BetBash 2024

I'll be going for the first time this year. I'm banned/limited on most sports betting apps, but it seems like there is always an edge to be had somewhere.

feels like a big circle jerk, but having said that, if i were in town and it were cheaper i would attend

BetBash is the brainchild of a guy named Spanky, from New Jersey. Spanky is the genuine article in sports-betting industry, having transitioned from the unregulated side to this sort of major marketing venture in Las Vegas. Spanky is a very smart guy.

I may attend as I expect to be in town.

Generally speaking, I knew a few presenters who will be there and certainly are knowledgeable about their listed topics. . For the industry , this is about as good a way as the is to lern esomething about the business side.

I would take it all with a large grain of salt.

For starters, the casino wouldn't be hosting it if they thought it was turning losing players into winners to a meaningful degree.

AFAIK (not very) spanky is more or less legit and made lots of $ on sports. I think his second career as a sports betting pundit is also about making money for spanky.

Generally, real pros keep a low profile and will share good info either with friends and family, or with people who can reciprocate.

Like, if I know how to circumvent limits at book X I'm not going to go to a casino and give a lecture explaining it.

I'd expect a mix of information that is already widely available and shady tout type stuff.

I am going since it’s August recess and I have nothing better to do. I thought it is just like a trade association conference, that is really only for networking purposes with some drinking thrown in and a lot of those conferences even with thousands of paying attendees lose money.

I assumed it was a loss leader for Spanky to recruit more beards but I could be wrong, never been before.

i know a bunch of people who went

it's worthwhile for networking but that's about it - ie if you originate for european handball you could possibly meet up with someone who can move large wagers on handball for you which is something that could be huge for your earnings - or say you originate for korean league of legends but not chinese lol so there's a bit of a gap in your abilities to model out outcomes at international competitions but then you meet someone who originates for china but not korea and then you collaborate for those competitions

it's mostly a vehicle for spanky to make money off ticket sales, round up partners for accounts, and to build up a legacy for himself as a huge part of it is his own "sports betting hall of fame" which by it's very nature is stupid because the overwhelming majority of top sports bettors wish to do it quietly and preferably anonymously - and since it's run by him, it's just a list of his friends and thus has no real credibility and nobody in the industry gives af about it

spanky is also a convicted felon

it's not worthwhile in the slightest if you don't bring anything to the table and have a reason for people to network with you

the panels are pretty worthless - basic stuff you'll find anywhere because anyone with real nonpublic edges is quietly betting themselves and not giving a panel on it - whereas if you attended MIT's Sloan conference you could see a panel where someone discovered a previously unknown correlation and then you, not the PhD student who likes baseball figure out how that can applied profitably to the betting markets

to borrow from rodney dangerfield, you don't want to listen to anyone who's willing to speak in this this industry

much like how poker training sites and coaching has killed the game by increasing the proportion of competent players at the table, anyone who were to publicly disclose a new angle on sports betting would expose the books to enough downside that they stop offering the prop entirely

you see this with wong teasers, they were known about for decades, the books knew how they could be exploited, but it wasn't until anyone on gambling twitter tried to make a name for themsevles by talking about it did enough of the total volume of teaser bets become -ev for the books that they changed the rules to make them no longer exploitable whereas before they were happy to accept that a few people would pound them but the majority were dumping money away like how casinos in vegas still offer double deck blackjack despite how frequently it goes into a positive true count

more recently it's been touts screaming left and right about how bad some alt made 3 pointer wagers were and surprise surprise most books no longer offer those or severely adjusted the payouts on them

if you want to learn about wong teasers for the few places where it's still possible to bet them profitably, don't pay a few thousand to listen to a panel on it, just hit up google for free

the tl:dr the people i know who went said the networking part was good, but for the most part it was randos getting drunk and hitting the craps table together for big losses and the huge joke made about it is that circa cleans up each year in the pits when they host that gathering

?

I thought it was in the future, not the past ..... next week, Aug 6 -9.

https://betbash.co/

(Still undecided about going v. a couple of days at the beach instead.)

I didn't attend the MIT Sloane conference, and I don't even bet sports, but I did meet Rufus Peabody, when he was still a student at Yale, "solving" baseball.

My understanding is that Rufus has done quite well applying his research to betting markets. .... according to folks I know who would know.

"Sharp bettors" often get barred or limited by sportsbooks as a rule. I'm wondering if Circa is stepping up to get their action in Las Vegas. Traditionally, Las Vegas books have shied away from taking on sharp action. Instead such bettors looked offshore to place their action.

