CNBC reality show Money Talks featuring a previously unheard of sports service VIP Sports and vile potty mouth Steve Stevens is coming to an informercial near you. Unfortunately it perpetuates the stereotype of a scamming industry that has more than its share of pros.

1. VIP Sports Steve Stevens
CNBC Reality Show Off to Rough Start
Fair and Balanced Look

2. WagerMinds.com says
 CNBC is debuting a new sports betting
show “Money Talks,” describing the
program as following tout “Steve
Stevens, his stable of agents and the
clients who risk big dollars in the hope
these guys have the expertise to
consistently deliver winners. There’s a lot
on the line as we follow the gamblers
who wager a few thousand each week to
the whales who routinely make six-figure
bets. “
 As we were going to press, top site
WagerMinds uncovered some very
interesting info on the overnight

3. Lou Diamond Redux?
 This sounds eerily like HBO’s invention
Lou Diamond. The previously unknown
Diamond debuted on “Real Sports with
Bryant Gumbel,” beating a dog, a little
girl, and Stu Feiner in making sports
picks.
 Having been in the industry for a quarter
a century, I’ve built my share of contacts.
Nobody has ever heard of Steve
Stevens. But the trailer shows him as a
boiler room hard-core sales guy of the ilk

4. Jack Price, Johnny DeMarco
Clone
 In between his f-bombs, the trailer includes
the same clichéd hard sell the Jack Price and
Stu Feiner’s of the world have peddled for
ages. Topping the list of course is boasting
about always-unspecified immense
information he has.
 I will watch the show. Headlining my wish list
of what to ascertain will be if it is revealed
what that alleged information truly is. If a
handicapper has quality enlightenment, he
will divulge it to his clients. From
scorephones to anchor of
OffshoreInsiders.com, we have executed
such for decades.

5. Mr. 71.5 Percent

6. Knew About Show
 I was contacted a year or so ago by a
casting director for starring in such a
show; presumably this is said show.
Admittedly I was leery it was somebody
trying to pitch me an expensive
infomercial.
 Honestly, I cannot recall her name, but I
researched her validity and she more
than passed the test. She was a casting
director for a couple of reality shows and
the daughter of a TV bigwig.

7. Squeakiest Wheel
 But I told her the truth. I am not sure how
compelling TV I’d make. I sit at the computer
and compile information from endless
sources. I’d be of great interest to the small
number of professional gamblers, but the
non-betting public isn’t going to have much
fascination in seeing me read SID releases,
online newspapers, Skype with fellow
sharpies and peruse FoxSheets, Covers, etc,
while sitting in my underwear in my home
office.
 I confess that hard work and great specific
information is not quite as captivating as
rambunctious potty mouth made-for-TV
grandstanding.

8. VIP Sports Likely Won’t…
 What I’d like to gather from the show is how
Steve Stevens manages to hit that “ahem” 71.5
percent, such as getting very precise about the
information pro gamblers use to beat the odds.
What sources am I as a full-time gambler and
handicapper missing? Educate me previously
anonymous wunderkind.
 I am in the prediction business and first-rate at it.
In that realm, what I expect to hear: That Stevens
got his start at age 13 working under the table at
some restaurant run by the mafia, most likely in a
big northeastern city. However, the establishment
was actually a front for a bookmaking business
and Stevens graduated from mop jockey to
“runner” for the “biggest outlaw bookmaker in the
region.”

9. Philadelphia Inquirer
Handicapping Contest
 By comparison, my unofficial start was
substantially less glitzy. A sports fan since
birth, I grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs of
South Jersey. The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a
season-long contest in which “touts” made
five picks every week in the NFL. The
selections and point spread were posted
every Friday.
 I would use the point spreads published in
the paper—the same used for the contest—
and make picks on my own. With zero gilding
the lily one iota, I “won” by a substantial
margin over the so-called pros. Every year for
several years, I finished at or near the top. I
was a pre-pubescent handicapping prodigy.

10. Mickey Charles Handicapping
Pioneer
 In my pre and younger teens, I listened
to handicapping icon Mickey Charles do
a sports betting show on WCAU-AM
Friday and Saturday nights. Intently I
heeded the theories of the handicappers
of the era.
 Just a few years later, I got my first break
in the industry working for Charles’ “Dial
Sports” telephone score service, helping
pay my way through college. I have been
a full-time handicapper (or college
student initially) every single day since.

11. Steak, Not Sizzle
 As I told the casting director, unless
they are going after the perverted old
ladies demographics, I wasn’t sure the
TV audience was eager to see me
labor in my underwear in my home
office.
 Our clients at Joe Duffy’s Picks will
have to settle for prime steak with
minimal sizzle. Get entertained by
Steve Stevens and Money Talks. Then
get informed at OffshoreInsiders.com