[COLOR=#000000 !important]I'm writing this to chronicle my recent and painful experience with a handicapping service called Vegasedge.com. I'm hoping that anybody considering trying them out will be warned and stay far away so they don't have to go through the same experience I just did. Yuk.
To begin with, I'm not experienced with sports betting. My brother-in-law got me into it last Christmas, and since then I've bet $5 - $50 per game, and once or twice put $100 down. I was a small time recreational better. A couple of months ago I was listening to KNBR 680 on a Saturday morning and one of the shows had Paul Nolan from Vegasedge on talking about his picks. They were talking about their club games and how they have 8 handicappers working feverishly to crunch numbers and call the games, but that Mr. Nolan also has his "VIP Picks". These games are supposedly for the bigger players, and although there may be only 10 - 15 games per season, Mr. Nolan will call 100% of them correctly.
Needless to say, I was more than skeptical. I know a bull$#@! flag when I hear one, however I was also very curious. I called in, got a woman who told me she would have someone call me right back, and ended up getting a call from Ken Stroud. Ken explained to me that they had games that were solid, and really pushed me to give them a try for a week. He was extremely persuasive, and conviced me to pay $125 for one week of club games with the promise that he'll make me $800 - $900. I let them run my card, and he gave me two picks for the day telling me to put $100 on each. That day they were 2 and 0, and I made a quick $200. I was stoked. Everyday I called Ken, getting picks about once or twice per week. Over the first three weeks or so he made me $1347 in profit.
That's where the happiness ended.
One day I called Ken and he began explaining to me that his boss, Mr. Nolan, has much bigger games and they don't lose. He was going to give me a chance to play like the big dogs, and he said if I listened to Mr. Nolan I would make a s#!@load of money (his words). He told me they could make me $20 - $30k in a season, and if they did, asked if I would have any problem paying them 30% (of course I wouldn't). I asked if that's how they worked and he said "something like that".
Anyway, I spoke with Mr. Nolan and he told me he wanted me to get $5,000 into my account. He said they have 15 games lined up for the basketball season and everybody is going to make a lot of money. He also told me that because he had 15 games, I stand to make over $100,000. He wanted me to pay $10k up front and $30k at the end of the season. I told him I was interested, but that I didn't have $5000 to put in or $10k to pay. He told me to scrape together whatever I could, even if it was $2500, and that they would work with me. Over the next week Ken kept pushing for me to get money into my account so I would have a bankroll and be able to capitalize on these games. He told me all he wanted out of it was a "gratuity" when I have $100k bankroll. I did what they said and was able to build my account to $4,000. Ken told me to just pay $500, and he would put in another $3500 of his own money so I would be prepaid for the games. I did (figured I'm up $1347 and would risk it), and for about three weeks after that they would say that Mr. Nolan had a game coming in the next few days, but each time Ken would tell me it fell through, or some other excuse. I never got a game.
Weeks later, Ken tells me Mr. Nolan wants to talk to everybody. I call him at the appointed time and he tells me he has three big games coming, and he wants me to put $3,000 on the first, $6,000 on the second, and $12,000 on the third (presumably resulting in $24k). He then told me the cost of these games was $4,000, and that he is pissed that I've only paid $500 and that Ken put up the rest. I explained again that I don't have $4000 to pay him unless I were to liquidate my account (leaving only $500 in my account). I asked if I could play the games and pay him the rest ($3500) after the third game. This dude when ballistic. He got all agitated and started telling me how he could call through the phonebook and find people that would pay after the fact. He told me he didn't even know why he was talking to me, and that he was never taking a referral from Ken again. Then he hangs up on me!
I left him a message telling him that I sure didn't expect him to be so disrespectful and hang up on me.
He called me back the following day and told me not to take it personally, that's just how they are in New York. Okay. Anyway, he was very direct, demanding me to tell him whether I was in or out. Am I going to man up and pay the $3500 for the games or not? Now I was getting nervous. I'm into this $500, and now they want a LOT more in return for a promise. When I had probed Ken about the games, he eluded to them being games that "don't lose". I asked if they were just high probability and he said that probability had nothing to do with it. He told me that if a guy who will never see pro sports gets offered a bundle of cash to make sure his team loses, why wouldn't he take it and set himself and his family up? Okay, so these games are supposed to be fixed. The question I had was, do I take the risk that they are just setting me up for a $4k scam with some good cop, bad cop routine? Unforntunately I was curious, and took the risk.
