The Movie Two For the Money and the Handicapping Biz
I saw this posted at another site and figured I would copy and paste it here:
TWO FOR THE MONEY or "Two For the Bullshit"
Today I continue my discussion on a movie that has made our phone ring a hundred times and caused hundreds of hours on the phone talking about the incredible FICTION that the film spews.
This film is not as bad as many say, its a decent film about sports betting. I give the director credit for keeping it interesting as this film could have potentially been a bore. However there were some problems with the script, mainly the last act which was not logical or truthful. Hell, there are many issues about the script if you believe that this is a TRUE STORY! The acting and smart direction saved this project. Although it isn't a terribly convincing film (actually, it's all bullshit), Pacino's performance allows it not to be a total disappointment. McConaughey was good as well, casted well in his role.
Now that I made nice-nice, lets get down to the fraud, misrepresentations and downright lies about the facts.
Wait just a minute, forget the nice-nice thing. Here is my real take on this work of fiction.
This movie is like a bad, sports betting version of Scent of a Woman with a little bit of Boiler Room thrown in for additional suckage. Matthew McConaughey plays Douchebag Jones, a washed up former college QB who is trying to make it rich by predicting sports outcomes. He never bets though, because he's too much of a pussy. Al Pacino recruits him to New York, where he starts hot before going 0-for-a million, leading to one of the most improbable movie scenes in history when some sports betting gazillionaire pees on his face for losing him $30 million in one weekend. Apparently dousing another man in your own urine is pretty satisfying, because we never see or hear of this character again (meaning he is still in the hole $30 mil, but he peed on some dude's face, so it's all good). Another dude named Amir loses his house, his business, his car, and his family, but he disappears shortly thereafter, so I'm guessing it all worked out for him, too.
This whole movie sucked, and throughout the whole thing Rene Russo is prancing around playing the beaten-down-but-noble wife to Al Pacino, which makes sense up until she pretends to sleep with Douchebag Jones to convince her husband of his own... what, exactly? It didn't make any sense to me either.
Anyway, this movie sucks, and the fake New York team wins the Super Bowl on a play exactly like the one that ends Douchebag Jones' career in the opening sequence. There. Now you have absolutely no reason to ever consider even watching commercials for this movie.
FIRST - THE REAL CHARACTERS
WALT ABRAMS. Real name is Stu Fei ner, Played by Al Pacino
Just for yucks...Stu fei ner calls himself "The Source."
BRANDON LANG - Played by Matthew McConaughey
STU FEI NER'S WIFE - Played by Rene Russo
Yes, for those of you who have been around a couple decades, the New York City company that Brandon Lang worked for was the company that was run by Stu Fei ner.
No, this was not a movie that was paid/produced for by BIG HOLLYWOOD. The movie was made by an off-shore sports book.
Let's get to the "name thing". In the movie, they said his real name was Brandon Lang and when he went on to work for the boiler room Stu Fei ner outfit, he was given a "power name" (John Anthony), just like
all the scam outfits have always done.
His real Name is Brandon Link. During the first draft of the movie, they were using Brandon Long before settling on Brandon Lang. The irony is, after the movie came out, Brandon Link parlayed the hype and went into the handicapping business and now calls himself Brandon Lang.
There is a hint in the credits, for Brandon has a very short cameo appearance near the beginning of the movie. At the end of the film, he is credited as: Man Greeting Brandon #1 --- BRANDON LINK!
The story is related by Brandon Lang/Long/Link (Matthew McConaughey) who begins life as a sports hero and just at the moment when he is ready to break in to the Pro Football domain, he fractures his leg in a winning touchdown.
Noooooooooooooo, Brandon Lang/Lane/Link/Long was NOT a star college football quarterback that brought
his team to a major Bowl game only to get injured in the final minutes. Think about it, did you ever hear his name? We all recognize the QB's that are in major bowl games. Hell, if you are a skeptic, just do a Google search!
He did hurt his knee though. You ask how? It was in a basketball pickup game that was being played at a local fitness center! The league was called THE SPORTING HOUSE LEAGUE. The name of the fitness center is The Sporting House. It's a few steps below a park district league.
There's a hilarious side story to Brandon's "injury story". Late last year, a college football writer telephoned Brandon Lang/Lane/Link/Long and told him that he's never heard of him and asked what college team he took to the bowl game. Brandon was caught off guard, but being the pathological liar he is, he came up with an amazing lie AGAIN! He copped to the fact that he never quarterbacked a bowl team and that indeed, he injured his knee in a fitness center league. He went on to claim that one day, UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian stopped by to watch a game (yeah, right) and that Coach Tarkanian told Brandon that he was good enough to be a walk-on for UNLV! By the way, that was during the hey days of the UNLV program and their National Championship run.
