In 2008, I enter my 16th year in professional sports handicapping, and the changes I have seen overall in those numerous years have been both good and bad, but in all essence changes for the better at days end. I thought I would sum up the new business model for Tony George Sports and my takes on the marketplace in today’s ever changing world.

PHONE SERVICES DECLINE – A Good Thing

When I first started out winning some obscure handicapping tourney at the Golden Nugget back in 1992 in Vegas basically on a dare from friends, which launched a career I never thought would take me to places and status it did, the Internet was basically in development and the “boiler room” telephone services ruled the handicapping world.

That was not a good thing as at least 90% of them were nothing more than silver tongued devils hammering clients with “both sides of a game” scams, bait and switch scams, and every other conceivable rip off. The cost was thousands of dollars with no guarantee of anything other than repeated and hounding calls to the customer for more money, win, lose, or draw with more “special information”. It was unregulated and completely out of control. Like the wild west for lack of a better term, and they had an unlimited supply of ammo!

The 900#’s, the rip offs, and scamsters were in full swing back in 1992 when I started and as a past client of one of these so called tout services, I was appalled and ripped off myself. I remember the guys name like it was yesterday, Frankie Delgino, and of course it was no doubt a fake name. Once the Internet set in, the decline in popularity of these phone services diminished almost to the point than other than TV cappers nowadays, they basically are out of business for the most part. The consumer is much more educated and can get quality advise online for hundreds even thousands less.

The way my clients can get plays over the phone, which is the same cost as my online services is by calling customer service, which has no salesmen working there, thus no pressure, just service people helping clients, the way it should be. It is that way with many large sites and even the TV guys anymore.

THE INTERNET

I sold my first pick on-line back in 1994 and was one of the first guys to sell plays on-line with sportsplays.com, with a guy named Craig Tenny, who unfortunately has since passed on. I have witnessed the Internet at first weed out allot of phone services, and bring fresh and new faces to the handicapping arena while putting more and more “scamsters” out of business with the phone lines. It also brought the big names to the forefront.

The information at first was not like it is today in terms of match up programs and stats, but some were available, and instant odds took very little time establishing sites like donbest.com and others. However you were able to do a small write-up and set your pricing to an affordable rate. Then on-line service monitors came on board and you could sign up, pay a fee and be ranked with others on-line and drive traffic based on results, which was fair and equitable. It was not long before you could get line feeds to your site and then it has just expanded to where it is today.

Sportsbooks offshore popped up and exploded and though the Internet anti gaming act is in force, they still thrive today with creative ways to transfer funds both in and out to clients. This is a huge plus for the player, being able to shop competitive lines and get the best possible line for his play, either with the point spread or money lines, not to mention exotic wagers. They also control your spending by having you to have the money up front to wager it. The ones left standing today are solid books that know how to play the game, and hopefully soon restrictions from the US Government will ease and the Internet will be about CHOICES for all us that we can exercise in our behalf as sports bettors and on-line poker players as well.

Most cappers now appear on combination sites that rank its capper members, provide capper records, odds, injury reports, scores, weather, articles, and game write-ups from its capper members or affiliate sites that power them with content. The Internet has changed the scope of the business for the better in terms of information to the buying public, and every possible angle on every game in every sport played. It is basically no different than researching stocks on E Trade.

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

While all cappers are in business for profit, overall the entire Internet has also hurt cappers like me in terms of revenue. It has flooded the market with tons of guys who are so called cappers out there who simply want to pick games. Anyone who can go to Microsoft or Go Daddy and build a website for $300 can be a handicapper. I came up through the ranks of maybe 20-30 legit full time cappers, many of them still in business today, and many of us on the same sites, but the supply of plays by numerous non professionals without experience is everywhere and the product is not as good by these part time game pickers and that reflects badly on us “old timers”.

The supply has exceeded the demand, especially with gambling online a taboo right now in the US, although handicapping games for re-sale is completely legal. The downside of the Internet is costs to maintain a strong presence in the face of declining revenues, and with traffic having to be purchased basically, Google ads, search engine optimization, as well as information feeds and audio and video feeds to a website is astronomical in costs, only the high end combination websites are surviving.

Another downside to the Internet are small operators that flood the market with $5 plays who paint homes during the day, spend 30 minutes on games and lose clients money which in turn reflects badly on the small float of legit sites and cappers who count on this business for a living. Of course that is the nature of capitalism isn’t it?

BUSINESS MODELS CHANGE

At Tony George Sports and sportsuadioshows.com, 2008 brings to light many of things pointed out here, and while the cost of “per-play” games has come down on the website to compete with others, the talent remains high with my website handicappers and so does the content. Getting broadband audio and video feeds, adding a “Sports and Entertainment” slant to the website, as well as up to the minute sports news feeds are important to keep customers happy and on your site, and are all in the works. At the end of the day it all comes down to winning and solid handicapping from talented cappers, and that will always prevail, even in the digital age.
 

Tony George
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