The Sports Betting Champ Exposed

John Morrison, a.k.a. “The Sports Betting Champ”, is a Cornell graduate with a degree in Statistics (as his website will tell you, time and time again), but his specialty appears to be in marketing. His website, http://www.sportsbettingchamp.com, has generated more buzz in the sports betting community over the past few years than any other handicapping site out there. He boldly claims an historic winning percentage of 97% and a weekly income of $50,000. You would think this guy would have better things to do with his time than try to sell you lifetime picks for $200, considering he claims an annual betting income of $2,600,000.

You would be wrong.

John Morrison would like you to believe he is the patron saint of sports gambling, willing to lead you to the promised land of guaranteed winners and six-figure betting income. It certainly seems as though that’s the case. What other reason would a multi-millionaire have for sharing his gambling secrets with the masses, risking both his reputation and his ability to place bets by going public with a system that sports a supposed near-perfect record and is “guaranteed” to make you rich? Surely the money he makes off selling his betting system is peanuts compared to the millions he rakes in annually from the sportsbooks, right? Right?

Wrong again.

The Sports Betting Champ makes his money by heavily marketing his product to the public, selling his system by inflating his winning percentages and covering up negative reviews. For those that stumble across his website uninformed, the promises of easy riches can be very tempting and may lead to a purchase.

For the skeptical, a Google search for phrases like “sports betting champ review”, “sports betting champ scam”, or “sports betting champ fraud” will not lead to any unbiased reviews appearing within the first page of search results. All the pages that show up will have been intentionally created to make it difficult for anyone to find any real reviews without doing even further research.

These pseudo-reviews all read extremely similar (if not direct copy/pastes of a template) and basically spew the same garbage you will read on his main website. Most reviews contain a headline along the lines of "Sports Betting Champ Scam?", then go on to spread his gospel while offering no analytical information or legitimate research. These fake “negative” reviews are designed to flood search engine results and convince skeptics to overcome their initial sense of doubt and become believers (and more importantly, buyers of his product).

Don’t allow yourself to become one of those people! There are legitimate advantages to be had in the sports betting marketplace. These advantages, as discovered by Sports Insights, are based on years of research and can lead to winning percentages in the range of 54-56% on a consistent basis. Anyone who claims a consistent percentage much higher than this is certain to be utilizing questionable mathematics or sweeping losing results under the proverbial rug.

Of course, the curiosity over such a staggering figure as 97% is hard to overcome.

But here is what The Sports Betting Champ isn’t telling you:

His Winning Percentage is Not Based on Actual Won/Lost Records

The Sports Betting Champ system utilizes a three-tiered betting structure, in which individual bets are not counted towards wins or loses. Morrison’s system decides that a certain team will win at least one of three games and directs his customers to bid on that team, one game at a time, doubling their bet size until the team does indeed win. Only if the team loses all three bets is it considered a “loss” in Morrison’s system. In other words, a team that loses twice and wins once would have a record of 1-0 in Morrison’s system, not 1-2 as would be expected.

His "Units Won" Results are Never Displayed or Disclosed
 
Morrison does not display any Units Won results on his website, only the ever-present 97% winning record. The reason is that his 97% winning record (which is, of course, inflated) looks much better than what his Units Won results would look like. The nature of his system is that you are constantly making large bets for small returns as you try to make up for previous losses. The Martingale System itself only “guarantees” a +1 Unit Won in theory (the original wager), and the theory is reliant on having unlimited funds to wager.

A former user of the betting system posted the following information in the comments section of one of the rare legitimate reviews of the Sports Betting Champ:

“I have been testing the system for 61 MLB games… here are the facts so far: I aim to have $42 in profit for each game. In order for a win to be worth $42, a “loss” (string of losses) will equal $1,095 lost in his system. So far, this MLB season I would have 57 wins and 4 loses, which works out to a total of $1,979 lost.”

In other words, this person, who thankfully was not placing real bets, would have been down $2,000 despite a “winning” record of 93.4%.

He Disqualifies the Results of Losing Bets, Despite his Members Already Having Lost Money

Morrison will frequently decide to disqualify losses for various reasons after his members have already placed wagers. This keeps his winning percentage astronomically high, but costs his members thousands of dollars. He will state that the odds shifted and no longer qualified under his system, even if the odds did qualify for 99% of the day. He will say that an MLB loss doesn’t qualify if one of the starting pitchers is replaced, even if the pitching change is known hours or days before the game is played. Of course, all wins stay on the books irregardless of their qualifications.

His System Requires an Unlimited Bankroll for Marginal Success

The martingale theory of wagering, also known as a loss recuperation method, states that a win can be guaranteed if a wager has even odds and a 50% chance of winning and each betting loss is then wagered on double the previous amount. For instance, if a $50 bet fails, then bet $100 dollars to recoup. If that fails, bet $200, and so on and so forth ad infinitum. The problem is that there is no science to winning or losing streaks and probability tells us that a losing streak can go for an indefinite period of time. For a $50 bettor with a $1,000 bankroll, “indefinite” only needs to be five losses in a row to find yourself in the hole by $550, all for chasing a $50 profit. ($50+$100+$200+$400+$800 = $1,550).
 
However, reality is much harsher than theory; Theory has even odds and doesn’t have a vig. The vig ensures that each bet has to be progressively larger in order to recoup previous losses. Following my earlier example, you would go almost completely broke after only four consecutive losses chasing a $50 profit in the real world, with a 10% vig:

$55 bet to win $50 - $55 lost

$115 bet to win $105 ($55+$50) - $170 lost

$245 bet to win $220 ($115+$55+$50) - $415 lost

$520 to win $465 ($245+$115+$55+$50) - $935 lost

What You Can Expect by Following The Sports Betting Champ

In reality, there are only three outcomes you can expect by using this system: wager a lot to win a little, wager a lot to lose a little, or wager a lot to lose everything. The main factor in determining which outcome will apply to you is your bankroll and your luck. If your bankroll is large enough to make continuous large bets (1000 times the size of your unit bet), than you will probably win a little in the long term. However, if your bankroll is that large, you are probably wise enough to realize this system is a scam and not worth your time.

If your bankroll is medium to small then you will almost certainly not end up a winner. You will most likely lose either a little or lose everything, all depending on how lucky you are. If you hit a losing streak early on, you will be broke. If you hit a losing streak in the middle, you will be a loser and probably broke. If you are lucky enough to avoid a losing streak for some time, then you may win a little. To keep your winnings, you must walk away and never wager again because every time you start this system over, you increase your probability of ending up broke.

If you believe you’re lucky enough to win in this system, then don’t waste your time on the Sports Betting Champ – go to Vegas, find a roulette table, and put your life savings on “black”. Or maybe you should try “green”.

The Good News

The good news in all of this is that there are legitimate ways to make money in sports gambling. Like any marketplace, the sports betting world is full of inefficiencies that can be exploited for profit. Many different systems exist that use real research, not gimmicks, to find these inefficiencies and report them. This does not mean that there are such things as guaranteed winners - there aren't. Rather, it means that certain situations present opportunities where there is value in taking one side over another based on historic precedence.

There are some betting systems, like those found at SportsInsights, that have been built on years of research and have proven that a 54-56% winning percentage is attainable in the long term. Our systems are transparent, and we do not modify or alter our results in any way. We constantly track our results in order to find areas that we may be able to improve upon, and we listen and respond to customer feedback.

In today’s economy, it is especially important to make wise decisions with your money, and avoiding scam artists like John Morrison is critical. When traditional Certificates of Deposit are paying 1.5% and the stock market is a roller coaster, the 4-6% return our members can expect on a consistent basis is the best bet in town.