Want another lie? Sure you do! Was Brandon Lang/Lane/Link/Long a Las Vegas handicapper? Hell no! BLLLL was not a sports handicapper, or even a telemarketing salesman. He was a score phone announcer working for a major Las Vegas sports handicapping service. He was working for $6.00 an hour for a company that you know all about. (Hint: Initials of the owner are J__F____ ) This major Las Vegas handicapping service is still going strong and you can see their sports handicapping INFOMMERCIAL Saturday mornings on cable TV. I know that you can fill in the blanks!
So, since he was NOT a handicapper, and had no reputation at all in the industry, how did he hook up with scamdicapper Stu ******?
Brandon's manager (at J__ F____ Sports) had many conversations with this infamous New York sports handicapper (Stu ******) that Al Pacino plays. The supervisor's job was to try to sell Stu Fei ner 900 # score phone advertising and Brandon “The Wonder Boy” score phone announcer would read “Mr. New York's” advertising copy, or sometimes Fei ner would call into Las Vegas to do a live feed. So, that's how the two of them first got together. After liberal tipping and spiffing, Fei ner eventually convinced “Wonder Boy” to come New York and work for him. He just needed a guy for voice talent work.
The real truth about what happened at Stu Fei ner's service is that Brandon Lang/Lane/Link/Long was such a
failure at selling games (yep, he was one of those sports service salesmen that would tell you anything they could to get a buck from you), that he lost his job and became a caddie at a Los Angeles Country Club. Jim Feist would not rehire him. Due to his obvious narcissism, he liked talking so much about himself and stretching the truth to the men that he washed balls for that one hollywood-type believed him and searched for a way to get enough money to make the film.
Nobody bought it. Then, BoDog, an offshore sportsbook put up the money to pay for the film! Brandon
Lang/Lane/Link/Long and BoDog made a business deal and they were marketing the relationship big time until
they realized that the potential consumer to Brandon's picks (he was advising his members to use BoDog),
would figure it out. The deal with BoDog gave Brandon Lang/Lane/Link/Long a kickback of the money that his clients lost when betting at BoDog! Why would BoDog want Brandon's action if he was winning?
Are we having fun yet?
Let's explore documented facts and the odds of betting on the outcome of events.
In the film, Brandon Lang goes 12 for 12 in his first try at handicapping the weekend. Let's examine this. According to the Las Vegas Gaming Commission (whose job it is to keep an eye on such things), in the history of football parlay card betting, NOBODY has ever won 12 for 12 on a football parlay card! Imagine how many thousands has tried? The odds of going 12 for 12 is a staggering 4894-1 against the bettor. An interesting note that is also on the Gaming Commission's historical report is that nobody has ever hit 12 for 12 on a Keno card in the history of betting despite hundreds of millions trying. According to the LVGC, the real odds of hitting 15 for 15 on a Keno card is 0.0000000000023 and it pays off $100,000 although the real odds are more than 51 billion to one against the bettor!So, are you ever going to grab a Keno card again?
So, what exactly was going on at Stu ******'s company, the firm that employed BLLLL?
According to a comprehensive Sports Illustrated Story titled, "1-900-RIPOFFS", Abusing customers is SOP among sports advisers. "Gamblers are desperate people," says Arnie Wexler, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey.
SI took a two-month test drive through the world of sports advisory services and found misleading ads, bait-and-switches, repeated claims of fixes coming down, misrepresentation of records, unforgivably high-pressured sales techniques, phone harassment, phone threats, phony guarantees, mail fraud, wire fraud and some perfectly dreadful manners. Even the pictures lied.
In investigating Fei ner's tactics, an inspector for the Consumer Affairs Department called one of Fei ner's 800 numbers to take him up on an offer of a free line on a game during the 1989 football season. The investigator spoke with a man known as Sonny Greco, also known as Phil Bonvino, a salesman for Stu Mitchell's Locker Room Report, still another service owned by Fei ner. After a breathless, oath-laden pause-free speech, Greco went for the close. His pace was furious. The detective, posing as a customer named Stan, balked. Greco screamed louder.
Here is the audio taped conversation:
Stan: I'm being bombarded here. Lemme think on it. I got a lot of guarantees here.
