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◼SPORTS January 27, 2020How I Won a Whopping
$63.60 Betting on Sports
M
y experimentasa JambosbettorbeganonNew
Year’sEve.It didn’tgetofftoa greatstart.
Jambosisa handicappingservice,knownto
sportsbettorsasa “tout,”thatsellspicksfora fee;I paid$250
fora week’sworth.Everydayaround11 a.m.,Jamboswould
alertmethattheday’sbettingsuggestionswereavailable.
Theremightbea handfulordozens,dependingonthesea-
sonandtheschedule. On this day there were 13, including that
the Kentucky and Virginia Tech football teams would score
fewer than 47 points combined in the Belk Bowl.
Picks in hand, subscribers place the suggested wagers with
bookmakers of their choice. Then, in theory, because Jambos
has crackerjack statisticians running elaborate models, bet-
tors win more often than they lose.
My plan was to bet on every wager that Jambos suggestedin a week. Bloomberg Businessweek would cover any losses,
and profits would go to charity. I sold this to my editors as a
firsthand exploration of the mainstreaming of the handicap-
ping business, and, somehow, they said yes.
Sports betting has come out of the shadows in the U.S. since
a Supreme Court ruling in 2018 that opened the way for the
industry outside of Nevada. Fourteen states now allow sports
gambling. Together, they’ve taken more than $15 billion in
wagers since the ruling, according to the American Gaming
Association. Sports leagues, which fought against legal betting
for years, are signing marketing deals with casinos.
When Jambos began selling picks in August, it promised to
be a new kind of tout for a new era of sports betting. Would I,
a novice, be able to execute the Jambos system? (Sorta.) Would
Jambos live up to the hype? (Kinda.) Would I make money?The handicapping service Jambos is designed to give gamblers a leg up. It might
look completely differentaftertheSuperBowl
BY IRA BOUDWAY ILLUSTRATION BY KATI SZILAGYI