Poll: Rate SBR's Credibility as a Player's Advocate

[lakerboy]

People just dont get that in the gambling world there are no sure things. Its the same in the book review business. SBR fukked up but they cant do anything now. ITs too little too late. Guys who dont play at A books keep getting fukked up the ass. IF you look for a hot girl but settle for the B or C girl you get what you get. You get a fat bitch that you cant walk with in public and thats what betislands was. It was a C girl who lost 5 pounds and became a B girl. She was still a fat ugly bitch with a half less wrinkle. Play at pinny /bookmaker/greek or (5dimes for the next 3 months only) or euro books if you can.

[High3rEl3m3nt]

Laker, sometimes you start out with an A girl and she gains a bunch of weight and becomes a B or a C girl. Your friends try to tell you that you're no longer dating an A girl, but you slough them off. I think it's important to recognize that an A status does not mean A indefinitely, but A right now. Problem is, if you tell your girl that she is no longer an A and needs to get into shape, she'll likely slap you in the face. SBR does not seem willing to get slapped in the face. You dig?

[King Mayan]

Higher watch your front!!

[High3rEl3m3nt]

dammit Mayan...quit scaring me.

[lakerboy]

Element when wa bi an A girl? You trying to make a pinto a mercedes?

[hels]

lakerboy informing us of his knowledge of C ranked girls again?

[High3rEl3m3nt]

BI was never an A. I am just explaining how the analogy needs to be extended to account for an A book slipping up.

[JohnGalt2341]

Laker, sometimes you start out with an A girl and she gains a bunch of weight and becomes a B or a C girl. Your friends try to tell you that you're no longer dating an A girl, but you slough them off. I think it's important to recognize that an A status does not mean A indefinitely, but A right now. Problem is, if you tell your girl that she is no longer an A and needs to get into shape, she'll likely slap you in the face. SBR does not seem willing to get slapped in the face. You dig?

I like the analogy but I have a hard time believing that the woman below gained over 150lbs in a matter of two days like the way BetIslands apparently did.

[Cuse0323]

I like the analogy but I have a hard time believing that the woman below gained over 150lbs in a matter of two days like the way BetIslands apparently did.

[dj_destroyer]

This may be TL;DR. But it's personally important because I really do enjoy this forum.

I really liked SBR... when I first joined. It was fun, jokes a plenty, great writeups for games, awesome contests, it just all around was enjoyable to comb the forums and read the threads, and especially seeing SBR help people out who had lost money or got an unfair deal somehow from a book. It's like they were doing exactly what they set out to do with this company. Back then (almost 2 years ago) I would have given them an A.

Now I just voted them a C. Since then, posters leaving, the content of recent posting, the amount of classlessness, and predominantly the whole BI fiasco has imploded their credibility in my honest opinion. It wasn't just the loss of player funds or knowledge of a failing book without warning, it was the manner in which it was handled. They say all the evidence was out there, we're not denying anything, but they removed the player sheet that was linked... twice. That seems like trying to hide something to me... The response basically was, "It happened, get over it, if you don't wanna be in our tourneys, contests, etc.. then fine, we don't care, other people will take your place". That was a horrible response to this situation. Damage control is a foreign concept apparently.

The one aspect of this whole thing that I think is irreversible is the response from SBR_John about the status of finding answers for the community. John was asked about giving names of those involved and some specifics and responded that he's not at liberty to do that because his employees have families and kids to worry about and that he was documented as having been held at gunpoint by dealing with some of the people in this industry. I fully understand his concern for the well being of others, and even though I don't know him personally, he has always come across as a bright guy, nice guy on this forum. But the fact that a company claims to be a watchdog or voice for the players, but is scared of the entities they are watching and dealing with? That's a total contradiction in terms. It makes zero sense. The honest truth I've realized is that anyone claiming to be a "watchdog" for offshore gambling, is selling a completely false sense of security because you can't monitor entities that can intimidate you into changing your actions or convictions. I've had a gun pulled on me twice in my life and I almost shit my pants both times, I completely froze. It's one of the scariest things that can happen to a human being. I am not saying be tougher or have balls or any of that bullshit. I am saying don't tout your company as being able to mediate in an industry where mediation is a virtual impossibility replaced by tangible greed, theft, dishonesty, and intimidation.

John mentioned that players, "should only play at A or better yet A+ rated books if they don't want something like this to happen". If that's the case why not just advertise for only A or A+ rated books. Let the other books fend for themselves until they've established the credibility to earn an A or A+ rating, while you give your community only tried and true methods of wagering with a better likelihood of getting paid out and not having money stolen.

I do like this forum, even with all the recent problems, I can still come get a chuckle and discuss sports and things that I love, but as far as spending another dime to get into contests or touted books, or trusting any amount of my actual money to SBR, I just can't do it. If that means staying out of great contests, then I guess I'll just have to relegate myself to forum discussion and point playing, which in my eyes isn't necessarily a terrible thing.

SBR is a great website and fun place to interact with people, but it's viability as an industry affiliate or watchdog has ended imho. Just my two cents.

This guy fukking gets it.

[High3rEl3m3nt]

John,

It's my fault for not being clearer. Essentially, I meant for my analogy to be critical of the way we view A books--not BI, but all A books. Just because a book has reached A status, doesn't mean that they're going to be A forever. As a watchdog, they need to be scutinzed, which means potentially stepping on some toes. Hell, maybe they should be scrutinized even more, as more players are doing business with them. It would be very difficult to do this when it might mean offending the book that pays you. That is what I meant. I should have been clearer.