I liquidated my account and sent them $3500. Then I scraped together every bit of money I had using credit cards and even a personal loan and built my account up to $1200. I knew I was taking a risk, but Ken had made me money in the beginning so I thought it was worth trusting them a little more. Mr. Nolan's games were coming, then they would fall through. Then another was coming, and it would fall through. Again, I never got a game.
Then a couple days later Ken calls me and tells me to put all $1200 on UL Monroe (they were playing UTEP) on the spread and call him back. I was excited, thinking it was Mr. Nolans game. I did what he said, called him back for confirmation, and asked if Mr. Nolan finally got the games. He said (after my bet was placed), "Oh, no this isn't one of his, but it's going to win. I want you to have $2400 to play his games with and this one is a winner." Great. Not only did they lose, but they lost by double the spread.
I call him back the next day and he tells me he thinks his source intentionally misled him. I guess he got this game via a tip from a friend. Anyway, I end up talking to Mr. Nolan again and he tells me he wants to slap Kenny's lip off for blowing my account. He says he has some big games coming, and asks me if I can get $2500 into my account by Dec. 29th. What am I going to do? I've paid this dude $4000 for some locks that I haven't gotten, and my only hope of getting my money back is to play his games.
I did what I never thought I would do, and withdrew $2500 from my Roth IRA retirement account. I told Paul Nolan I wouldn't play Ken's games anymore since he blew my account, and I would just play his locks. He told me to call him when I got the money. I got my account funded on Dec 28th, called Paul, and he told me he was eating lunch and to call him back in an hour.
A half hour later Ken calls me all excited and says "we got a game!" I asked him specifically, is this Mr. Nolan's game? He says yes! I said I thought it wasn't until tomorrow and he told me it came a day early and he's not going to complain. He gave me the pick and told me to put all $2500 on it. I did what he said. The game LOST BIGTIME! Now I'm pissed. I call Paul and ask what happened, and he goes "Ken gave you a game and told you it was mine? I'm gonna kill him! I'll call you back!" WTF? I call Ken, and Ken tells me he screwed up, and it's all his fault. He admits that it wasn't Paul's game, and he was just trying to make his clients more money. Holy$#@!
I called Paul back, and he acts like I'm ruining his day. He blames Ken and takes no responsibility. I told him I paid for games I haven't received, and asked him to take $2500 of the $4000 I've paid him, put it in my trading account, and let me use that to build a bankroll after which I would pay him back. HE GOES BALLISTIC!
"YOU WANT ME TO PUT UP MY MONEY??? WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME HOW TO RUN MY BUSINESS???!!" We had an extremely heated conversation where I told him I paid for a service I didn't receive, and since it's his company and Ken is using his name, it's his responsibility to make it right. I wasn't even asking for a refund, just asking him to work with me. During that conversation I got called a "degenerate gambler" (he blamed me for blowing my account) to other less repeatable names. This guy is absolutely a jewel. He yelled at me that he was going to give me the picks, and if I chose not to play them that was my own stupid fault. Great. I told him I would be happy to write a review on the internet about how his company has treated me, and he screamed at me that I was threatening him and I don't have a pot to piss in. I told him I wasn't threatening; that's the reality of business. If you take money from someone and don't delivery the product, they are going to tell their friends. His was so adamant that there was nothing I could do to deter people from calling him, that I felt compelled to tell my story here.
The bottom line: I'm out over $6,000 of my own capital and have no idea whether he even has legit locks. I suspect he doesn't, and this is how they operate. I've heard of guys like this playing half their clients on one side and half on the other side of a spread. At the end of the day they have a few clients who have made a lot of money and pay them a % of the winnings. I suspect these guys have some decent club games, but are full of BS when it comes to locks.
