[dlunc3]

Las Vegas legend Billy Walters defends integrity of sports betting
By DAVID PAYNE PURDUM
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The fix was in very rarely during professional sports bettor Billy Walters’ 30-year rise to the top of the industry.

Beginning at age 10, Walters has bet on everything from golf to pool to poker and more. In the early years, he saw plenty of shady things.

But for the past two decades, Walters is adamant that handicapping sports is the “squarest gamble that there is” and recalls only a few times when he questioned the integrity of the game.

“If you go back 25 or 30 years ago, yeah, there were some things that were questionable,” Walters told Covers.com in an exclusive phone interview. “But I can tell you in the last 20 years of sports, there were only a couple occasions where things weren’t what they were supposed to be.”

The 1993-94 college basketball season was one of those rare occasions.

In late January 1994, Walters learned a group of gamblers who began showing up in Las Vegas and were betting against Arizona State with enough money to make the pointspread do funny things.

“The first time these guys came into town the line moved like eight points, so I bet on the other side of it, because it created what I thought was a lot of value,” Walters remembered. “I lost the bet by like 15 points. The second time, the same guys came back in town and did the same thing. Well, this time, I’ve seen this rodeo before, so I didn’t bet this time. And they won that bet by 10 or 12 points.”

By the fourth time the group showed up in town, Walters had watched tape of the previous Arizona State games and knew what was going on. The line on the Sun Devils’ game against a bad Washington team in March moved nine points in the Huskies’ favor. Sportsbooks generally move a line one point for every maximum bet, which can range from five to six figures or more depending on the client.

At halftime of a tight game, Walters caught wind that a Pac-10 official had gone into the Sun Devils’ locker room to inform them of point-shaving allegations.

“Of course, Arizona State went out and won the game by 20-some points,” Walters said. “Eventually, the authorities got involved and those guys fled town. They rolled over on each other and the whole thing was exposed.”

Sports Illustrated detailed the same point-shaving scandal in an article written by one of the players on the take, Stevin (Hedake) Smith.

Walters also witnessed the betting scandal involving referee Tim Donaghy and believes Donaghy got off easy with a 15-month jail sentence.

“I think the NBA just wanted to sweep that under the table and move on quickly,” Walters said.

But those are rare exceptions, says Walters.

“I got to tell you, the NFL, NBA, college basketball and college football are about as square as it gets,” he added

[Chi_archie]

decent read

[5mike5]

only people that think games are "fixed" is when they lose and cry like a baby...hes right, they arent fixed

[Kalibongo]

Good read.

[Darkside Magick]

billy is straight lying...lmaooooooooooooooooooooooo

[PAULYPOKER]

The under 176 was fixed in the Bos/La.L. lastnight,this was the only reason I bet it..............

[Romanov]

The under 176 was fixed in the Bos/La.L. lastnight,this was the only reason I bet it..............

Sure as hell seemed like it but we were fortunate. For the last quarter and OT they averaged a whopping 2.6 points per minute! Had they played that way for the whole game it would've been under 130

[SportsPedagogy]

I think fixed is a harsh word, but I do believe that officals get caught up sometimes and favor teams.

[The Kraken]

Lots of scizofrenics here

[CTOWNsCAPPIN]

Nice post, good read!

[tokio]

moving the spread 8-9pts seems quite alot.

[mathdotcom]

Boring

[JR007]

have to believe, if you remember the Hawks/Bucks...playoff game a few years ago when the hawks were blowing the bucks out, fouling everyplay to get the over, watching the clock at the foul line, hand and eye gestures

[crustyme]

hes lying, obviously.

anyone who watched toledo-syracuse knows that game was clearly fixed. how do multiple officials miss a kick travelling 2 feet wide? conference officials explaination afterwards was even more comical.

billy obviously doesnt want to scare away all the squares hes made millions off of.

[darkhat]

Walters has no rise in gambling. He Obv is a joke and made his money illegally and is really a recreational gambler who uses a bank roll to act famous.

[broadway6]

Wow he used the word square. According to some at Sbr, that is a false word. How dare billy use the "s" word.

[budman77j]

i wish i could get in on some fixed games.with my luck i would get on the wrong side.

[ram749]

The shadiest thing I've seen was a Notre Dame football game , Nd was covering the spread , had the ball and just needed to take a knee to end the game, instead the Qb's runs backwards and kneels down in the end zone to kill the clock. Killed the cover!!

[RudyRuetigger]

worthless article.

he asks the question, billy are sports fixed? wtf do you think he is going to say? hell yea??

give me a fukkin break. itd be like going to ask someone if they robbed a gas station.

police: we have no evidence, no suspect, but did you rob the gas station?

yea i really think hes going to say yes

[RoadDog]

He must not watch many Denver University games

[SportsMushroom]

you guys are all losing gamblers


you just wait until the game is over to say 'I only lost because it was fixed'


everyone here seems to be able to tell when the fix is in by watching the games, if that is true then just watch the game, see who the fix is on, bet live and become rich

but that wont happen because there are no fixed games, just bad gamblers

[Jaug]

Decent read.. at best. Naive to not believe matches in soccer are fixed when there is a 100 cent linemove.

