Sports general discussion thread

[Brian Boru]

I didn't think this week's NFL games had been fixed to sucker in someone who'd bet $5

So naïve. The results on your news feeds were altered on the fly by AI for just that purpose. Listen to your overlady, she can save you yet.

Thirty years of marriage, and I still want to impress her

So romantic. But yeah, stick with it, cos past behavior [her putting up with you] does not guarantee future action—and sounds like you definitely want years 31, 32, 33…

 

[Zloth]

I fear next Monday's game. The birdies are all mad about something from the last time we played. I don't remember what. I think they secretly blame their quarterback, because they keep shoving the poor guy right into the defensive line.

 

[ZedClampet]

I fear next Monday's game. The birdies are all mad about something from the last time we played. I don't remember what. I think they secretly blame their quarterback, because they keep shoving the poor guy right into the defensive line.

Your team is Kansas City, right? My betting algorithm has KC a decent favorite to win. The main points being 1) that both teams have had similar results, but Kansas City's schedule has been much more difficult. 2) The weakest link of Philadelphia's defense is a strength for Kansas City's offense. 3) And, of course, the game is in Kansas City.

*********

I'll be glad when this college football season is over. It has not been kind to my Tennessee Vols. We're still rebuilding and don't have great depth, and we've just had one season ending injury after another. Also, they guy who took over at QB this year is just no good. But he's graduating.

The guy who will take over next year was rated the #1 high school player in the country last year. His name is Nico Iamaleava. You'll be hearing that name a lot in the years to come. He's got crazy arm talent, can run like crazy and is a generational play maker. If we had any other coach, Nico would be playing right now, but our coach refuses to play freshmen.

 

[ZedClampet]

My sports betting career is over. I went 3-1 and lost a parlay bet, so I only made about $24 this week. The parlay bet really irritated me. I got all the base odds from Vegas, but DraftKings changes the lines to make them slightly worse for me in every game. If I'd had the base line, I'd have gone 4 - 0, and won a decent chunk of money in the parlay bet.

I checked a couple of other places, and their lines were much better and that irritated me to the point that I just cashed out and called it a year. If I ever do this again, it will be somewhere else. DraftKings is obviously using a system similar to mine to adjust the lines, so that's really bad for me.

But it was definitely a successful venture. $135 is not bad for a starting $5 bet.

 

[Brian Boru]

parlay bet

That's an accumulator, where all of multiple selections have to win, right?

I checked a couple of other places

Whenever I check world sports events, there's a site I use which lists odds at maybe 20 places in a nice user-friendly chart. Should be similar for US sports. Check over a few weeks/months to get a feel for which places are tighter and looser.

 

[ZedClampet]

That's an accumulator, where all of multiple selections have to win, right?



Whenever I check world sports events, there's a site I use which lists odds at maybe 20 places in a nice user-friendly chart. Should be similar for US sports. Check over a few weeks/months to get a feel for which places are tighter and looser.

Yep, that's what the parlay is. I was getting so close every week that I decided to bet it. Unfortunately, I just got close again.

I'll look for a site like that. I may do this again at a different site next year if I can get free money again. Might as well. This time I won't mention it to the wife.

 

[Frindis]

But it was definitely a successful venture. $135 is not bad for a starting $5 bet.

2600% increase. You need to jump into the stock market

 

[ZedClampet]

2600% increase. You need to jump into the stock market

Everyone should be in the stock market. Been in the stock market since I was 22. How do you think I retired early? Stock market is a lot easier than sports betting so long as you don't play the market like it's gambling. Pick good companies and mutual funds and stay there. The vast majority of the years, I never sell anything.

My Nvidia is up over 200 percent this year. Am I going to sell? No. It's been a great stock through the years. Only reason I'd sell it is if I decided I wanted more income through bonds, which I don't.

I've already got my kids putting a little aside each month into mutual funds. Start early, finish early.

 

[ZedClampet]

Your team is Kansas City, right? My betting algorithm has KC a decent favorite to win. The main points being 1) that both teams have had similar results, but Kansas City's schedule has been much more difficult. 2) The weakest link of Philadelphia's defense is a strength for Kansas City's offense. 3) And, of course, the game is in Kansas City.

I was wrong. Good thing I gave up the sharp life. I hate Philadelphia.

 

[Zloth]

I was wrong. Good thing I gave up the sharp life. I hate Philadelphia.

You were dead-on correct for the first half of the game. Then some so & so snuck into the locker room during half time and gave the whole offense free buttered popcorn. Mahomes was the only guy who washed his hands afterward.

 

[Brian Boru]

I hate Philadelphia

Oh goodie, a team I can root for—Go Phillies!

They're the Stealers, right?

 

[Brian Boru]

Stock market is a lot easier than sports betting

I asked some lads to check out this assertion. Here's their 1-min summary findings:

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-SphJZmpu6c

 

[ZedClampet]

I asked some lads to check out this assertion. Here's their 1-min summary findings:

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-SphJZmpu6c

I had to read the closed captioning, so it probably lost a little something, but brokers are the worst. Never work with a broker. They don't make money earning you money. They make money in fees that you pay either way.

I had a job interview for a financial planner position ages ago and was telling the guy about my investment philosophy, and he basically told me that due to some contracts they had that he wanted me to only sell bonds, and only certain ones at that. Does that sound like someone you want to entrust your money with? They have no idea what your needs are and don't care. They just sell bonds.

Then I had another interview with a company, and the whole interview was about network marketing. They asked me to make a list of 100 people I could get to make an appointment with me. Not only did I not know 100 people, but I wasn't willing to harass even a single person. I just got up and left. Joke was on them because I then got a job as a mortgage loan officer and was the top salesman in the state.

