Some Thoughts About Wagering U...

There’s a lot of crazy stuff going on in the world these days. It really doesn’t matter in which part of the world you live in, the craziness seems to respect no borders. There’s wars, poverty, hunger, natural and man made disasters, racial and economic injustice and disparities, I could go on for a week. All I can say is that we as a society should be thankful that we have sports to follow and to watch. For a couple hours every day or every week we can bury our troubles and concerns and worries and focus on some good old fashioned competition on the ice or on the court or on the field or wherever it is our teams are playing. For me sports is a welcome distraction. I turn off my phone, sit back in my most comfortable chair and crack open a cold beverage. For an hour or two or three I can forget about the craziness that has become the 2020’s. Some people might call it escapism, I call it a good game!

One of the craziest things that has surfaced in our world lately is Artificial Intelligence. A.I. There’s a lot of talk about A.I. There are dozens of A.I. programs now that can think and react like humans. I’m sure you’ve read about it. If you haven’t read about it you should because A.I. is going to be the next Industrial Revolution. It’s going to be The Internet 2.0. It has the potential to change everything in our world, maybe.

For me, one of the first questions that came to mind was how and if A.I. could change the way we wager on sports. Can we use it to make better picks? Can it predict the next Super Bowl Champion? Will it tell me how the Dolphins will beat the spread next week? What are A.I.’s predictions on the NBA Finals or The World Series? In theory A.I. is supposed to be the smartest thing in existence right now. It can literally reach out to the entire information universe to draw on right? If A.I. is what everyone is saying it is(and people are saying ALOT) then A.I. should make me rich right? I mean come on, let’s get real about it right?

Well, before you open up an off shore bank account and buy that house in Lake Tahoe let me tell you about my personal experience with A.I. and the sports book world. We did not get rich. We didn’t even come close. We let A.I. pick an NCAA tournament bracket and I’m happy to say that Mr. A.I. fell flat on his(or her) face.

A friend of mine and I sat down at her computer and put the Tournament challenge to the test. It took a while because the A.I program went through the analytics rather slowly. It compared programs, strengths, histories, roster sizes, tournament histories, academic levels, just about everything under the sun before it picked a winner of each game from round 1 all the way to the final champion. It took roughly two hours to fill out the entire bracket. Like I said, rather slow. In the end it picked Baylor University to win it all. Baylor? I was not impressed. In a group of 5 brackets fully filled out and submitted the bracket filled out by A.I. came in, you guessed it, next to dead last in 4th place. It wasn’t even close. Mr. A.I.’s bracket was toast even before mine. What a load of bologna. Apparently A.I. knows a lot but it doesn’t know Jack squat about college basketball. So relax people, A.I. isn’t gonna make you or I rich and it’s not going to take over the world. There’s hope for humanity yet.

Speaking of hope for humanity, The NBA playoffs are in full swing. I’m a little confused as to how teams are entering the playoff thru the “Play In” portal but as The Miami Heat have taken advantage of this and are in a first round battle with The Milwaukee Bucks I’m pretty much all for it. Shockingly, many are picking The L.A. Lakers to go deep in the playoffs and perhaps even contend for the championship. I’m skeptical however. LeBrone James’s ability to stay healthy is key here as it’s been proven that The Lakers are nothing without number 6 playing. After the near disaster this past week that saw several players exit the series with injuries I would have to say that the playoff this year will be a battle of attrition. Stay tuned on this front!

We are now about a week away from the 2023 NFL draft and the saga that is Arron Rogers and Lamar Jackson is still raging. Frankly, I’ve given up on Arron Rogers as I believe that he’ll have little or no impact wherever he goes. Certainly not with the Jets who no longer seem to be in the conversation. I’m still interested in Lamar Jackson however as I feel he can be a player that makes any team he signs with a legitimate Super Bowl Contender, even the Baltimore Ravens if he stays with them. Lamar seems to have gone somewhat silent after The Ravens announced the signing of Odell Beckham Junior so maybe he’s considering his options or maybe he’s just smartened up and learned to stay silent. Only time will tell with this story. Once the draft selections are made I hope to see more movement on this story.

Spring practice is starting happen in college football. Many teams are taking spring football seriously now and inter squad games are drawing thousands of spectators across many campuses. I won’t dive too far into college ball right now however I will say that you should mark you calendar for Saturday, 9 September, Texas vs. Alabama. After last year’s squeaker this game is sure to be another Barn Burner of Biblical proportions. Texas is absolutely loaded with talent and Alabama is as usual, Alabama. To make the drama quotient even higher in this game Texas Travels to Tuscaloosa with the nation’s number 1 heralded recruit, quarterback Arch Manning, nephew of Payton and Eli Manning. We’ll keep our eyes peeled on this one and watch thru out the spring for Texas to name its starter. Should be interesting!!

Play on I say!

Kev