About a month ago, I noticed a friend of mine posting links to a new blog he was writing for on my Twitter feed. After reading a few articles, I could tell that the vibe of the site matched my interests as well as my sense of humor almost perfectly. I enjoyed what I read so much so that, before Week 1 of the NFL season, I sent said friend a message asking if Branded has a sports betting guru. With the recent legalization and commercialization of sports betting, I felt like a weekly NFL blog would fit perfectly with their content. While I was welcomed by Branded with open arms, I was not told until after my first post that the site actually already had one.
Now, to clarify, I am NOT here to step on Ava’s toes; that would be nearly impossible considering how small they are. To be fair to myself, the picks in my column went 3-1 for Week 1. Ava’s went a paltry 2-1. So yeah, I pretty much dominated that newborn. I would brag that I have been doing this since before Ava was born, but that was like two weeks ago. In seriousness, Branded Sports is a team, and if you followed both of us, you would have gone 5-2. No need for competition between Ava and I, even if posting a video of an infant picking teams was a shameless attempt at click bait. Degenerate Dan and Newborn Ava; Branded Sports’ unstoppable NFL betting dream team. I am fully prepared to have a worse record than Ava come seasons’ end.
A little bit about myself; I am 32 years old and I started betting on sports when I was 16 and found some local Russian mafia bookie through a friend. Things escalated quickly. Since I was a chubby kid with a jew fro, I wasn’t getting laid and covering a spread was the biggest rush that I got.
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By the time I was 17, I had already broken down crying to my parents that if they didn’t help me pay my $750 debt, Boris and Anton were gonna show up at our front door in Adidas track jackets waiting to remove my thumbs. My parents helped me out under one condition; I had to promise them I would never bet on sports again. Naturally, I lied. I was hooked on the hobby.
Over the next 15 years, not only did I bet a lot, I learned a lot about the sports betting world and what it takes to be a winner, or at the very least, a responsible loser. My overall understanding of the hobby and my ability to avoid the pitfalls it often presents is my biggest strength. I joke about being a degenerate and I still bet consistently but not compulsively. I am disciplined and have a distinct code of rules I won’t deviate from. These rules assure that even when I have losing days, weeks, months and even years (happens to the best in the world), I am never at the point where I am donating plasma or cashing out my 401k to pay a bookie. I plan on incorporating a lot of my betting best practices into my columns as well as my plays. People don’t generally lose their ass because they pick too many losers; they lose their ass because they bet stupid and with poor bankroll management.
In time, I hope to contribute other types of content to Branded Sports as well. I am an insane movie buff and have written reviews for blogs before and wouldn’t mind doing it again. I’m pretty tuned in on social media and current trending topics, so I hope to contribute some topical content as well. Despite my Twitter feed (@Eagles_Dan88) consisting of a ton of insufferable liberal anti-Trump bitching, if you can filter that out, I’m always down for intelligent discussions about sports, movies, poker, and all things Philadelphia. By the way, I bleed Philly, especially Philly sports, although I have never thrown batteries at an opposing player or cursed out a grandma in opposing team gear. Not yet, at least. I guess I’m soft. Also, just in case you haven’t heard, the Eagles won the Super Bowl last year.
Go birds @tyler_olivieri pic.twitter.com/c2R4vvwoHJ
— Michael Russo (@RussoMichael15) January 22, 2018
I am really psyched that Branded gave me this opportunity to post and look forward to writing my weekly column. At the very least, my bets will all be posted with educated reasoning behind them (Ava lacks this aspect of her picks) and I would love to interact with readers to discuss wagers and answer questions. Let’s have fun this NFL season, win a few bucks, drink lots of beers and enjoy watching roided up athletic specimens give each other CTE for our entertainment. Go Birds!