-radio-station-not-including-sponsorship-identification-in-paid-message/
I mean I don't know, it's certainly possible they are violating the law, but since it happens all the time I figured they would have been busted already. But yeah they could be violating the FCC law.
RJ Bell made a similar defense today on the radio and also announces he's retained famous counsel and is planning on suing Deadspin! As usual listening to him is horrible, but the hilarious thing is his first defense is the record keeping is unfair because "sometimes our pros give out opposite sides of the same game, so those times we are guaranteed to lose the juice."
The hosts talk about how "You never talk about selling picks, most of the content is free, lots of people probably don't even know you sell picks!" as if Pregame has any revenue stream or reason for existing other than selling picks. And also as if labeling these salesmen "Pro bettors" when he talks about them isn't "shilling to sell picks," since by his own defintion, "A Pregame Pro is anyone who sells picks on Pregame."
https://audioboom.com/boos/4744995-rj-bell-addresses-deadspin-s-article
It is horrible. He looks like a cross between Bobby Hill and the Pillsbury Doughboy and the voice is a weird combination of a whine and a lisp. He's from eastern Ohio and the odd thing is I grew up only about 80 miles east of him and I don't remember ever hearing that kind of dialect before.
The part about Fezzik losing 147 units or so at LVA SPORTS is 100% true as I was a member there. The site wasn't bad to start, kind of reminded me of betting talk, but with about a $20 per month fee, which, for one thing, would keep the pissing matches to a minimum for the threat of being banned. Charlie J, Alf Musteka, Fezzik and others were there and the sports talk/topics were decent.
The Problem- Fezzik won his 2nd of back to back Hilton titles in late 2009/early2010. I would guess Anthony Curtis, along with Fezzik, looked to capitalize on that and proceeded to make the site all about Fezzik. They plastered his name and the back to back Hilton wins all over the site, promising that Fezzik would be giving out selections to all members. They proceeded to up the monthly fee to $100 a month, although current members were grandfathered at the previous price if they wanted to renew. I guess you can't blame them for trying to make a buck. Tons of new subscribers joined and the site was blossoming. Fezzik though, now had to come through with winning selections as the new $1200/year fee put the pressure on. Fez was now the face of LVA SPORTS, whether he liked it or not.
Fezzik said he was "all in" and 100% committed to the site and giving winning selections. I mean, he almost had to say that, not much of a choice there. But, as we all know by now, Fezzik picked the absolute worst time to shit the bed. He proceeded to lose well over 100 units over a period of time, and new subscribers, who joined just for Fezzik's picks, were outraged, and some demanded a refund. I mean it got so bad, he even stopped yoshing, and eventually just gave up and left the site.
I'm not sure what happened to the site, but I believe after the downhill slide caused by Fezzik, someone took it over from Anthony Curtis. I though I saw that Fez said that he wasn't trying and/or paying much attention on the LVA site. I think that's a lie, but if it's true, he totally dissed all those customers that paid all that money.
I remember him also bashing touts and saying baseball couldn't be beat. Now he is a tout, who sells baseball plays. Hmmm,
Hilarious you posted this considering you incessantly defended Fezzik on EOG, repeating their party line of "it's not a tout site, it's a message board you pay $100 a month to access," as if that's any different than a tout site, particularly when Fezzik was clearly the main attraction since the site became a ghost town after he left. Your Fezzik shilling was so bad that EOG head mod KingRevolver even asked if you were related to Fezzik.
Anyway, yes, Fezzik said on Pregame something to the effect of "Re: my LVA record, it was a free message board so not a priority" whereas at the time they jacked up the rate to $100/mo, he said "I fully expect to win 55% going forward now that we are charging more than a nominal fee." And yes, he made fun of people betting MLB, saying "no one beats MLB full game sides and totals, the idiots betting MLB in June should be working on their NFL power ratings instead."
https://www.scribd.com/doc/316876906/Pregame-com-Legal-Demand-Letter-to-Deadspin
Las Vegas’ effort to enter the upper echelon of American cities has always been met with resistance. Held back by its hint of the taboo. The NHL coming to town is a significant breakthrough. Vegas odds and sports bettors have been the focus of my career. An industry that’s grown big enough to be the target of a recent hit piece by the blog Deadspin. The contemptuous smearing of this Vegas industry brought to the forefront a dire challenge that we face.
Many don’t trust the mainstream media. And some believe Deadspin long ago compromised itself beyond redemption. And since their bankruptcy, the site reads more like tweets from a journalism school kegger. This hit piece’s intent to mislead was so obvious that few were fooled. Anonymous quotes and sinister innuendo are no replacement for facts. The thousands in the Pregame.com community know the truth through their own experience – and the support from so many savvy media members I’ve worked with over the years was truly heartening.
Still, it feels wrong to sit back and let anybody be misled about what the Pregame team has spent so long building. The lies were extreme enough for attorney Charles Harder (Hulk Hogan’s lead counsel against Gawker) to take Pregame’s case. Mr. Harder sent Deadspin a 9-Page Legal Demand Letter. This isn’t about money for us. We are insisting upon a full retraction.
Beyond the libel, defamation, and other legal violations, there were 28 additional Deadspin deceptions – requiring 12 more written pages to detail their rampant dishonesty. Both of these documents have received wide coverage. No reasonable person could be aware of all the facts and believe their disingenuous story.
I have no problem with genuine disagreement, and I serenely accept that Pregame.com is not for everybody. Our focus on improving the odds for casual sports bettors, instead of catering to professionals, frustrates some of the hardcore niche. Yet, bigger than any such debate, bigger than any individual or company, is a fundamental defect in the system that first needs corrected. This isn’t life or death, but it is important. Millions of good people bet on sports. Even more are interested in Vegas odds. They are owed the respect of not being lied about. They are owed the respect of not being lied to.
Media outlets that tend to sensationalize also tend to take shortcuts with industries they prejudge to be shady – figuring that being fair doesn’t matter when taking down a bad guy. When Deadspin labeled me “America’s Favorite Sports Betting Expert” – the first half of the phrase meant to them that I was big enough to lie about; the second half meant I probably deserved it.
But this is so much bigger than just me. If the uninformed media automatically, without discernment, smears every popular Vegas Guy - then it becomes much more difficult for public to determine the good ones from the bad ones.
Over the years, I’ve been best able to advocate for Vegas by getting odds and handicapper content out into the mainstream. But now I see that it’s equally important for this fundamental defect in the system to be fought. Demanding the truth from Deadspin is my first step. Setting the standard for Pregame so high that the next hit piece is even less believable will be a key part of my focus. We must show with bold actions why the old Vegas clich?s no longer apply. Not just me and Pregame – but anybody who wants to be a part of this industry moving forward into the mainstream.
Pondering our challenge, I drafted the 7 facts that make Pregame different. Included are three brand new difference-making initiatives. And we are all extremely excited about the biggest announcement in company history coming by early August.
The mainstream media must accept that any stigma around sports betting is gone – and unfair treatment is no longer ok. We will be held back until this is accomplished. The good guys must work together till then. Vegas has come a long way. Many of you reading this deserve credit and thanks for that. This is my personal commitment to contribute all I can to the next step. – RJ
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And RJ Bell's letter above is absolutely classic. He clearly doesn't have an ounce of pride left.