Sonny: I'm not interested in anybody else you're call., Stan! The difference here is this, OK? We own this game tonight on over/under! We own this information. Now go get your credit card, and let's start making money! You don't need to deal with anybody but me!
Stan: Wait�
Sonny: I own this game in over/under! I have the winner! Tonight! No what's your credit card number?
Stan: OK, lemme get back to you.
Sonny: Stan, you're not going to call me back! You know it as well as I do, and if you think I'm going to let you off the phone with that ___, you're crazy! OK? I've got the winner tonight! I own this game in over-under, and I'm going to own your bookmaker's ass! So get your credit card out and let's get going!
Stan: Lemme tell you what we're gonna do. I'm gonna think about it. Sonny (louder still): Stan, there's nothing to think about! Click.
Greco is ruthless, loud and scary. No wonder Fei ner has given him his own sports service-Phil Bonvino's Locker Room Report. Says a former phone tout for a large Long Island service, "There were plenty of times when we'd tell a guy, 'Look, if you don't come across, I'm gonna tell your wife you're gambling again.' Or we'd tell high school kids that we were going to tell their parents." Says the ex-salesman for Kevin Duffy, "We'd call up anybody, even guys we knew were going to Gamblers Anonymous. We'd stay on them." Question: How do sports advisers get away with it? Better question: Who are customers supposed to complain to? Gamblers don't want to turn anybody in because most of them are breaking the law themselves. As a result, the touts go unpoliced.
Soon clients got a clue and stopped paying. That's when the people from the Seasons Edge group "got heavy-handed," says Robert Schroeder of the office of the US Attorney in Atlanta. "They'd threaten to kill members of the family, burn down their homes." One victim was told if he didn't send more money, he'd be "chopped up into little tiny pieces with a chain saw." Gamblers were bilked out of $413,000 before a victim's parents finally called the FBI when their son, a college student, lost his tuition money and resorted to using his father's credit card to try to obtain his "refund." Schroeder nailed conspiracy, wire fraud and extortion convictions on 12 people. They got the full package sentences ranging up to 87 months in jail.
It is also a business in which profits can be enormous, some services are believed by at least one close observer of the industry to make as much as $1 million annually. Last year the people at the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs looked into the advertising practices of the sports adviser business and came away with their hair on end. "These have been among the most egregious, outrageous claims we've ever encountered," says a department attorney, Fred Cantor.
Get this story!
"I remember once a guy needed a bailout game real bad," says a former salesman for a major tout operating out of New York City. "He was buried, so he wanted to put two or three dimes [$2000 or $3000] down on something good. I said I had a lock for him. I put him on hold, and I went into my boss's office and I said, 'Who do you want to pick, the Jets or Minnesota?' And he said, 'Take Minnesota. My mom likes purple.' So I gave this poor sucker Minnesota based on some lady's favorite color. He lost."
Ripoffs Rule the Roost.: "The Source", a sports adviser service in Farmingdale, NY, owned by Stu Fei ner, who also owns a few 900 call-in lines. Another exhibit is Fei ner's brother-in-law, the aforementioned Kevin Duffy, perhaps the nation's most successful scamdicapper, who became famous for running ads that said, "I will go 7-0 for you today, absolutely free." Too bad "absolutely free" meant you first had to sign up for a month's service at $350. Then, if Duffy didn't go 7-0 in the first week, you got the next month free. Duffy, who operates out of Massapequa, Long Island, also claimed to be no worse than 75% right, ever. Yet when his picks were audited by the Sports Monitor of Oklahoma City, one of the rare legitimate monitors (among the dozens of such outfits that purport to keep tabs on the performance of tout services), he never fared better than 58.8% in any regular football season between 1985 and 1988, and he sank as low as 39.7% for his college picks in 1987. Eventually the Sports Monitor refused to monitor Duffy because of his "deceptive ad practices."
Stu Fei ner agreed to be monitored by SI for four weeks in September. To his credit, he unfailingly gave us his choices. To his discredit, Fei ner went 19-32, a 37% win rate, and lost us an imaginary $6,210 based on $100 per unit. During that same period, we were anonymously calling ******'s 800 number, where, curiously, he claimed to be cleaning up. On Sept. 23, for instance, after ****** had gone 3-11 for the week on his picks for SI, bringing his record for us to 11-25, one of his shills, Kenny Leeds, said in response to our anonymous call, "This week I [meaning the company] went 3-0, the week before, I was 3-1." On Oct. 3, after ****** had gone 7-7 for the weekend, we again called anonymously and got another ****** salesman, Larry Marco. "This past weekend, we swept the board," Marco said. Then Leeds called back. "This kid ****** is making betting history," he said.
