With the help of CBS Sportsline,
Vegas Insider was certainly the first major player as far as sports betting information is
concerned. They also had, shall we say, “cozy” relationship with Sportsbook.com
and helped vault that entity as one of the first multinational sportsbooks.

Much like OffshoreInsiders.com
has been since Day 1 and remains unchanged, for the first several years of its existence,
VegasInsider.com hired handicappers based purely on credibility, led by the
universally respected Russ Culver. All the original handicappers such as the
late Mike Lee and Ken White,were
considered credible by almost all industry insiders.

The problem was the commission rate that VegasInsider paid was pittance and all the top handicappers
went elsewhere.

Vegas Insider then did an about face and developed
partnerships with the likes of Stu Feiner and Wayne Root, touts better known for their
marketing prowess than sports
handicapping,

They even briefly tried a relationship with radio
handicapping pioneer Dave “the Meatman” Scandaliato. Very few sports handicappers have had
long-term relationships with Vegas Insider, essentially because the top
tipsters are paid fish heads and rice and eventually seek employment elsewhere.

During our Freescoreboard.com and OffshoreInsiders.com,
we’ve been contacted by several Vegas Insider alumni looking to make the move
upwards. Mark Franco was the only Vegas Insider expatriate who displayed
handicapping skills good enough to be brought on board, but his abilities fell
short of Joe Duffy, Mike Godsey, Leo Shafto, AnimalSportsPicks,
Stevie Vincent, the SuperLockLine (now MasterLockLine.com)
and he was only a notch better than Oscar Charles Dooley, Jack Stroud, and the
Maniac.