VIP Sports Steve StevensCNBC Reality Show Off to Rough StartFair and Balanced Look

WagerMinds.com saysCNBC is debuting a new sports betting show

“Money Talks,” describing the program as following tout “Steve Stevens, his stable of agents and the clients who risk big dollars in the hope these guys have the expertise to consistently deliver winners. There’s a lot on the line as we follow the gamblers who wager a few thousand each week to the whales who routinely make six-figure bets. “

As we were going to press, top site WagerMinds uncovered some very interesting info on the overnight “sensation.”

Lou Diamond Redux?This sounds eerily like HBO’s invention

Lou Diamond. The previously unknown Diamond debuted on “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” beating a dog, a little girl, and Stu Feiner in making sports picks.

Having been in the industry for a quarter a century, I’ve built my share of contacts. Nobody has ever heard of Steve Stevens. But the trailer shows him as a boiler room hard-core sales guy of the ilk of Stu Feiner.

Jack Price, Johnny DeMarco CloneIn between his f-bombs, the trailer includes

the same clichéd hard sell the Jack Price and Stu Feiner’s of the world have peddled for ages. Topping the list of course is boasting about always-unspecified immense information he has.

I will watch the show. Headlining my wish list of what to ascertain will be if it is revealed what that alleged information truly is. If a handicapper has quality enlightenment, he will divulge it to his clients. From scorephones to anchor of OffshoreInsiders.com, we have executed such for decades.

Mr. 71.5 Percent

Knew About ShowI was contacted a year or so ago by a

casting director for starring in such a show; presumably this is said show. Admittedly I was leery it was somebody trying to pitch me an expensive infomercial.

Honestly, I cannot recall her name, but I researched her validity and she more than passed the test. She was a casting director for a couple of reality shows and the daughter of a TV bigwig.

Squeakiest WheelBut I told her the truth. I am not sure how

compelling TV I’d make. I sit at the computer and compile information from endless sources. I’d be of great interest to the small number of professional gamblers, but the non-betting public isn’t going to have much fascination in seeing me read SID releases, online newspapers, Skype with fellow sharpies and peruse FoxSheets, Covers, etc, while sitting in my underwear in my home office.

I confess that hard work and great specific information is not quite as captivating as rambunctious potty mouth made-for-TV grandstanding.

VIP Sports Likely Won’t…What I’d like to gather from the show is how Steve

Stevens manages to hit that “ahem” 71.5 percent, such as getting very precise about the information pro gamblers use to beat the odds. What sources am I as a full-time gambler and handicapper missing? Educate me previously anonymous wunderkind.

I am in the prediction business and first-rate at it. In that realm, what I expect to hear: That Stevens got his start at age 13 working under the table at some restaurant run by the mafia, most likely in a big northeastern city. However, the establishment was actually a front for a bookmaking business and Stevens graduated from mop jockey to “runner” for the “biggest outlaw bookmaker in the region.”

Philadelphia Inquirer Handicapping ContestBy comparison, my unofficial start was

substantially less glitzy. A sports fan since birth, I grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs of South Jersey. The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a season-long contest in which “touts” made five picks every week in the NFL. The selections and point spread were posted every Friday.

I would use the point spreads published in the paper—the same used for the contest—and make picks on my own. With zero gilding the lily one iota, I “won” by a substantial margin over the so-called pros. Every year for several years, I finished at or near the top. I was a pre-pubescent handicapping prodigy.

Mickey Charles Handicapping PioneerIn my pre and younger teens, I listened

to handicapping icon Mickey Charles do a sports betting show on WCAU-AM Friday and Saturday nights. Intently I heeded the theories of the handicappers of the era.

Just a few years later, I got my first break in the industry working for Charles’ “Dial Sports” telephone score service, helping pay my way through college. I have been a full-time handicapper (or college student initially) every single day since.

Steak, Not SizzleAs I told the casting director, unless

they are going after the perverted old ladies demographics, I wasn’t sure the TV audience was eager to see me labor in my underwear in my home office.

Our clients at Joe Duffy’s Picks will have to settle for prime steak with minimal sizzle. Get entertained by Steve Stevens and Money Talks. Then get informed at OffshoreInsiders.com