Please learn from me and steer clear of these guys! They aren't people you want to work with! They may make you a little bit, but they will bully and intimidate you into paying them for their VIP picks, and take you to the cleaners. I hope my experience helps someone out there. please feel free to email me if you have questions.[/COLOR]
To begin with, I'm not experienced with sports betting. My brother-in-law got me into it last Christmas, and since then I've bet $5 - $50 per game, and once or twice put $100 down. I was a small time recreational better. A couple of months ago I was listening to KNBR 680 on a Saturday morning and one of the shows had Paul Nolan from Vegasedge on talking about his picks. They were talking about their club games and how they have 8 handicappers working feverishly to crunch numbers and call the games, but that Mr. Nolan also has his "VIP Picks". These games are supposedly for the bigger players, and although there may be only 10 - 15 games per season, Mr. Nolan will call 100% of them correctly.
Needless to say, I was more than skeptical. I know a bull$#@! flag when I hear one, however I was also very curious. I called in, got a woman who told me she would have someone call me right back, and ended up getting a call from Ken Stroud. Ken explained to me that they had games that were solid, and really pushed me to give them a try for a week. He was extremely persuasive, and conviced me to pay $125 for one week of club games with the promise that he'll make me $800 - $900. I let them run my card, and he gave me two picks for the day telling me to put $100 on each. That day they were 2 and 0, and I made a quick $200. I was stoked. Everyday I called Ken, getting picks about once or twice per week. Over the first three weeks or so he made me $1347 in profit.
That's where the happiness ended.
One day I called Ken and he began explaining to me that his boss, Mr. Nolan, has much bigger games and they don't lose. He was going to give me a chance to play like the big dogs, and he said if I listened to Mr. Nolan I would make a s#!@load of money (his words). He told me they could make me $20 - $30k in a season, and if they did, asked if I would have any problem paying them 30% (of course I wouldn't). I asked if that's how they worked and he said "something like that".
Anyway, I spoke with Mr. Nolan and he told me he wanted me to get $5,000 into my account. He said they have 15 games lined up for the basketball season and everybody is going to make a lot of money. He also told me that because he had 15 games, I stand to make over $100,000. He wanted me to pay $10k up front and $30k at the end of the season. I told him I was interested, but that I didn't have $5000 to put in or $10k to pay. He told me to scrape together whatever I could, even if it was $2500, and that they would work with me. Over the next week Ken kept pushing for me to get money into my account so I would have a bankroll and be able to capitalize on these games. He told me all he wanted out of it was a "gratuity" when I have $100k bankroll. I did what they said and was able to build my account to $4,000. Ken told me to just pay $500, and he would put in another $3500 of his own money so I would be prepaid for the games. I did (figured I'm up $1347 and would risk it), and for about three weeks after that they would say that Mr. Nolan had a game coming in the next few days, but each time Ken would tell me it fell through, or some other excuse. I never got a game.
Weeks later, Ken tells me Mr. Nolan wants to talk to everybody. I call him at the appointed time and he tells me he has three big games coming, and he wants me to put $3,000 on the first, $6,000 on the second, and $12,000 on the third (presumably resulting in $24k). He then told me the cost of these games was $4,000, and that he is pissed that I've only paid $500 and that Ken put up the rest. I explained again that I don't have $4000 to pay him unless I were to liquidate my account (leaving only $500 in my account). I asked if I could play the games and pay him the rest ($3500) after the third game. This dude when ballistic. He got all agitated and started telling me how he could call through the phonebook and find people that would pay after the fact. He told me he didn't even know why he was talking to me, and that he was never taking a referral from Ken again. Then he hangs up on me!
He called me back the following day and told me not to take it personally, that's just how they are in New York. Okay. Anyway, he was very direct, demanding me to tell him whether I was in or out. Am I going to man up and pay the $3500 for the games or not? Now I was getting nervous. I'm into this $500, and now they want a LOT more in return for a promise. When I had probed Ken about the games, he eluded to them being games that "don't lose". I asked if they were just high probability and he said that probability had nothing to do with it. He told me that if a guy who will never see pro sports gets offered a bundle of cash to make sure his team loses, why wouldn't he take it and set himself and his family up? Okay, so these games are supposed to be fixed. The question I had was, do I take the risk that they are just setting me up for a $4k scam with some good cop, bad cop routine? Unforntunately I was curious, and took the risk.