Yeah, so did Art Schlichter!
For you youngsters, Art Schlichter was a first round draft choice (DUDE HAD MAJOR SKILLS) as a quarterback coming out of Ohio State in 1982; what's more, he enjoyed an image so wholesome his biography was titled Straight Arrow. But Schlichter gambled away his $350,000 signing bonus during his rookie season with the Baltimore Colts. He was suspended and reinstated the next year, after declaring he had the disease of compulsive gambling for which he had gotten help. In 1985, he was cut by the Colts and never played football again. If success started Schlichter's addiction, failure really fueled it. In 1988 he declared bankruptcy, referring frequently to his disease. Schlichter's ex-wife, Mitzi Schlichter, helped found the Custer Gambling Treatment Center in Indianapolis after she left her husband in 1994. Schlichter, meanwhile, has spent four of the six years since then in prison. In 1997, he was pulled out of a court-ordered gambling treatment program and hauled back to jail when he was caught betting. Schlichter is currently awaiting trial on money laundering charges and stealing credit cards, all revolving around taking money, often from family members, in order to gamble. Schlichter takes no responsibility for his misbehavior — and, despite harping on his disease and although his wife created her own gambling treatment center, Schlichter has never shown any inclination to fly straight.
****** was fined $13,000 in February 1990 by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs for false and misleading advertising, yet he sent out a promotional brochure last month that reported a "1991 documented record college and pro: 9-3." Knowing ******'s record as we did, we asked him how he could say this. "That's what I had the first week." he said, before you started documenting me." Fine. That would've been the weekend of Aug. 31-Sept. 2. The booklet, however, was dated Sept. 19-Oct. 7, 1991. During one of our anonymous calls, Leeds told us he had "strong information" on a game he wanted us to buy, so strong it was a dead mortal lock, so strong that he was putting $2000 of his own money on the game. We were dubious.
Here's the audio taped conversation:
Leeds: You don't believe me? I'll fly you out here [from Colorado].
SI: Fly me out there?
Leeds: I'll fly you to __ Long Island, and I'll have you take a ride with me!
SI: Why?
Leeds" To see how I pick it [his winnings] up and where I pick it up from.
SI: Can you fly me out this week?
Leeds: What I'm saying is�I'm using that's a little bit of a mild exaggeration. Don't get me wrong, but I've met a lot of my clients. I've met Dan Marino.
SI: You know Dan Marino? Leeds: Well, I stood next to him at the Super Bowl, and my friend took my picture with him.
****** says that if somebody calls his 800 number and doesn't sign up, "We'll call him every day for a couple months, because eventually they'll change their minds.
"Mike Warren (real name Mike Laskey - a degenerate horse bettor who was run out of business by the United States Attorney and fined heavily) is a former pathetic handicapper and a tremendous con artist," says ******. Says Warren, "Stu ******? He's got a big mouth, always talking big. He knows this hoodlum and that hoodlum-gonna break my legs. You know what? He can't break an egg. I gave him my address. He's so short, the only thing he can reach is my legs." Mike Warren was ordered by The United States District Attorney to run major advertisements in which he had to admit his frudulent claims of success.
If you think guys like ****** and Warren will make you wish you have never installed your phone, Atlanta's John L. Edens, alias Johnny DeMarco, the Babe Ruth of 900 sales pitchers, will make you wish Alexander Graham Bell had never been born. According to published ads and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED taped phone calls, Edens:
Got on his 800 line and told listeners to call his 900 line for $25, "and if the game loses, there'll be no charge." That, of course, is a lie. Once a call is made on a 900 line, the charge is automatic.
* Told customers of one of his phone services that his special guest selector that day was "a former six-time NBA basketball All-Star who wishes to remain anonymous due to security matters." The anonymous "All-Star" then got on the line and offered his inside information on "three big plays, tonight."
* Told his customers on another occasion, "Sporting Illustrated magazine calls the Handicapping Hotline the Number One value in sports." Remarkably, there is no Sporting Illustrated.
* Wrote in a print ad, which appeared in the schedule of games he sent out to customers in early 1991, that his service was rated "the very best available by the Interstate Sports Commission, the nation's only legitimate monitoring service." The ad failed to mention that the ISC is owned by a company with which, DeMarco acknowledges, he is "affiliated."
* Got on his 800 line in March 1989 and said he had spoken with then N.C. State coach Jim Valvano and had "key" information on the Final Four. Valvano says he has never spoken to DeMarco.
