Sean's Sports Betting

Virginia legalized sports betting in April 2020 with online sportsbooks beginning to accept wagers in January 2021. Since that time, every commercial break on sports talk radio or during any sporting event on television features at least one advertisement from sportsbooks often featuring J.B. Smoove, Jamie Foxx, or Drew Brees. Just before the NFL season started in September, I created an account on one of these online sportsbooks and deposited $100 from money made specifically from this blog. Yes, amazingly, I really have made a little money over the years from this. Based on the amount of time I've spent writing this blog, it's probably the equivalent to about $0.04 per hour. I'm not quitting my day job or even my soccer referee side job to become a "professional" blogger!

Anyway, during this time, I've limited my wagering to the NFL, college football, golf, tennis, the NBA, college basketball, the NHL, the Olympics, and soccer. There was probably a baseball game or two in there too. Maybe "limited" is the wrong word. I realized that I might have a little bit of a gambling problem when I put money on a soccer match in the Cypriot First Division. Did you even know that Cyprus had its own soccer league? Throughout this time, I haven't added any money to my account. In my mind, as long as I don't put any more money into the account, I don't have a problem. This probably isn't true, but that's what I'm going with. Of course, I haven't withdrawn any money from my account either.

When I wrote about my criminal record last fall, I mentioned that I could have been involved with a study about gambling on college campuses. I occasionally think about this like when I'm betting the over on the number of goals in an Ottawa Senators-Detroit Red Wings hockey game. Seriously, I hope there is some really good research out there about the impact of gambling on 18-25 year-olds. 

I do want to share one wager I made recently. Bayern Munich faced RB Salzburg in the second leg of UEFA Champions League round of 16. I placed $4 on Bayern Munich to win, the total goals scored in the game to be over 2.5, and the total corner kicks to be over 8.5. Bayern Munich put up 7 goals (for  Pittsburgh sports fans of a certain age: Chili Goal! Chili Goal! Chili Goal!) and won easily 7-1. In looking at the stats after the game, ESPN showed that there were 9 corner kicks. This made me happy since I would have won about $10. Unfortunately, the sportsbook showed it as a loss. I was confused. I did some research and saw several other websites, including the Bayern Munich website, show 9 corners. However, the UEFA website showed 8 "corners taken," and as I later discovered, that is what my sportsbook used. On the last play of the match, a Salzburg player deflected a Bayern Munich shot out for a corner. Before the kick was taken, the referee blew his whistle to end the game. Technically, there were 9 corners. Technically, there were 8 corners taken. And yes, I spent way too much time researching this and chatting with the sportsbook customer service representative. 

So if betting on the amount of points scored in the MAAC Championship between Monmouth and St. Peters sounds like fun to you, and you live in a state with sports betting (and the sportsbook I use), please let me know. I'm happy to refer you and get a little extra money for my account myself!