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 Of course, I haven't withdrawn any money from my account either.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! 

Fatherhood Stories & The Missing Hat (Random Ramblings)

We are in full potty training mode for Pedro Tulo who will turn 3 next month. This means regular trips to the bathroom every 30 minutes or so. Pedro Tulo enjoys flushing the toilet and will do this multiple times per restroom trip even if the toilet hasn't completely filled up with water after the original flush. He's actually doing pretty well though he still doesn't tell us when he needs to go. Anyway, we recently received our quarterly water bill, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was less than $7,000.

On December 15, 2006, my friend and I attended a Pittsburgh Penguins-New York Islanders game at the Civic Arena in what has turned out to be stop #1 in our now 10-year hockey road trip. Ryan Malone scored a hat trick in this game, and all fans received a Penguins ski/winter hat courtesy of Seven Springs. (Yes, I believe that many hats were thrown on the ice.) I am saddened to report that I lost the hat somewhere yesterday morning. It must have fallen out of my jacket pocket at my son's school or somewhere near the Metro station. I won't call this devastating, but it is definitely a loss.

Our ear, nose, and throat doctor and entire office are still in business because of us. Actually, maybe they all got significant holiday bonuses because of us between getting tubes in and tonsils out and all of the follow up appointments. I think they should send us a gift basket or something. Maybe winter hats!

There is music-based competition television show hosted by Jamie Foxx called Beat Shazam that is currently looking for contestants. This is right up my alley, and I may apply when I get an extra few hours to craft the perfect application and video (meaning that I probably won't apply). Here's information about the show.

One trivia question for the day: Grand Island, Fremont, Hastings, Papillion, and Bellevue are among the ten most populous cities in which U.S. state?

Jake Gyllenhaal: Music Video Superstar

I hereby nominate Jake Gyllenhaal to join the Eric Roberts Music Video Superstar club. You're not familiar with Eric Roberts and his music video superstardom? I wrote a post about this (um, nearly five years ago)!

For his role in Jamie Foxx's "Blame It" and Vampire Weekend's "Giving Up The Gun," Jake Gyllenhaal has had a nice run lately starring in music videos. Watch as he expertly raises his glass with Forest Whitaker and Ron Howard.



What an actor to pull off the tennis grace of Roger Federer.



I applaud Gyllenhaal for his dedication to the small screen and to be able to laugh at himself. I hope others will follow the lead of Eric and Jake, so that I don't have to wait another five years to add another member to the Music Video Superstar club!