The Long Con of @RJinVegas: "Vegas" Says (Part Two)

RJ Bell is the founder and CEO of Pregame.com, a sports betting website that includes forums, odds, contests, and picks (both of the free and for purchase varieties). It is one of the most successful sites of its kind, in no small part due to the popularity of Bell, who has accumulated over 80K 100K Twitter followers and established himself as the mainstream media's go-to "expert" for stories involving gambling on sports.

An American success story if there every was one. That's only one side of it, though. In some corners of the internet (including this blog), there is a feeling that Bell has not found his success in a legitimate way. This is the 16th post in a series detailing the reasoning behind that particular feeling. If you'd like to start at the beginning, it's here.

Back in August, we established that:

using "Vegas" as a meaningless buzzword to attribute an undeserving level of importance to the information you're tweeting

...is bad. In this post, I'm going to attempt to expand on that thought by looking at two more subsets of "Vegas Says".

Imaginary Lines

2013 Degen Tweat of the Year: The Ship

F4 results:

Such an Asshole took a surprising early lead, but even the selection committee couldn't fuck up the top two seeds in this tourney. It was RJ's year, and it is RJ's final.


The Ship

(1) 12% ASG Swing!

If #Cardinals had home field: 57% chance to win Series (via @JayKornegay). Actual odds: 45%. 12% All-Star game swing!
— RJ Bell (@RJinVegas) October 23, 2013

(2) Misanthropes

@AndyGlockner If you value the truth, Andy, please rethink your assumptions. You are being mislead by misanthropes with an agenda.
— RJ Bell (@RJinVegas) December 2, 2013

polls

2013 Degen Tweat of the Year: Final Four

S7 results:

Updated bracket:

2013 Degen Tweat of the Year: Strong 7

The Elite 8 was a shitshow. Onward:

2013 Degen Tweat of the Year: Elite 8

R1P2 results:

Updated bracket:

2013 Degen Tweat of the Year: Round 1, Part 2

R1P1 results:

Significantly more votes on one of these matchups than on the other three. Huh. Moving right along:

2013 Degen Tweat of the Year: Round 1, Part 1

The bracket:

One Tweat Above Them All

Your 2014 Degen Tweat of the Year winner:

But seriously tweeps its little things like that doing MATH when gambling that makes diff btwn winning & losing - so many cannot do it.
— Patrick Donovan (@SportsBoss) July 1, 2014

2014 Degen Tweat of the Year: The Ship

F4 results:

2014 Degen Tweat of the Year: Final Four

E8 results:

The left side of the bracket really came down to the wire, but in the end we got the semifinal matchup that most pundits have expected since the field was announced. Conversely, the committee's work in the North Korea and Airbud regions left something to be desired, as the combined seeds of those two semifinalists (18) is the highest in DTOTY history.

The updated bracket:

2014 Degen Tweat of the Year: Elite 8

R1P2 results:

Updated bracket:

2014 Degen Tweat of the Year: Round 2 (North Korea & Airbud Regions)

R2P1 results:

Updated bracket:

2014 Degen Tweat of the Year: Round 2 (Fezz & T$$D Regions)

R1P2 results:

Bracket:

2014 Degen Tweat of the Year: Round 1, Part 2

R1P1 results:

R1P2:

Colorado vs. I Know Nothing

2014 Degen Tweat of the Year: Round 1, Part 1

Twenty-four tweats made the cut, eight got byes, eight will be voted on tomorrow, leaving eight for today:

#TERND Sustainability vs. Buying the Hook