Scripts at the a New York based sports service? Yep, The New York Consumer Affairs Commission got their hands on one! It will frighten you.
Here it is:
It read: "I'm glad I got ahold of you in time! We are releasing our biggest information game of the ____ (month/season) going off ___ (day of week). Now, ___ (name), listen carefully. Our inside sources have tipped us off to this game. We know exactly what's going to happen. We know the winner. (Lower voice) It's the kind of game I can't even talk about over the phone-you follow me, right? (Response) OK Good�All you gotta do is cover me with $___ How do you do it, Visa or MasterCard?"
The fix scam is essential to a tout's repertoire. "You'd lower your voice way down," says one employee who worked for this company for four years, "and you'd say, 'Is this line clean? No taps on it, right? OK Listen, we've got information on this game. you know what I'm saying? The winner of this game was already decided in a hotel room."
"You'd be talking with grown men who were crying on the phone," says one former tout Stu ****** salesman "Guys who were losing everything but still betting. And I'd lie awake in the middle of the night hoping the guy would win. So I'd call the sports phone and get a late West Coast game at 4 a.m. and go, 'Damn, he lost again."
"It was like feeding drugs to an addict," says the ex-salesman. "We'd try to take whoever we got and make them bet more. We'd take college kids who were betting $25 and say, 'Hey, you got to bet $500 on this game. If you don't bet a nickel I'm not gonna give it to you.' If they won, they got a taste for big money. If they lost, they were desperate to get out [of the hole], and so they start chasing. How can anyone who works for Kevin and Stu have a conscience? Basically, I was just hurting people." And that, unfortunately, is the only absolute lock SPORTS ILLUSTRATED found.
Here's a recent publication about BLLLL:
We figured we'd check in with handicapping schizo Brandon Lang/Lane/Link/Long to see how he’s been doing since Two For The Money tanked at the box office, completely shattering any hopes for him elevating his career past that of an internet free pick hustler. Well, from the looks of it, the movie bombing may have rattled the golden boy's cage a bit as he stated in his open letter to his “clients” this month about his recent 1-12 (That’s ONE WIN AND TWELVE losses!
He wrote on his own site: “You see the records above. I can't be any more honest, any more truthful. I've never been a guy who hid his losers, because like I say, if I can brag about the winners, I've got to own up to the losers. I've owned college football in October. I absolutely sucked in the NFL. Can't be more direct than that. As you know, and as you've heard me say on hundreds of radio interviews and on national TV, I don’t win everyday. Cant and won’t. Simple as that. Some days you have to give back to your man some of the money you won off of him. It happens. Always has, always will.
The past two weeks I've been dreadful in the NFL. Not the first time, not the last.
It’s a long season. There will be ups and downs. And that's why you've got always stay within your limits and follow my money management advice.
Now, of course, for those of you that came aboard the past two Sundays or Mondays for the first time, what can I say other than I lost? I mean, I'm not going into your homes, ordering you to buy. And I have no control over when you buy for the first time. But, I certainly understand you're disappointed. And that's the nature of the business, and you know it as well as me.
We win together, we lose together. And whether winning or losing, you expect the truth, and that's what I'm giving you. The past two weeks in the NFL were awful, but as I always say, if you're with me for the long haul, you should make money.
"This is a marathon, not a sprint, to make money.”
Yes, those of you unfortunate enough to spend money on Brandon's services — $679 for 100 days — must be thrilled with that apology. Brandon Lang is the paid handicapping equivalent of Enron at this point. But those of us who are Brandon Lang fans can at least take solace in the fact that Two For The Money will most likely be seen on East Coast flights to Vegas in the next couple weeks.
ANOTHER DOCUMENTED STORY: "More of Brandon Lang’s Genius"
Finally, we've happened upon some information about our friend Brandon Lang/Lane/Link/Long and his curious background that we think should finally allow us to rest our weary heads about this. A classmate of Brandon's from high school e-mailed us to give us the whole rundown on what's real, what's not, and what's ridiculous about the mysterious Mr. Lane/Lang/Link:
Brandon Link: I went to high school with him; that's his real name. The Lane and Lang came later. He was a reserve player on his HS team, came off the bench, usually tried to do too much, fancy passes, etc. Could hit the outside shot, and was effective when he played under control, but he was no star. The claim in the article in his hometown paper that he was planning to walk on at UNLV after his stint in the Navy (before an injury sidelined him) led to a lot of chuckling. He couldn't start for a mediocre white boy HS team yet he was going to walk on at UNLV during the glory years? His pre-Internet gambling show was on PASS, a Detroit sports cable station. That's when he came up with the nickname “The King”. At his 10-year reunion he showed up in a car with the license “1-900-KING”. By the way, how's that for arrogance? At the reunion he drove up in that car, and one guy we know went up to him, pointed at the license, and said “1-900-KING? What is that, some +++ phone line?” Brandon was too shocked to respond. When I saw the movie trailer last week and saw a shot of that license, I cracked up. He wasn't a bad guy, just a blowhard who overestimated his abilities. It’s clear from his current PR blitz that that tendency is still there.
