How Did People Research Bets Before 1996?

[Microphone]

Marc Lawrence Playbook, newsstand edition. Indispensable.

[Orbison]

it was far easier back then when the leagues and strategies were pretty straightforward and variance wasn't such a major factor

[SBR Tony]

Newspapers on a kitchen table.

This. and I still try to read as much as I can

[SBR Tony]

use to pick them up at the corner news stand, if you got there late, they were out of them.

[stevenash]

We did our own research, kept our own records, and figured out which part of the box score was relevant and how to manipulate it.

There may not have been an internet, but there were computers.

We stood on the shoulders of giants and then became those giants.

The internet made it both easier and harder.

The early days of internet gambling were a wild west of shot taking as the online books hadn't quite figured it all out yet and the players were light years ahead of them.

Especially when it came to things like correlated parlays and the way they would let us parlay games and use bonuses. Oh the mistakes the books would make would just make your mouth water.

That doesn't happen anymore though.

I remember in the early 1990's the old Stardust sportsbook in Vegas had the best sports stats library in the business.
Sharps would go to the Stardust and use their resources for information that was only available in print pre 1996.

[LT Profits]

[hehfest]

Ain't that the truth.

And the NBA has most certainly got more volatile, as has every sport. Records are more extreme, it's the nature of time.

A big part of that had to do with the preparation of and execution of LIVE betting.

Make no mistake.

Exactly, live betting makes no lead safe.