The Smart Money: How the World's Best Sports Bettors Beat the Bookies Out of Millions

by Michael Konik

Book Overview

For three years, 44, a former journalist, lived a secret life as a key operative within The Brain Trust, one of the world's most successful sports gambling rings. Here he documents how the world's best sports bettors beat the bookies out of millions in this book filled with nonstop intrigue.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743277139
• ISBN13: 9780743277136
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Get a piece of the action!

Fantastic! An exciting tale of the transformation of a humble author into a major "player" in the alien world of multi-million dollar sports betting. As the author's situations became more surreal and as the money grew to eye-popping amounts, I felt my pulse quicken and palms begin to sweat. I don't know how Michael Konik did it! Just READING about the pressure, money & fear made me dizzy & nauseous (in a good way)! I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in gambling, sports, probability or (let's face it) money! ;-)

A real-life "Ocean's Eleven"

This book deserves an immediate place - alongside "The Eudaemonic Pie" and "Bringing Down the House" - in the pantheon of greatest "Geniuses beat Las Vegas" stories ever written. "The Smart Money" is a true, first-hand account of how one of the biggest, most successful, sports-betting syndicates in history beat the Las Vegas sportsbooks out of millions. It turns out that having a math and computer genius crunch every stat imaginable to find algorithms that successfully predict the outcome of sporting events is only half the battle. The other half is actually getting your bets down, in amounts that will make the biggest vegas sportsbooks cringe, and you and your partners wealthy beyond belief. That's where the author, Michael Konick, came in. Michael was hired by the syndicate to place large bets for them, using his professional status as a Hollywood-based, highly successful author and journalist as cover. At first it worked perfectly: with a little help from Michael's acting skills, sportsbooks managers initially thought they had hooked a "whale," a rich sucker with no clue, who would blow a fortune backing his hunches. But when Michael began consistently beating them for huge money they began viewing him with more suspicion, and the game got a lot tougher. Michael's account of his adventures cajoling and conning the Las Vegas sportsbooks into booking his syndicate's bets, while at the same time exploring some of the other pleasures "Sin City" has on offer, makes compelling reading. I highly recommend it.

FANTASTIC Read - From someone once on the inside!!

I saw this book on the new release table at Barnes and Noble, and snatched it up immediately. I once worked in the exciting and shady world of offshore sports betting and new many of the characters in Mr. Konik's book. It was absolutely fascinating to hear the story from his side of the table....I can honestly say that all the offshores spent a lot of time fretting about Mr. Matthews and his clan. Mr. Konik's experience isn't exaggerated at all - it is a true-to-life, accurate depiction of that world and its dangers and allure. A true must read!!

The Smart Money by Michael Konik

The Smart Money book was a great read. Michael Konik bet on football and basketball games the way 99.99% of us can only dream about. If you want to get the inside story on how the Vegas sportsbooks and the off shore sportsbooks really work then this is a must read. You can feel the excitement of making 20K, 30K, 50K, or 100K bet on a game. You will be introduced to the brain trust. The brain trust is a group of guys who together won millions of dollars betting on sports. Michael worked for the big brain man himself. If you are a smart reader you will learn bits of information that will help you to make better sports bets. As you are reading this book you will feel like you are a very high roller and you are a part of the bright lights that makes Vegas the most exciting city in the world. Aftert reading this book you will want to be "Just Like Michael" Enjoy your read, Bob Mc

A Gambling Rollercoaster Ride

The Smart Money is a detailed, accurate, and surprisingly sensitive look deep within the arcane world -- complex, changeable, cutthroat -- of high-stakes sports betting. The bookies are well aware of the vulnerability of the odds they offer on sporting events and they're hypersensitive to the big money, which can seriously hurt them. Thus, to try to exploit the weakness of those odds, the high rollers have to go to extraordinary lengths. Konik, in his initial capacity as an operative for a heavily financed sports-betting syndicate, and his later capacity as the head of his own syndicate, dives headfirst into this great cat-and-mouse game with guts, gusto, and a glibness so convincing that for four long years, he manages to bluff and outwit some of the most suspicious people on Earth. The blow-by-blow of game after game is gripping and Konik's writing imparts all the sensations he experiences -- plumbing the depths of defeat and scaling the heights of triumph, along the way making a fortune, losing a girlfriend, being lied to, cheated, and stolen from, and scamming the scammers in return. The ending, given who Konik portrays himself to be, isn't a surprise. But it does make The Smart Money not only enlightening and entertaining, but life-affirming as well. By the time you've finished reading this book -- and you should -- you'll see sports betting in a whole new light.