ANOTHER PUBLISHED STORY: "Brandon Lang/Lane/Link Fluffs McConaughey"
Crazy-ass toutster Brandon Lang/Lane/Link, the sports handicapper whose life is retold in the box office clunker Two For The Money, took some time out from his busy schedule of promoting himself and making crappy picks to talk about Matthew McConaughey’s portrayal of him in the movie for, well, we guess his own website:
“Matthew is a big sports fan and has been known to try his luck in the Vegas sportsbooks. In speaking to Matthew prior to shooting the movie, the dialogue in the script told him all he needed to know. The emotions that he had to draw to in order to play me were right there because he’s a sports bettor himself. I was thrilled to death with how Matthew played me in the movie and the roller coaster ride he takes viewers on properly portrays what I went through.
One of the greatest compliments I've ever received in my life came from Matthew, he said “Thank you for bringing me a character where I had to dig down and draw on the emotions that every actor dreams about. This was by far my most enjoyable role.”
Aw…who has warm fuzzies? We hope “Matthew” enjoyed the crap out of this role because we're pretty sure his leading man stock dropped around 30 points in the eyes of Hollywood after another stinker.
WANT ANOTHER PUBLISHED STORY?
Tout service guru and four-named evil genius Brandon Lane/Link/Lang/Long, whose story is being “retold” in Two For The Money has hooked up with omnipresent sportsbook Bodog for a special partnership and changed his name again in the span of 48 hours. In a press release Friday morning Bodog proudly gushes about their new partnership with Brandon LANG:
“Brandon Lang, the man who rocketed to fame as a sports handicapper, and Bodog.com, the company that revolutionized online entertainment, have teamed up. In an agreement signed earlier this week, Lang and Bodog will work in conjunction to build a dynamic Bodog presence on his website Brandon Lang . Lang is the subject of the Hollywood film Two for the Money, whose premiere was sponsored by Bodog.
“Teaming with Brandon Lang seemed like a natural for us,” says Bodog Founder and CEO Calvin Ayre. “We're very excited to be working with one of the most successful handicappers in the world.”
Obviously, Lang's not-so-impressive record suggests he probably should not be the subject of a sports handicapping film.
Apparently, superstud football picking phenom BLLLL has yet to recapture the magic touch of his youth which prompted the release of his life story on the big screen in the upcoming Two For the Money. So far this year, Lane's free picks have been rather ordinary to say the least. Brandon's free pick tally so far this year? 5-8-1. His pre-season picks? 0-3.
Could his poor record have anything to do with the time he's spending on a second career? A la Hollywood movie star?
Having Matthew McConaughey play you in a film will most certainly go to anybody's head we are sure.
........................................ ..................
But then I found this little thing on IMDB. Here's the link, (pun intended!).
Two for the Money (2005)
Here is the LINK with his cameo/five second acting career!
Two for the Money (2005) - Full cast and crew
Apparently our buddy Brandon is also an aspiring actor. Or he may have thought the small, uncredited cameo role he played in Two For the Money deserved an IMDB mention. And be sure to check out the photo page, which appears to show a picture of Lang/Lane/Link/Long dressed in some sort of pajama outfit standing in a family room with a deranged look on his face. We hope that's his family room and not some random family whose home he invaded.
And whose head hasn’t exploded yet? They ask. Jesus Christ. If this does not make blood squirt out of your eyes, what will?
First there was the unreserved excitement of Brandon “Lane” and his web page at Big Green Machine, which openly complains about the fact that the name was changed to “Lang” in the movie: “Funny thing - they changed by name to Brandon “Lang” for “artistic” purposes. Damn if I know what that means, but it’s still me no matter how they spell my last name!”
Then in the Lansing State Journal there is nice fluff piece about Midland, Michigan native Brandon “Link” and his experience about having a movie made about his life.
Then there was the IMDB (Internet Movie Database) page he made for himself under Brandon “Link” because of his stirring uncredited role in Two For The Money.