I liquidated my account and sent them $3500. Then I scraped together every bit of money I had using credit cards and even a personal loan and built my account up to $1200. I knew I was taking a risk, but Ken had made me money in the beginning so I thought it was worth trusting them a little more. Mr. Nolan's games were coming, then they would fall through. Then another was coming, and it would fall through. Again, I never got a game.
Then a couple days later Ken calls me and tells me to put all $1200 on UL Monroe (they were playing UTEP) on the spread and call him back. I was excited, thinking it was Mr. Nolans game. I did what he said, called him back for confirmation, and asked if Mr. Nolan finally got the games. He said (after my bet was placed), "Oh, no this isn't one of his, but it's going to win. I want you to have $2400 to play his games with and this one is a winner." Great. Not only did they lose, but they lost by double the spread.
I call him back the next day and he tells me he thinks his source intentionally misled him. I guess he got this game via a tip from a friend. Anyway, I end up talking to Mr. Nolan again and he tells me he wants to slap Kenny's lip off for blowing my account. He says he has some big games coming, and asks me if I can get $2500 into my account by Dec. 29th. What am I going to do? I've paid this dude $4000 for some locks that I haven't gotten, and my only hope of getting my money back is to play his games.
I did what I never thought I would do, and withdrew $2500 from my Roth IRA retirement account. I told Paul Nolan I wouldn't play Ken's games anymore since he blew my account, and I would just play his locks. He told me to call him when I got the money. I got my account funded on Dec 28th, called Paul, and he told me he was eating lunch and to call him back in an hour.
A half hour later Ken calls me all excited and says "we got a game!" I asked him specifically, is this Mr. Nolan's game? He says yes! I said I thought it wasn't until tomorrow and he told me it came a day early and he's not going to complain. He gave me the pick and told me to put all $2500 on it. I did what he said. The game LOST BIGTIME! Now I'm pissed. I call Paul and ask what happened, and he goes "Ken gave you a game and told you it was mine? I'm gonna kill him! I'll call you back!" WTF? I call Ken, and Ken tells me he screwed up, and it's all his fault. He admits that it wasn't Paul's game, and he was just trying to make his clients more money. Holy$#@!
I called Paul back, and he acts like I'm ruining his day. He blames Ken and takes no responsibility. I told him I paid for games I haven't received, and asked him to take $2500 of the $4000 I've paid him, put it in my trading account, and let me use that to build a bankroll after which I would pay him back. HE GOES BALLISTIC!
"YOU WANT ME TO PUT UP MY MONEY??? WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME HOW TO RUN MY BUSINESS???!!" We had an extremely heated conversation where I told him I paid for a service I didn't receive, and since it's his company and Ken is using his name, it's his responsibility to make it right. I wasn't even asking for a refund, just asking him to work with me. During that conversation I got called a "degenerate gambler" (he blamed me for blowing my account) to other less repeatable names. This guy is absolutely a jewel. He yelled at me that he was going to give me the picks, and if I chose not to play them that was my own stupid fault. Great. I told him I would be happy to write a review on the internet about how his company has treated me, and he screamed at me that I was threatening him and I don't have a pot to piss in. I told him I wasn't threatening; that's the reality of business. If you take money from someone and don't delivery the product, they are going to tell their friends. His was so adamant that there was nothing I could do to deter people from calling him, that I felt compelled to tell my story here.
The bottom line: I'm out over $6,000 of my own capital and have no idea whether he even has legit locks. I suspect he doesn't, and this is how they operate. I've heard of guys like this playing half their clients on one side and half on the other side of a spread. At the end of the day they have a few clients who have made a lot of money and pay them a % of the winnings. I suspect these guys have some decent club games, but are full of BS when it comes to locks.
Please learn from me and steer clear of these guys! They aren't people you want to work with! They may make you a little bit, but they will bully and intimidate you into paying them for their VIP picks, and take you to the cleaners. I hope my experience helps someone out there. please feel free to email me if you have questions.[/COLOR]
