Washington Post dives into pick-selling industry
RAS praised as one of a handful of services that actually wins.
Danny Funt, the Washington Post writer who has tackled various sports betting topics in the past, this time turned his attention to the pick-selling industry.
The portrayal of touts in his article, titled “As sports betting booms, pick sellers promise can’t-miss riches,” was mostly unflattering (as it should be). He devoted considerable time to all the negative aspects of the industry and essentially played the “Greatest Hits” album for why you should never buy picks:
Touts overstate their own abilities by advertising win rates that are nearly impossible to achieve long-term.
It’s difficult to overcome both the sportsbook vig and the cost of following a paid service.
It’s challenging for a novice to assess if a pick-seller is actually a winner given the lack of a truly independent way of reviewing them.
Touts who win big on their own shouldn’t need to sell their plays.
The article highlights a few examples of tout operations that are clearly bad but also carved out space to highlight a few of the exceptions to the rule. One such exception was RAS. Citing “industry insiders,” RAS was described as being “among just a handful of services whose picks consistently win.” As evidence to support this claim, the article noted our publicly verified Betstamp record since 2020 (593-453 overall, 56.6 percent) and referenced our historical records, which include just three losing college hoops seasons ever dating back to the late 1990s.
Not mentioned in the article (which is fine!) were our first-of-its-kind live release shows, our way of countering many of the valid concerns that people have. Evaluating handicappers has become a lost art, and due to the widespread lack of transparency that Funt correctly identifies as a problem, it’s way too difficult for the average user to figure out if a service wins or doesn’t. The live release shows, we feel, are one of the best ways to showcase who we are and what we do. If you were among the 2,000 plus people who tuned into our live show last week (or any of the 40 shows we did during the college hoops season), then you can see with your own eyes that:
We release all our plays at widely available lines.
The market reacts immediately (and the plays retain their closing line value.)
Huge swaths of users are able to secure the release line or better.
The plays win (we are 55 percent all time across all free releases).
The Washington Post article did a nice job overall of fairly and accurately presenting the realities of the pick-selling industry and the unscrupulous tactics deployed by many touts who are clearly trying to, as one source put it, “prey on the vulnerable.” That being said, the problems were identified long ago and have been widely known for years, and yet the pick-selling industry and the demand for picks are bigger than they’ve ever been. At some point, we need to find better ways to educate users and help them make more informed decisions; demand transparency from pick sellers who don’t provide it; and make it harder for scam artists to thrive.