A number of years ago, Nevada made a big public show about opening up account wagering processes. At the time, looking at then Bill SB 143, I met with a few large bettors and some gaming regulatory folks, the unresolved problem that stunted that effort was an unwillingness of Nevada books to accept large wagers from perceived sharp bettors.

Don't know if that has changed much, but folks presenting panels at BetBash would know.

Thanks Rick, Gzesh, and ES2 for the info, guess I should’ve went to Pensacola for beaches and better poker action. I thought ticket prices were really cheap lol compared to other conferences/conventions with tickets twice the cost.

this will be the 3rd year i believe

circa is one of the few books in the world that accepts sharp action, does not limit winning bettors, and have been positioning themselves as a thought leader in the industry https://twitter.com/JeffreyBenson12 is a great follow because he's always dunking on touts and recreational books - something you'll rarely see a sportsbook director do publicly

whether or not that is why they host betbash or that they just happened to have the convention space for it idk - but their entire model is that "we set the lines, we are comfortable in those lines, if you or anyone else think they can beat them go ahead and bet it" in fact if they believe you have an edge over them, they'll basically treat your wagers like you're a consultant and adjust the lines after your wagers to reflect your input

i don't think rufus does baseball anymore, i could be mistaken, but i think he primarily does golf these days

i mean you'll definitely have fun and i'm sure you'll learn stuff (it just won't be anything you couldn't have learned about via online search)

i'm also a bit of a hater and have had a few unpleasant personal interactions with spanky so obviously not a big fan of his and the idea of writing him a check for anything is kind of gross for me

you'll also be a valuable connection for people if you have access to non limited accounts, be it pphs or stuff like draftkings - ie if you have accounts which have been around for a while and are lifetime down that's something that could be pretty valuable where you wouldn't get limited and could act as a mover for either a split or freeroll - that's something i'd be interested in as well fyi (dms are open) and be careful about scammers as they are everywhere in this industry

my suggestion is to see what panels you'll be going to and kind of do a little homework on those subjects beforehand, that way you'll get more out of it because those people are more likely to slip up and give good stuff in the q&a section after and you won't be able to ask good questions if you are going in blind

it's a shame RAS discord went kaput because that would have been a great group to join to find people who'd be going to betbash beforehand - was only non-private discord out there that i found valuable - again not for sharing insights but socializing and forming bonds with people who you later break out into smaller private servers with to collaborate on other things - the other discords (i have joined most) are mostly tout promotions, software promotions, or a place for scammers to congregate like the r/sportsbook discord

Try to make this as short as possible:
1) it likely won’t be life changing but you have to be really close minded and egotistical to not gain a small piece of knowledge, or a contact that will prove useful in the future.

2) the conference to me is pointed at 2 types of people, the top of the sports betting industry people to connect and have fun, and the serious recreational. The serious recreational like myself will learn some things from the conferences, you will be positioned to talk to likeminded people. But I play poker for a living for last 20 years, I saw Galfond speak last year at bet bash, I think he’s a genius but his talk wasn’t focused for me, just like a lot of the panels on sports betting won’t help long time professionals.

3) of course spanky is doing some of this to promote himself and make him feel good about his life’s work, but he certainly is not scamming anyone or trying to take the easy way out because he can make money in easier ways.

Just try it out, worst comes to worst you have fun nights in vegas after the conference.

if my writing implied spanky was running it as a scam then i apologize, that was not my intention although i can see how it would have looked that way

I'd be very cautious about networking at such an event.

If you want to be a beard, I would just sign up with rickroll here. He's a 2+2 guy in good standing, despite some incorrect political views. How would it be safer to work with a rando from a conference?

I don't know Rickroll, but most of my networking has been through forums, though that was years ago.

Other than that, as Rick said, networking usually consists of winning players working together. I don’t think I've ever met someone at a party or something and wound up working with him. Not that my experience is the be all end all.

If you just dig sprots and want to go, that's cool, but treat it like AVN. The girls don't actually like you. Don't give Lexxxi your cc info, buy a casino chip from her or fall asleep with her in your room. But if you wanna hang out with that crowd and have fun, no harm in that.

Appreciate all the info, will send when you clear out your dms.

deleted some of my less choice dick pics that i've received over the years, should be open now 😀

Criteria for choice ?

lol rickroll

hard to say, my taste has changed over the years, lately been a big fan of unusual curvature

I think they make a pill for that now. Or is it an injection?