Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"You'll search the whole bookstore and never top Konik's gambling writing."-- Las Vegas Review-Journal
Review
"Michael Konik knows the world of high-rollers, big losers, hustlers and handicappers as well as anyone anywhere, and the . . . tales of risk and reward he recounts might read like fiction, but they're not."-- The Dallas Morning News
Review
"Dean of the world's gambling writers."-- Detroit Free Press
Review
"A definite must-read for the gambling crowd."
Booklist
Synopsis
A tour of high-stakes sports betting by a key insider profiles The Brain Trust, one of the world's top gambling operations, and describes the author's participation in the cloak-and-dagger milieu of hidden identities and offshore banking.
Synopsis
A tour of the lucrative world of high-stakes sports betting reveals how a small coterie of professional gamblers became wealthy by beating the Vegas lines and exploiting the offshore betting circuit. By the author of The Man with the $100,000 Breasts. 100,000 first printing.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
Glossary
Preface
Introduction
One A Proposition
Season One
AUTUMN 1997 -- SPRING 1998
Two High Roller
Three Built In
Four Close Calls
Five A Mule or a Man?
Six Super Bowl
Seven March Madness
Season Two
SUMMER 1998 -- SPRING 1999
Eight Persona Non Grata
Nine The Wild Frontier
Ten Ripped Off
Eleven Milking the Cow
Twelve Deputy 44
Season Three
SUMMER 1999 -- SPRING 2000
Thirteen A Little Knowledge Is Dangerous
Fourteen Bringing Home Baby
Fifteen Good-bye and Hello
Season Four
SUMMER 2000 -- WINTER 2001
Sixteen Superstars
Seventeen The Smart Money
Epilogue
Acknowledgments