Gambling or Investing?

Here is another article related to the 60 Minutes segment on Billy Walters this past Sunday - that I mentioned here. I have interests in investing -- and love the analogies between investing and the sports betting world. I believe that similar approaches (academic, professional, and analytical methods) can yield positive results. Please check out this excerpt from the Pragmatic Capitalist; the entire link is below.

As a society we have been conditioned to believe that there is a difference between gambling and investing. Of course, this partially true, however, the degree to which we “invest” and “gamble” is smaller than most are likely comfortable admitting. The majority of us have been conditioned to believe that buying a share of Bank of America is vastly different from placing a bet at a roulette table. A closer inspection of “investing” and “gambling” shows that the two are closer than the Wall Street sales machine would like you to believe.

http://pragcap.com/the-gambler

CBS & "60 Minutes" on Sports Betting & Billy Walters

"Sports gambling" and "sports betting" - have always had a "dark side" associated to it. Over recent years, however, there have been press mentions about:

• "sports investing" (contrarian value) in the sports betting arena -- as well as
• a few professional gamblers and/or syndicates that win over the long term.

Many sports fans place occasional small and casual bets on sporting events. As in financial trading and many other professions, the vast majority of people end up losing money -- but a small minority have been successful. Our approaches (contrarian methods combined from multiple analytical factors) have proven to add value to handicapping methods. In the link below, CBS and 60 Minutes have a segment on Billy Walters, one of the most successful sports bettors ever. The full link is below the excerpt:

(CBS) When it comes to gambling, everybody knows the house has the advantage. But there are some high rollers who consistently win, and it's hard to find anyone better at winning than Billy Walters.

He bets on football and basketball, is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and has been so successful that many Las Vegas bookmakers are afraid to even take his bets.

Walters has been almost as elusive as Howard Hughes, avoiding publicity, reluctant to reveal his secrets.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/13/60minutes/main7243443.shtml?tag=currentVideoInfo;segmentTitle