And now we have Bodog partnering with Brandon Lang, replete with a spanking new website for Brandon Lang with no acknowledgment anywhere of the fact that this man is out of his ****ing skull.
ANOTHER DOCUMENTED PUBLICATION WROTE - "Brandon Lane: Enjoying 15 Minutes More Intensely Than Most"
Friday marks the nationwide opening of the Matthew McConaughey, Al Pacino gambling drama Two For the Money, loosely based on the life of former superstud handicapper Brandon Lane. Lane was a former college football player who turned his freakish ability to pick football games into a lucrative career for a tout service. Well, Brandon has himself a website and from the looks of it, he’s really proud of himself and this movie coming out. He also appears to have a little problem with containing his own excitement, even in two paragraphs:
People, just had the Vegas premiere last night and it was fantastic. The Palms gave me a great suite and the photo ops were fantastic. This is what I worked hard for and now its my time to turn it on. The Chargers on Sunday, Green Bay on Monday and now “75 Dime” winner #2 in a row goes tonight. I like this MAC game and will deliver a nice winner. October thru January have always been my months. I have won more in those months than any other month. Not by accident but by design. I watch, I see, I adjust and I win. Your job is to jump on board, ride me and win money. It is in this run that you will see why they decided to make a movie about me. Nobody else, but me. Over the long haul, I will make you money. Sometimes in the midst of your losing streak, you don’t think so but this business is not about a day, a week or a month. It is about the year. You roll with me and you are not only a customer today, I want you for life. I want you part of my family. You give me that chance to earn you money and together, we will own your man. Lets own him tonight.
Well, that's a little ****ing insane. Anybody else want to bump chests or break a chair over somebody's head? But if you were wondering Two For the Money opens Friday. It’s based on Brandon's life. Jump on him and ride him to the money or something. It'll be fantastic.
And so it goes...There's a sucker born every minute.
One last point..A quote from BLLLL's website that will tell you all that you need to know.
"Listen, they only make movies about winners - and that's me!"
How many movies have you seen about losers? Gosh, just last night, I was watching Nick Cage's "Leaving Las Vegas". Was he a winner? The list could go on all day!
ANY QUESTIONS? No thanks. Please cease calling our office to have one hour conversations about this DOCUMENTED FRAUD. Soon, the hype will be forgotton and BLLLL will be washing men's
balls again.
Until next time,
Greg Allen
ANOTHER STORY:
“TWO FOR THE MONEY” GOES DOWN GAMBLING By Tommy Mac, Crush Shot Sports
San Jose, Costa Rica, October 20, 2005 — The compelling story behind “Two For The Money” was unveiled at the movie’s October 7, 2005, release by Paramount Pictures. The film stars Al Pacino as Walter Abrams, a gambling-addicted cable sage and owner of a cutthroat telemarketing boiler room who enables a sports handicapping service in New York. He lures Brandon Lane played by Matthew McConaughey from another infamous tout service in Las Vegas to become his sole creation as “the million dollar man” for Abrams’ storied and ruthless sales marketing purposes.
These are about the only two facts that purportedly happened in the real life screenplay adaptation of sports handicapper Brandon Link during all his excellent boiler room adventures. However, Paramount Pictures, a sports book in Costa Rica—and especially Brandon Link/Lane/Lang and everyone connected with this film—want us to believe that everything portrayed on the big screen was actually true.
The real Brandon Link touts his sports picks daily—for purchase—from his website and, in the same breath, encourages the public to put all gaming deposits in an offshore sports book here in Costa Rica, a sports book that has been supporting Link and the film. The glaring conflict of interest is self-evident. Win or lose, Link gets paid in full while in every press release or interview, before and after the picture’s release, he relentlessly runs with stories to unimaginable heights and full of inconsistencies.
The reasons for these deceptions are calculated and manipulative. A far more interesting and compelling story—that of connecting the players in Vegas, Hollywood and Costa Rica who were involved in this manipulation—is better than the movie itself. How did this movie ever see the light of day, when the script was turned down and told to “take a seat” by all the major studios for the better part of a decade?
Passing on the script was easy: Studio execs understood that America wasn’t going to stand in line to see the underbelly of a sports handicapping tout service, even with all of its verbal flare and pyrotechnics.
The movie portrays Brandon Lane as a former college football player who is so clean living that when he first gets into the business, he can’t even say the “f” word? Pacino’s character lures him into a life of bombastic and fraudulent sales pitches to sell sports picks, providing Lane with $1,000 suits and prepaid hookers.