[RoadDog]

you guys are all losing gamblers

Assumptions are the worst arguments. Go to law school. They'll teach ya that the first day

[lonegambler]

clueless these game sare so controlled , u have to be blind not to see it bos games starts at 176 move down too 173 and in lands smack in the middle dude be serious after a 70 pt sac okc quarter and 112 halftime they come out with 101 ? as berman would say cmon man

[BetterBizness]

Yes... at least 0.01% of all games get middled... clear rig....

[lonegambler]

u saw it coming as line moved down , damn u need everything expalined to u word for word like a 5yr old

[SportsMushroom]

Assumptions are the worst arguments. Go to law school. They'll teach ya that the first day

hmm, clever, slipping in that you are a winning gambler and a lawyer without making it seem like you are bragging, you will do well manipulating the justice system sir



but its not an assumption, its an educated conclusion based on experience

and my experience is that there are two types of gamblers, the ones that were on the winning team and are bragging about how it was all skill, and the ones that were on the losing team and are in the other room crying fix

you cant have it both ways, it cant be skill when you win, and fix when you lose

[RoadDog]

Lol you say you guys are all losing gamblers without knowing one person here. Give me facts, dont give me bullshit.

[SportsMushroom]

clueless these game sare so controlled , u have to be blind not to see it bos games starts at 176 move down too 173 and in lands smack in the middle dude be serious after a 70 pt sac okc quarter and 112 halftime they come out with 101 ? as berman would say cmon man

the line opened at at 177 and the game ended at 175, that is called mathematics, obviously they did not teach that class at your school


the line moved down to 173 because good gamblers bet the under at 177, mediocre gamblers bet the under at 176 and 175 and bad gamblers bet under 174 or worse

[Mikail]

Hmmm, let's look at this from another perspective. A man who's built a legendary status as a sports handicapper is saying that in the last 20 years he can only recall of a few incidences where he questions the integrity of the game. He then mentions a few instances in which the dime was dropped. I don't know but I think it'd be in his personal best interest to say so. There is always gonna be people that will not accept that our sporting events aren't always random acts but are sometimes choreographed for special interests. If and how much sports are fixed there is one thing I'm sure of and that is Billy Walters knows the deal.

[RoadDog]

This article is like asking a chiropractor whether he thinks his profession is bullshit. How do you think he's going to respond?

[crustyme]

you guys are all losing gamblers


you just wait until the game is over to say 'I only lost because it was fixed'


everyone here seems to be able to tell when the fix is in by watching the games, if that is true then just watch the game, see who the fix is on, bet live and become rich

but that wont happen because there are no fixed games, just bad gamblers

this is the most ignorant post ive ever seen.

1. not all books offer live lines.
2. not everyone bets online. i bet in vegas majority of the time.
3. no one sees a fix coming, except those involved, and most are subtle and not too obvious. and by the you realize it was fixed, it's too late.
4. not all fixes go the way they were intended. i remember this one game where refs did everything possible to help a team win, including a phantom penalty on 4th down (offisides on a cb who was standing 3 yards from the los) and they still lost because the kicker slipped and missed badly.

and what's your explanation for the field ref missing the blatantly obvious missed kick in the syracuse-toledo game? how do you explain the replay ref missing it too when he has expensive replay system at his disposal with about a dozen angles (all which showed it clearly missed by several feet)? no one has been able to explain it cause the answer is obvious.

[SportsMushroom]

Lol you say you guys are all losing gamblers without knowing one person here. Give me facts, dont give me bullshit.

you only need to know 1 human being to know every human being

people who get emotionally invested in whether one play wins or loses are bad gamblers, because it either means they went all in or bet a very big percentage of their roll on one game, human nature has it that we repeat our mistakes over and over, the same people that went all in lost all their money gambling will be doing the exact same thing tomorrow and the day after that

good gamblers are not affected by a loss, the size of their bet is determined my the size of their bankroll, and their picks are determined by research, when a play loses they are not fazed because they are already on the next one, they dont complain that it should have won but the mob was conspiring against them


for an aspiring lawyer you seem to be oblivious to psychology and human nature

[RoadDog]

Your generalization of a massive sample size proves your ignorance. Your assumptive nature would send you out of court with your tail between your legs. You arent worth responding to again, homie.

[Romanov]

you only need to know 1 human being to know every human being people who get emotionally invested in whether one play wins or loses are bad gamblers, because it either means they went all in or bet a very big percentage of their roll on one game, human nature has it that we repeat our mistakes over and over, the same people that went all in lost all their money gambling will be doing the exact same thing tomorrow and the day after that good gamblers are not affected by a loss, the size of their bet is determined my the size of their bankroll, and their picks are determined by research, when a play loses they are not fazed because they are already on the next one, they dont complain that it should have won but the mob was conspiring against them for an aspiring lawyer you seem to be oblivious to psychology and human nature

What a sad world you live in. Cynicism does not beget intelligence.

Tell me, great sharp one, how do you determine the size of your plays?