Sharp Sports Betting I just noticed that Stanford is auctioning off the site this week. In his Q&A about the site, Stanford states that membership revenues generated by the site have dwindled to virtually nothing over the past five years:
2005 $112,516
2006 $82,029
2007 $40,181
2008 $18,909
2009 $6,482
Stanford also states, "Memberships dropped precipitously each year after the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed." The context implies the UIGEA is the cause of the sites failure. As they say, correlation isn't causation. In only one year, LVA Sports has attracted 3,306 subscribers at last count. I have no idea how many comp memberships Anthony is giving away, but even if it is a whole lot, the revenues from LVA Sports dwarf anything SSB did in it's best year. That doesn't support the notion that the decline of SSB has anything to do with the UIGEA.
Although not surprised by the failure of SSB, I am disappointed. Stanford's book and the SSB site actually got me interested in sports betting. Initially, there was a lot of great information and exchange of ideas. Eventually, however, any posters that added any value left (or were driven away).
I was hoping they would be able to turn things around over there and bring some value back to the site, but they seemed intent on staying on a course which clearly was not working and seemed to take offense at any suggestions for improvement.
Good luck to whomever purchases the site. I hope you can make it a valuable destination for sports betting information once again.