In reality, this movie is nothing more than an unrepentant, cheesy ad for the real Brandon Link/Lane/Lang to sell sports picks and entice gaming deposits to a sport book here in Costa Rica. Hollywood advertising in this form today costs somewhere between $60 and $70 million.
Check out this press release on the sports book’s website, published on the very weekend the movie was released: “Summer may be over, but things are just heating up at Bodog, starting with a unique partnership Bodog has formed with Brandon Lang, one of America’s top sports handicappers. In an exclusive deal just signed (and I’m telling you the ink is still wet on this one), Lang and Bodog will work together to build a dynamic Bodog presence on his website. We couldn’t be more excited to be working with one of the most successful handicappers in the world. If you don’t know who Brandon Lang is, you soon will.”
Yes, I hope you will, after reading this article.
First of all, let me say at the outset that I don’t claim to know everything about Brandon Link/Lane/Lang or every piece of the puzzle regarding how this movie came together—but neither do several people I talked to who were involved in the film. However, being in the music and entertainment business all my life and in the gaming industry for the last 11 years, the real life story of Brandon Link is an easy one to sus out from my contacts in Los Angeles, Vegas and here in San Jose, Costa Rica. Everyone I talked to has known Brandon for a minimum of eight years.
He did come from a small town in Michigan and, right out of high school, he moved to Las Vegas, where he attempted to become a walkon player for UNLV’s basketball team. Instead, he played only in recreational league pick-up games at the sports club, where he blew out his knee. To anyone’s knowledge, he never played football or any other sport on a college level. It was at this point that he went to work for Jim Fiest in Las Vegas. Fiest employs between 40 and 60 full-time salespeople during the football season to sell sports picks of his many handicappers. Brandon became a tout for Fiest’s 900 Score phone line.
Brandon Lane was on a hot streak, selling sports picks on Fiest’s 900 Score phone number when Stu Finer (Pacino’s character Walter in the movie ) recruits him to New York to be marketed as John Anthony, the “Million Dollar Man.” Finer wanted Brandon to develop his 900 number service the way he had for Jim Fiest—and Brandon did. Sometime after that, he became discontent with the amount of money Finer was paying him and left—not, as he claims in his interviews, to reclaim the small town boy in him.
Link moved to Los Angeles and became a caddy at the Rivera Country Club to pitch his movie idea, he claims; however, in talking to the personnel department at the Rivera Country Club, while they were familiar with his name, they have no applications or official employment records for caddies. Caddies, they said, are temporary employees, so they have no idea of how long Link was actually there. I called several times to try to reach someone working at the course familiar with him, and I was told someone would get in touch with me who knew, but no one called back.
This is where Link claims that he met up with Dan Gilroy, a struggling screenwriter who’s heavily bagged career had been carried around for years by the star power of his wife, Rene Russo, who also just happens to play Al Pacino’s wife in the movie. What an amazing coincidence.
When the script was passed on by all the studios, Link returned to New York to work for Finer. Apparently, he wasn’t impressed with that small town boy he had just rediscovered, and Link continued to work for Finer.
Enter into the mix, years later, Calvin Ayre, CEO and founder of Bodog.com, one of the most prominent sports books here in Costa Rica. Whether Ayre was approached directly or was just schmoozing at one of his celebrity events in Los Angeles, no one that I talked to knows for sure, but he not only loved the idea of having the main character in the movie tout his sports book after the movie’s release, but would help back the film.
If Bodog were not all over this film, then why did they pay for the premier party in Vegas? The entire production was shot on location in Vancouver, British Columbia (home of their marketing and customer service offices), and a featured scene in the movie was filmed at the Quay Lounge, owned by the Bodog Entertainment Group.
The domain name of Brandonlane.com wasn’t purchased until March of 2004 when the movie deal was finalized, and Brandonlang.com wasn’t created until September of 2004 when the movie went into production. Then the very week the film was released, Bodog announced to the world that they are so proud to have just signed an exclusive deal with Brandon Link/Lane/Lang.
Bodog goes down gambling on a movie that, the second week of release, did only half the box office that it did in the first. The DVD is coming to a cutout bin near you.
Finally, Your Honor, the real crime here is not just the out and out lies, fabrications, inconsistencies and exaggerations of a handicapper telling you to bet everything you have—including your children’s children—on his opinion of a game, but rather a sports book and his many willing accomplices in the movie industry that enable him to do so.
ucking:
hno: Only in the USA ......
