Wayne Root May Blow But He's Living A Life We Would All Die For. $$$$

[WAXER]

The Tout: By CHRISTINA BINKLEY
March 14th 2005





March 14, 2005


THE JOURNAL REPORT: NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT



The Tout

Want some advice in picking the NCAA winner? Wayne Allyn Root can help -- for a price.
By CHRISTINA BINKLEY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
March 14, 2005; Page R11

LAS VEGAS -- Wayne Allyn Root is hurtling down Interstate 215 in his $65,000 Hummer, with Jadore Dior sunglasses wrapped across his face and a cellphone pressed to his ear. He's attending to a client who pays $25,000 a year to hear Mr. Root's sports picks -- which involve what he calls the three most "pathetic" college basketball teams playing this day.

"I like UMass, Providence, and, um, lemme see -- my other pick was South Carolina," says Mr. Root. The phone crackles. "I have no fear," Mr. Root responds cheerfully. "Don't get scared on me."

It's a sure bet that this client, a prominent Atlanta businessman, is about to break the law. He can't legally use Mr. Root's picks to place sports bets in Atlanta. Outside of Nevada, most Americans bet illegally with bookies or offshore, online casinos.

Mr. Root, on the other hand, is careful to stay on the legal up-and-up. He's a cog in the wheel of the sports-gambling industry, which has been valued at as much as $380 billion a year by one federal commission. Only $2.1 billion of that, though, is bet legally in Nevada.

Picks for a Price

At the beginning of a season, sports fans tend to pick their own bets. Mostly, they wager on their favorite teams and they nearly always bet on the team that's expected to win, whatever the odds. But as their losses pile up, some of these gamblers turn to "touts," or sports handicappers, like Mr. Root for help.


CONTRARY APPROACH In making picks, Mr. Root goes against public sentiment.


Armed with information culled from a network of gamblers, bookies and others, Mr. Root charges clients as much as $100,000 a year for his picks for football, basketball and other sports. A onetime motivational speaker who meditates and does yoga at his 6,000-square-foot Las Vegas home each morning, the 43-year-old Mr. Root likes to tout his bachelor's degree from Columbia University and claims to be an American gambling legend. Chicago sportscaster Chet Coppock calls him "a New Age P.T. Barnum."

Mr. Root sells his picks through Las Vegas-based GWin Inc. (pronounced Gee-Win), where he is chairman and chief executive. The company, whose stock is traded on the over-the-counter Bulletin Board, sells the picks of six handicappers through the phone and on its Web site. To make itself known to bettors, GWin runs 30-minute infomercials -- in the format of a football-chat television show called WinningEdge -- on the men's cable channel Spike TV during the football season. It turns to less-expensive radio to advertise during basketball season.

Basketball generates about 40% of GWin's annual revenue, while the rest comes mostly from football as well as a few other sports. March Madness is the second-biggest betting event of the year, behind the Super Bowl, according to Las Vegas casinos. GWin says it expects clients to pay a total of $7 million this year for the picks and advice of Mr. Root and the other handicappers on all sports.

Mr. Root prides himself on being a contrarian. The college-basketball picks that unnerved the Atlanta client turned into a two-out-of-three winning record when Massachusetts and South Carolina won outright in big upsets that evening.

While it's nearly impossible to confirm, Mr. Root says he picks winning bets 55% to 58% of the time. "That doesn't sound impressive to some people," but that margin has made him a successful handicapper and "bought me this house," he says of his elite neighborhood.

While other touts may focus on team histories or statistics, Mr. Root advises his clients to bet against the masses of amateur bettors -- known colloquially as "dumb money." His theory is that the public's amateurish choices are usually the opposite of the betting lines set by casinos and Bookmakers, who are primarily concerned with highly educated bets from professional sports gamblers, or "wise guys" -- and, therefore, are less likely to pay off.

"Wayne has been tremendously successful betting against the public," says "Big Al" McMordie, a rival handicapper who also sells touts through GWin.

To find out just how the masses are betting, Mr. Root reaches out each day to a network of gamblers, bookies and other sources. These include Roger Lee Harrison, a Southern-tongued theatrical producer now based in Los Angeles, who says he speaks daily with major Bookmakers in New Orleans and Arkansas. "I ask [the Bookmakers] where the smart money's going and if they're overextended," says Mr. Harrison. If they are, "that tells Wayne he should be betting the other direction." In return for giving Mr. Root the information, Mr. Harrison gets to hear his picks for the day.

Another source is Steven Pashalis, a New York horserace handicapper, who provides information about what bets people are making in the nation's heaviest sports-wagering region. Mr. Pashalis says Mr. Root pays him for the information, but he then "passes the money along" to three New York bookmakers who are willing to discuss their business. He says he also gets Mr. Root's picks.

Mr. Coppock, the sportscaster, passes along tips about what people are betting that he hears at the East Bank Club, an elite Chicago health club. Mr. Coppock, who also sells his own picks on GWin, is paid by the company for his analysis. "The easiest way to find out what's happening," he says, "is on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. to have a bowl of oatmeal at the club and ask who's playing on what."

The Art of the Sale

Sales are made in the hub of GWin's operations -- a raucous, rock-'n'-roll-blasting boiler room where the air is chilled to 68 degrees to keep two dozen or so salesmen geared up to close the next sale. The company also has sales managers, who will step in to close a tough deal.

Most clients pay for picks with a credit card. And prices are negotiable. In one recent cat-and-mouse pitch, for instance, a salesman lowered his "trial package" price for several days of Mr. Root's basketball picks to $100 from $500. The potential client insisted he lacked either a credit or debit card. "Oh, they always say that. They lie," says Beau Kerr, an assistant sales manager who was listening in on the call.

Many of the salesmen -- all men -- have worked in other types of telemarketing, but they've been picked for their ability to jaw with clients about sports and betting. "We have a great softball team, but you wouldn't want your sister to spend any time with them," confides one manager, as a salesman named Kevin howls and pumps his arms.

Mr. Root likens his company to a stock-brokerage firm, only more fun. "I'm the Charles Schwab of the weekend," he says, and his salesmen are "sports brokers. It's fun to watch your investment sack the quarterback."

[vegasbet03]

Honestly i must said it's not a life that i want to live in. I may get shot on any day at any time. I'm only playing this for fun and try to compete. For sure, it's not a way to make a living. What go up must come down. I like to live a life consistancy and move slowly forward. Thanks for the post.

[bobblehead]

the article also fails to mention about all his legal problems and the fact that his publicly traded stock is in the toilet.....

[Mello]

he's go against the public. Wow, what a sports gambling guru!!!
this fluff piece is a paid advertisment to that particular reporter or her boss.

all they are, is telemarketers. Good ones. I wish I had them selling my PEO services. good salespeople are hard to find. wou;dn't care much for them as persons, but they know how to sell bs.

[dave nz]

Originally Posted by Mello

he's go against the public. Wow, what a sports gambling guru!!!

Haha exactly. I was waiting for the story to elaborate on his capping strategies, but it didn't, although its a good start there is far more to capping than simply fading the public lol