The Smart Money

How the World's Best Sports Bettors Beat the Bookies Out of Millions

Michael Konik

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2006
• eBook ISBN:
  9780743281720
• Print ISBN:
  9780743277143

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Colophon
• Other Books by Michael Konik
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Author’s Note
• 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