[Cuse0323]

SBR_John voted A

[lakerboy]

John,

It's my fault for not being clearer. Essentially, I meant for my analogy to be critical of the way we view A books--not BI, but all A books. Just because a book has reached A status, doesn't mean that they're going to be A forever. As a watchdog, they need to be scutinzed, which means potentially stepping on some toes. Hell, maybe they should be scrutinized even more, as more players are doing business with them. It would be very difficult to do this when it might mean offending the book that pays you. That is what I meant. I should have been clearer.

NAme me A books in the last 5 years that are not A anymore.

[High3rEl3m3nt]

I went back two years. One book, Coral Sportbook, is no longer an A. That's it in the last two years. Don't you think that in the last two years, maybe, just maybe, some of the other A books really didn't deserve their A rating? That's my whole point!!!

[High3rEl3m3nt]

Make that two...bovada too.

[lakerboy]

I went back two years. One book, Coral Sportbook, is no longer an A. That's it in the last two years. Don't you think that in the last two years, maybe, just maybe, some of the other A books really didn't deserve their A rating? That's my whole point!!!

Do you know the story of Coral? How many american players can play there? The players were doing scams there. What other A books did not deserve the A rating? My point is if you buy a bmw or mercedes at least you know they stand behind there name.

[High3rEl3m3nt]

Make that two books in the last 3 years.

[lakerboy]

Make that two books in the last 3 years.

ANd no one would should be playing at those books. one fo them you cant even play at. The other is a joke.

[High3rEl3m3nt]

Laker, are you slow? My whole point is that maybe some of the said A books aren't really A books. Unless you constantly question their rating, you'll only end up downgrading them after a major catastrophe occurs. Again, an A rating shouldn't be set in stone once it is achieved, but should be evaluated on an ongoing basis. Maybe 5dimes should have been dropped at least a point for their being so damn unreliable when it mattered the most during this last football season. Christ almighty.

[lakerboy]

element do you have your own ratings on books? you should you know. when you buy a car do you go with what auto review experts say? its always a gamble as you should now.

[High3rEl3m3nt]

There are 21 A books in the same tier as pinnacle. Do you believe that all 21 truly deserve to be there?

[lakerboy]

Really? I see only a few in pinny league.

Pinny/Greek?5dimes/bookmaker/dsi/legends/

[SBR_John]

Kind of like when Brady has a bad game everyone says he blows. In fact there was a Brady is totally over rated thread last week.

Comes with the territory. A B rated book goes busto and of course in no way shape or form do any of the players post damn I strayed from the A+ list and got burned. Its human nature.

Enron was rated A- by SnP, the largest and oldest rating agency and went busto, GM was a B+ and went bankrupt, Lehman Bros was a 150 yr old company that was rated A- and in a blink of an eye it was gone. However, none were rated A+ or even an A. Their investors skipped the A+ group chasing a higher return, sound familiar? So is Standard and Poors Company garbage because of those misses? Nah, they happen. Investors as well as players are always going to have a failure here and there when they stray too far from the A+ group.

[High3rEl3m3nt]

Many subprime mortgage bonds were AAA because nobody knew what the hell was going on and it was damn easy to pull one over on the rating agencies.

[The Kraken]

This has nothing to do with Enron and any mention of them or Brady is simply diversionary.

speaking of Brady, when was the last time his paycheck came from a team he had a bad game against?

see what I did there

[lakerboy]

This has nothing to do with Enron and any mention of them or Brady is simply diversionary.

speaking of Brady, when was the last time his paycheck came from a team he had a bad game against?

see what I did there

the giants can give him money if he wants.

[SBR_John]

How about GM? You reckon the rating agencies knew more about their finances than we did about BI's? They knew enough not to rate them an A+ or an A. Yea I see you skipped the part of taking higher risks with lower rated companies and totally ignored the point that B is risky no matter who is doing the rating.

[High3rEl3m3nt]

Really? I see only a few in pinny league.

Pinny/Greek?5dimes/bookmaker/dsi/legends/

There's a much larger list of A rated books. Chinesebookie, SBO Bet, Vietbet, and so on.

[lakerboy]

There's a much larger list of A rated books. Chinesebookie, SBO Bet, Vietbet, and so on.

i was going by A+.

[The Kraken]

There's a much larger list of A rated books. Chinesebookie, SBO Bet, Vietbet, and so on.

Sbo bet

[High3rEl3m3nt]

A is a tier, B is a tier, C is a tier.

[tblues2005]

Kind of like when Brady has a bad game everyone says he blows. In fact there was a Brady is totally over rated thread last week.

Comes with the territory. A B rated book goes busto and of course in no way shape or form do any of the players post damn I strayed from the A+ list and got burned. Its human nature.

Enron was rated A- by SnP, the largest and oldest rating agency and went busto, GM was a B+ and went bankrupt, Lehman Bros was a 150 yr old company that was rated A- and in a blink of an eye it was gone. However, none were rated A+ or even an A. Their investors skipped the A+ group chasing a higher return, sound familiar? So is Standard and Poors Company garbage because of those misses? Nah, they happen. Investors as well as players are always going to have a failure here and there when they stray too far from the A+ group.

John you have very good points here. I think you guys work hard at it but there were warnings that wasn't taken care of ahead of time. I still believe you need to have a sticky explaining what happened here and let members ask questions of what's going to happen here and go from there. That's all I would ask for. I hope that this experience will help make things better for this in the future.

[lakerboy]

A is a tier, B is a tier, C is a tier.

in school if you had A+ you were better than the kid that got A. End of story.

[High3rEl3m3nt]

Yes, but you both had A's, which marked you a tier above the B students.

[hels]

Just so I understand John, you're comparing one random internet poster who makes a thread "Brady is Over Rated" to the SBR book ranking system?

I suppose each have extreme bias since that thread was based upon people who lost money betting on NE and the ranking system is based on SBR brass gaining money from poor watchdog principles.