| The Smart Money: How the World's Best Sports Bettors Beat the Bookies Out of Millions |  | Publisher: Simon & Schuster (a)
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  60 reviews
Format: Abridged, Import
Edition: Abridged
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
ISBN: 0743564324
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780743564328
ASIN: 0743564324
Publication Date: November 21, 2006
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| Customer Reviews: Read 55 more reviews...
 LA BS October 9, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The only thing bigger than the sports betting consortium that Michael Konik writes about is his ego. This book is an exercise in self-importance and self-aggrandizement. There really is no danger, it exists only in the mind of the writer. If you enjoy books about people who act like jerks to other people while borrowing someone else's thunder, this book is for you. This book has hardly anything of interest about sports gambling. For an interesting book about sports betting, read The Odds, by Chad Millan.
 Great book for the money. $5.99? How can you go wrong October 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Great book for the money. $5.99? How can you go wrong. I was recommended this book by a friend and it had some very helpful information. I own a lot of handicapping books and this one is one of my favorites.
Must read for anyone thinking of making sports betting a profession August 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you think you can beat the Sportsbooks, this is a must read! It does not even attempt to tell you how to make money betting sports, so if that is what you are looking for... this book is not for you. If however you want to get a glimpse of what it is like to play cat and mouse with the bookmaker, I highly recommend this book... especially if you plan on betting over a Dime on your wagers!
This book is more or less a biography of one man's experience at betting big money in a Sportsbook; however it contains insights and behind-the-scenes perspectives that most of us will never see. You are able to get an understanding of how a Sportsbook really works, and the lengths they will take to keep anyone with an edge from winning their money.
I found the book to be a real page-turner. I have a great interest in sports betting, and this was my first inside view of what it is like to be big/smart money. I would describe it as an eye-opener for anyone who thinks they can beat the Oddsmakers at their own game. It is a good read, and I for one highly recommend it to all sports bettors.
Bob
If I could give less stars, I would August 8, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
Probably the worst book I have ever read in my life. Boring, poorly written and repetetive. The good reviews here are complete frauds, from either friends, family of publishers. I read the first 2/3 of this book, then came here to see if the book got any better. It clearly does not. What a piece of garbage.
Beyond funny and also well-detailed and told. July 27, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
As a former blackjack dealer and occasional sports bettor, I found this book unbelievably well-researched and the story told with a detailed flair. Looking back over the three years in which the author played the "front" in a major sports gambling operation, I found myself remembering many of those same weekends and wondering how he was sweating out having $500,000 in play over football games I remember watching.
What TSM brings is the story of a man who wanted to get himself on the inside -- after years of being on the edges of gambling as a reporter, the author takes his late 20's/early 30's hedonistic self on a wild journey for years. The money was great, the weekly thrills were probably intoxicating but, in the end, what did Michael really have left to show for it all?
Well, IMHO, I think he may have one hell of a story to tell.
My favorite aspects were the author's interaction with the various sports book bosses from Bally's, Caesars and the off-shore outfits. Each of them is the stereotype of what you would imagine but the author brings them to life and takes them out of a "two-dimension" cardboard character cut-out, which could have been so easy.
I'm a fairly hard grader when it comes to books, especially non-fiction works on sports, but I proudly give this 5 stars. Most exciting book I have read so far in 2008 -- and that's out of about 60 books thus far.
This is a tale about the thrills amid a real loss of perspective, especially regarding money. It may be the fantasy all 30-year-old men want to lead. He actually did it and we get the rewards of reading about it!
Bravo, Michael, bravo!
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