U.S. Customs

[reno]

When I read a scientific report that heading the ball in soccer causes brain damage--much like boxing--I started developing compassion for our non-USA Bettorsworld Members who have played soccer all of their lives. And because of my compassion, when they make ridiculous statements to the effect that soccer is "real football," I simply dismiss these ludicrous assertions as coming from someone who may have headed too many soccer balls.

[Cons]

Reno, maybe you've been trying that experiment on yourself... or so it seems from your posts lately. But whatever it is you're doing, it's not the ball that's causing it...

Football (not US football, Reno) is the most popular sport in the world, no doubt about it. If you seem to have a hard time downloading that into your head, then that's too bad. You can live in your own world if you choose to, where Reno's favorite sport is also the world's favorite sport. Hey, everyone's entitled to free thought.

But it just so happens that to 99% of the world's population football is exactly that: football, the world most popular sport. And it's always going to be that way, because it is the greatest of sports.

[reno]

Cons, my brain damage was not caused from heading soccer balls. It is from booze, bongs, broads, and bad beats in sports betting. I am currently working on a new "Las Vegas is not Disneyland Post," and after you read it you will realize how mentally impaired I truly am.

[STING]

Shifty, has the package arrived as of yet?

[chestrockwells]

Our non-US friends make some very accurate statements. Having lived abroad extensively I can tell you that soccer is definitely king when it comes to betting. This among other reasons is why I jumped on Eagle earlier when he said that the amount bet in Caribbean books is "staggering". What's really staggering is the amount bet on soccer, and most of it is by non-US bettors and therefore to a very great extent not in the Caribbean. Asian crisis or not, the amount bet by Asians on soccer among other things is in fact staggering. For better rather than worse, I suspect, we as Americans are smalltime when it comes to sportsbetting on an amount wagered basis.

[AussieVamp2]

chestr,
Exactly, pretty easy to see from the size bets taken on soccer, apart from the fact, as you said, that Asians bet on it, and there are just 1 or 2 of those guys on the planet

Reno has obviously hit some bad tequila

Real football of course would be games where players can use both their hands and feet to move the ball, and all are allowed to catch it - so this would be Gaelic football, or Australian Rules (the oldest codified football code), or maybe even rugby, of which American football is a highly structured derivation.

Personally, I have not found a code of football I do not enjoy, although never played soccer, not enough smashing of people going on in it and too much running for my liking. I have played American football though.

Apart from the fact that nya nya this sport is better than this one arguments are childish, there is a fairly pertinent fact for the punter.

American football - Pro - 200 odd games a year, college that you can bet on, what, 3 times that?

Australian football - falling off a log, but again only around a couple of hundred games.

Rugby League - be similar numbers to college football.

Rugby union - again around the same scale - Super 12s the big pro league, but only 70 odd games, plus some internationals and what you can bet on in the UK.

Let's take a look at European Soccer.
This is NOT counting minor leagues such as the Italian third, or Dutch 2nd that you could bet on if you are based somewhere near there or have contacts there. Also things like the English Conference, etc., etc.

A rough estimate of close to 40 leagues currently available for betting, which will be close to 11 THOUSAND games. As far as betting options go and props, you have all the HT/FT, correct score, blah blah blah for a lot of these, or all of these, as well.

Then people have started offering South American - which while being a tad more bent, will again, in half a dozen leagues, be another couple of thousand opportunities.
Adding in the European stuff you could get access to if you really want to, another few thousand games.

Chances of finding some good numbers in there start to look pretty good, don't they?

The American sports have a lot of games, but nowhere near this number - and nowhere near the variety available in the lines due to a world market, not just a regionally influenced Vegas one. However, the multitude of games here is obviously worth looking at too, 1000 hockey, basketball, couple of thousand baseball - several hundred football games maybe not so much so, and quite a few college basketball games - what is the rough number of these available for wagering in a given year? To put it in biased childish terms, I have never had any real interest in watching slow children play sport, which is what most of them are, without some vested interest like knowing someone, or being local to it. Very boring indeed, but just another childish opinion.

If baseball alone makes enough cash to be filthy rich and run your own string of Thais in your hedonistic pleasure palace, such as in Reno's case, then you don't need to worry about anything else. Most people aren't at this level, or even winning

IP: 203.31.16.19

[AussieVamp2]

oh yeah, the other sport, that have only started to dabble with in a tiny way, that has a crapload of games as well, is, of course, tennis

[AussieVamp2]

oh,
and of course, to the US part of ice hockey can add another couple of thousand games from Europe........

[boris]

Reno,
As for playing soccer, it bores me actually. The only reason I'm big on Aussie soccer is I believe that the market is that weak that there's regularly a few mistakes/big prices. I don't particularly enjoy betting on the BIG sports, simply because the people who have set the prices have generally done their homework. Watching them is an entirely different story, could do that nearly every waking hour.

Oh, and by the way, if you read my earlier post, I never actually said that soccer was the real football, although it probably has more claim on the 'tag' than any other.
AFL - Australian Rules Football wins the best game by a long long way. No padding, no fifty players sitting on the bench, and players free to run wherever they like on the field of play (no offside). Simply nothing on earth like it, and we like it that way.

[ray]

My favorite sports are (in order),

1) C0CK-fighting

2) Camel racing

3) Women mug westling

Now thats sports!

Any books out there will have lines for them in the near future?

Hey, Boris, I thought we are coming here to beat/cheat the books, not to educate them. Don't you think you've talked too much?



BTW, according another scientific reports, males who regularly attending hockey games, their sex ability are 10% lower than the normal person.

Reno, stay away from hockey, WNBA could be a better choice.

[ShiftySheik]

Hello Sting, Back to the original post...my check was only delayed 1 day by customs. The envelope was never opened. I figured I'd just let the thread die.

[AussieVamp2]

I reckon booze and drugs might do a few things to your sex drive too Ray if you go and hang out overseas after heading too many soccer balls

Hockey has been verrrrrrrryyyyyyy good this year - another +2 overnite, too, after a bit of treading water this week

[reno]

AussieVamp2, I'm far from "filthy rich." Billy Walters, who owns 18 golf courses, is filthy rich. I don't need to work if I don't want to, but that is a long way from "filthy rich." If our baseball program clicks in next season, then I can start thinking about opening a chain of Thai brothels.

[eagle]

some of you guys are getting real test!!!!!!

it appears if you want to bet soccer or rugby you should play with a foriegn book, if you want american sports you should play in the carib. find the book that gives you what you want and bet with them. probably won't be posting the next couple of days, have to dig a moat . going to a real football game.
love
eagle

[boris]

A moat? You have an old English castle down in the Caribbean? Does it have an authentic drawbridge?