Bottom line. You are the only person who actually cares about your investments. Use your own brain to figure out what you should do.

 

[ZedClampet]

#7 Tennessee plays #1Kansas in Hawaii today. Should be a good game.

Tennessee has an amazing graduate transfer from Northern Colorado named Dalton Knecht who some are predicting will be the national player of the year.

 

[Brian Boru]

I thought this project had a big chance of becoming a construction and financial disaster, but they seem to have pulled it off. Major congrats.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6m6h2ukSU0

 

[ZedClampet]

I thought this project had a big chance of becoming a construction and financial disaster, but they seem to have pulled it off. Major congrats.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6m6h2ukSU0

No offense to the people who made that stadium, but it looks like a fire alarm.

*****

Well, another college football regular season has come to an end. Tennessee took a step back this year, going 8-4. We'll find out in the next week what bowl we're going to, but I'm not sure I actually care. Maybe if we play someone interesting I'll get into it.

*****

Tennessee's basketball team didn't fare so well this week. We played the #1 and the #2 teams in the country and lost both. The regular season doesn't mean that much in college basketball, though. Just about every decent team makes the NCAA tournament.

 

[Zloth]

No offense to the people who made that stadium, but it looks like a fire alarm.

Oh, it does! I'm sure their marketing department can do something fun with that.

Kansas State vs. Iowa State was a bit silly. KSU had a bunch of turnovers. Gee, I wonder why? Maybe because you can barely see these guys in their white uniforms against the white snow!?

View: https://youtu.be/Nc4bqhVmywo?si=RUiCe61Mn3tcgFxN

 

[Brian Boru]

looks like a fire alarm

Hah, it does, doesn't it?

Max Verstappen

Kudos to Max for the greatest season ever in F1 car racing. 19 wins from 23 races for 86% win rate, beating the 70yo record of 75%. SuperMax indeed.

Katie Taylor

Well done homegirl, overcame the odds to become undisputed unified champion at 2 weights—heck of a job at 37. Hope she retires soon, she's taken a lot of beatings thru her stellar 23-1 pro career—the 1 was v last night's girl, who's now 18-1.

Nobody seems to remark that she played international football for Ireland too, at under-age and senior level—she once scored 4 goals in a EUFA U-19 qualifier. Quite the athlete.

 

[ZedClampet]

When I was growing up, I was a huge basketball fan, and the greatest sports hero I ever had was Dr. J, Julius Erving. I watched every game he played that was on television. I collected all his sports cards. And to this day I will still occasionally have a dream that features Erving.

I watched his final game in 1987 in my dorm room in college. It was the most emotional sports moment as a fan that I ever had, and in honor of my hero, I swore that I would never watch another NBA game without him, and I've stuck to that promise for 36 years now.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCxH3vurhsM

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzy4_GZ4jRI

 

[ZedClampet]

I'd guess that every big college football fan in America rejoiced last night when Alabama beat Georgia. I still haven't stopped smiling. Don't get me wrong. I hate Alabama. But Georgia, which had won 2 straight titles and something like 30 consecutive games, had to be stopped. And they were.

Unfortunately, the playoff committee then put Alabama in the playoff instead of undefeated FSU. That's going to make a lot of people's blood boil. There's a ton of SEC hatred in the rest of the country, and everyone thought this would finally be the year without an SEC team in the playoffs. No such luck, and now it will never happen because next year the playoffs are expanding to 12 teams from 4.

 

[Zloth]

View: https://youtu.be/VonatZtBeho?si=NO-yjrwZjSdHktx4


After the game on Sunday, I thought I would watch and see lots of other teams shoot their own feet. Chiefs showed up on the highlight reels six times - got burned on each one of them. Oh the pain.... the pain!

 

[Brian Boru]

PDC World Championship 2024: Luke Littler says he has played 'non-stop' since 18 months old

Luke Littler, the 16-year-old who has taken the PDC World Championship by storm this year, says he has been playing "non-stop" since he was 18 months old.

www.bbc.co.uk

"youngest person to win a match at the World Championship … also broke the record for having the highest average for a debutant at the competition with 106.12"

His average is 80 higher than mine

 

[ZedClampet]

PDC World Championship 2024: Luke Littler says he has played 'non-stop' since 18 months old

Luke Littler, the 16-year-old who has taken the PDC World Championship by storm this year, says he has been playing "non-stop" since he was 18 months old.

www.bbc.co.uk

"youngest person to win a match at the World Championship … also broke the record for having the highest average for a debutant at the competition with 106.12"

His average is 80 higher than mine

That 16 year old looks like he's 40 and been hanging out in pubs since age 3.

I always wanted a dart set as a child. I was always pretty good with muscle memory things like shooting free throws, pitching, etc. Not like "professional" good. Like beating my friends good, although I did shoot 90% for free throws, which is good no matter the level.

 

[ZedClampet]

The Nico Iamaleava era of American football begins Monday. Tennessee has decided to start the true freshman in the Citrus Bowl.

He's a generational talent at QB, but this will be his first ever start, and it comes against the #5 rated defense in college football, so I'm not expecting much. Just glad I'll finally get to see him play.

****

@Zloth what the heck is wrong with KC?

 

[Brian Boru]

Iamaleava

Where's he agonnago?

I just watched a true slogfest in my home town, the premier local rugby derby in the country, always a Christmas special. Driving rain all thru, and the ref had ongoing trouble with the cold biting wind accompanying it.

I got to credit both teams for keeping it mostly together and not making a ton of errors. Champagne stuff it was not—but enthralling? Oh yeah, in spades. Sadly, the better team on the night won 9-3.