Under the Bleachers

Beware Of This Marketplace!

As many of you already know, the Sports Service industry is made up mostly of thieves. They go under multiple names, give out both sides of a game, and resort to unbelievable phone tactics to sell their "Game of the blah blah". There are over 2400 Sports Services in the U.S., with just a handful of credible, honest, hard-working, documented services among them. When a Sports Service calls you to solicit business, this is generally a bad proposition for you. One popular scam is to call one hundred people a day. They tell you they'll give you these games for X dollars (or free) because they have really good information, "own the coach" or other supposed inside information. For a few bucks or for free, they'll give you this game. The next guy called is given the same pitch but given the "other side" of the game, and so on until 50 people are on Philadelphia, and 50 people are on Detroit. Now they sit and wait for the final score. Whichever team wins, they call the 50 people back who won and say, "See, I told you! Now, next weekend we have a really strong game, but the price is a little higher." Of course after winning once, you bite again. They give 25 people one side and 25 people the other. When the game is final, they call the remaining 25 people and say, "Hey not bad huh? 2-0 100%!" You say, "Yeah!" He tells you, "Ok, the really big one is this weekend, it's a zillion dollars and we'll release it to you on Friday." You wire the money, they give out a game, if it wins great, next week's game will be a big one too, if it loses, they close down their business, throw away the 100 names, open up business under a new name, and start with the next 100 names to call. This quick scheme can net around $37,500 per 100 callers and is accepted practice among many Sport Services. The salesmen are employed on commission, so they figure the harder the sell the better.

There are many variations on this theme, so be careful. You can prevent this by doing business with a Sports Service that does not call you. When you call them to sign up, it puts you in the driver's seat and out of the "tuna catch" for the day. Another common tactic is to have one common owner of multiple services. Service A buries you, then you get a call from Service B. You tell them, "Oh no, I don't care to sign up, I just got buried by Service A." The guy says, "Service A, oh, they're a bunch of crooks, how did you get connected to them???" Meanwhile he's sitting in an office where Sports Services A, B , C , D, and E operate under one roof and have one owner. Another variation is the, "Oh yes, we're monitored by such and such monitoring service." Problem here is that the Sports Service owns and operates the monitoring service too! There are some good services out there, and we invite all of them to be monitored by Sportswire.com.

The bottom line is to be cautious of the industry, especially if they call you. Simply tell them you want their name and phone number, and you'll call back when you're ready. Then, if you're interested, have them checked out. If this upsets them, you've got a criminal on the phone. Try to make him wiggle -- it's fun! Another suggestion would be to tell them right up front, that you're not interested and ask them to please remove your name from their mailing list. This will hopefully keep them from reselling your name and phone number to others in the business. For the record, names and addresses of Sports Service subscribers and 900# callers go for a whopping 20¢ per name and 50¢-75¢ per phone number. Sports Services also trade mailing lists each year. That's how your name gets on so many different mailing lists. Just pick up the phone and call one of the 1-800 numbers in the sports section of your local paper, and you'll get more than a free pick! Within 3 seconds, your "Annie" or ANI (Automatic Number Identification) is recorded, matched against the national name/address/phone number reverse match directory, and your name, phone number and address are logged into the computer. How do you think they afford to pay the 800 charges? Simple! They turn around and sell your address for 10 cents each, for example, to ten Sports Services, and sell your phone number for 50 cents each to ten other Sports Services, and they net a quick $6 on a 25 cent investment!

Here at Sportswire.com, you are protected from such nonsense, free to browse, and comfortable in the fact that all of our Handicappers are fully documented by our "auto correcting database". You should see some of the ads the other Sports Services send us trying to market their names such as, "Sucker Lists for Sale" or "Fresh Tuna." It is considered "cool" by many Sports Service operators to consider their customers less than human. At Sportswire.com, you will be treated with true concern, respect and a good deal of courteousness. This is our "Lock" -- give it a try!

For those of you who are still skeptical, read the Sports Illustrated article of a few years ago exposing the industry to its underwear. A MUST READ:

Sport Illustrated Article: 1-900-RIPOFFS

And here are two other excellent articles detailing the typical scams:

Touts and Louts

Hey, Buddy

We are proud to be your Sports Service documentation service and we vow our continued efforts on your behalf to bring you the very best in legitimate, documented Handicappers in the Industry. To those Sports Services who refuse to be documented, Sportswire says, "The end is near." Those who join Sportswire will play by the rules and will be promoted in the best light. Thank you for your interest in Sportswire!