It was January, 1969 and the New York Jets of the upstart AFL were preparing to play the mighty Baltimore Colts of the storied NFL in Super Bowl III. With the great Johnny Unitas at the helm for the Colts few if any gave Joe Namath and Jets a shot at the upset. The Las Vegas bookmakers agreed by instilling the Colts as an 18 point favorite. One man did give the Jets a shot and that was Joe Willie himself. Three days before the game, after having a few too many at the Miami Touchdown Club, he boldly proclaimed to the audience, “We’re going to win the game. I guarantee it”. One other person who thought the Jets would win the game was me. I may have been only 8 years old at the time but I had studied the game, studied the information on the back of my football cards and read every newspaper article the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Cincinnati Post had published about the game. When I told my Dad about this profound prediction he shook his head and called me a goofball. Not to be denied, I asked him if he wanted to make a $5 bet on the game without considering a loss would cost me two months worth of allowance! He took the bet. I imagine his reasoning was that once I lost I would never want to bet again and that would be one less vice he would have to worry about as I grew up. That and he knew he had an 18 point favorite at even odds as I knew nothing of point spreads at that age. Well we all know the Jets secured their place in history by shocking the world in a 16-7 upset of the formidable Colts. Namath managed the game while throwing for just 206 yards, Matt Snell rushed for 121 yards on 30 carries and George Sauer had 8 receptions for 133 yards. The defense was sound and opportunistic although they benefited greatly from not having to face Unitas until the 4th quarter. The euphoria I felt after winning that game, and bet, is still with me today. Little did I know at the time that Super Bowl III would be the genesis of what would later become a career in professional sports betting. And Dad never did pay off the bet!
By age 18 I had formulated a rather crude power rating system for football, basketball and baseball and was betting regularly with mixed results. I was using the same information as everyone else from the local newspapers and realized early on that just wasn’t enough to overcome the bookie’s inherent advantages; better and more information and charging 11-10 odds. I needed the information the bookmakers had access to or I was destined to become just another sucker wondering where he was going to get the money to pay the bookie on Tuesday. Luckily I found a magazine store in Cincinnati that carried newspapers from major cities around the country. I began buying daily newspapers from Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Los Angeles and others. I also started paying guys I knew from other colleges for information on their football and basketball teams regarding injuries, girlfriend troubles and anything else they could tell me. Fortunately I was running a ton of parlay cards for a couple of local bookies, where I received 20% of the money brought in, that helped to cover these new expenses. Having the information gleaned from the newspapers and contacts not only resulted in an increased winning percentage but also taught me two very important tenets of sports betting that would prove be to greatly beneficial moving forward: that information was king and to only bet games where I had an advantage.
Over the next few years my network, knowledge and skills grew and the positive results grew along with it. After college I eventually got to the point where I was spending more time studying games than I was with my regular job and I made the decision that sports betting would be my career. I had found something I was passionate about and firmly believed I could be successful for the long haul. It helped that there were several legitimate local bookies that took larger bets, and were good for it, so getting enough down on games to build a substantial bankroll was not an issue. It was about this time I met two gentlemen that would change my life. They were both extremely successful in business but equally awful at sports betting. The problem was they absolutely loved to bet sports. I had known of them casually from the local sports bars and one Saturday afternoon during football season we happened to be sitting next to each other at the bar. They were rooting loudly for Tennessee +6 and it wasn’t going well. The Vols were down 17 in the 4th quarter and went on to lose. They could tell from my root that I was on the other side and asked me why I liked Alabama? I told them Tennessee was trying to protect a sophomore quarterback when their entire offensive line had the flu and when the Alabama defense had blitzed on 68% of their snaps to that point in the season. On top of that the line had opened -4 and had moved to -6 which signified this was a steam game with the Sharps (pro bettors) coming in heavily on Alabama. This game was a classic example of the Squares (the public) not having the information and supporting the wrong side thinking Tennessee must be the play getting two extra points.These guys looked at me like I was speaking Chinese. At this point each gentleman was already 0-3 on the day at $1,000 per game. I ended up giving them four plays for the Saturday night games that went 3-1 so at least they got some of it back. The next day we were all back at the bar. They each had 6 plays already (their first mistake as the NFL is the hardest league to beat). I had only two plays for the day and both were on the opposite side of their plays. Again they ask for an explanation as to why I went the other way which I gave them. They went 2-4 on the day and lost both games where we were head to head. The next day I got a call from “John” with an offer. If I would agree to give them all of my games they would agree to pay me a percentage of their net profits from those games every Tuesday. If there was a net loss I would owe them nothing. My first thought was that this arrangement was essentially a “free roll” for me: everything to gain and nothing to lose. My second thought was their average bet was $1,000, with some bets up to $2,000, and that this could be very lucrative for me even at my normal winning percentage over time. Their other buddy also wanted to be part of the arrangement which increased the potential even more.Their thinking was any money they paid me was found money; money they would not have had otherwise. They were also sick of losing tens of thousands every season, even if they could afford it. I agreed to the arrangement. The arrangement became more of a partnership and the partnership lasted 33 very profitable years. My friends became winners and I became wealthy.
The last of my friends passed away recently. I started SCP in their honor and to give other folks like them a fighting chance to come out ahead in a very difficult but wonderfully exciting business. And to do that at a cost the average sports bettor can afford. I can promise you honesty and transparency and more wins than losses over time. And I offer a Guarantee to back that up. I hope you enjoyed my story and I hope you decide to come along for the ride.