The Journey

It has been quite the journey and I hope that through this brief biography, you will come to appreciate Moneyliners a little bit more because we are just like you. Normal people, from normal U.S.A., that love sports and happen to know too much about gambling and picking winners.

Like many gamblers, I was born into a family tree filled with addiction and we had one of every kind, mine just happened to become gambling. I knew how to play poker before I was out of diapers and was betting on games in elementary school for NFL themed pencils that were really cool in the early 80's. In college is where my genetic coding really took over. I started taking food from care packages that students were sent by their parents and most of my drinking money came from dorm residents who thought they were poker players. I started betting on the most obscure things possible. I once won $60.00 from 6 different guys betting on how long it would take a pot of water to boil on the stove for pasta with an over/under, and what tree a squirrel collecting nuts on the ground would run up. You would be amazed at how many things can be bet on, the possibilities are endless. I would bet on games, a lot of them, and I would drive from Dayton, Ohio to Windsor, Canada to play baccarat with the best players in the high roller room and pretty soon, they were chasing my plays. I was betting the table minimum of $100 per hand while wearing blue jeans and t-shirts and they were betting $5000 per hand while wearing $10,000 suits. I was not very popular at Casino Windsor because a college kid from Ohio was leading a pack of wolves into the building to slaughter the house. Each night I was in town, the high rollers would simply call the pit boss over and put me up for the night, first class. After I would leave, I would keep getting calls on my $29.95 per month, 15 minute cell phone plan to come back up, whatever I wanted would be there waiting. After a few good runs in Windsor, I bought my first brand new car, a 1996 Chevrolet Camaro and paid cash. Life in the fast lane took its toll on my grades. I somehow managed to complete my senior year with a 1.91 GPA but still graduated cum laude.

After graduating from college, I moved to Texas with my girlfriend and learned how to hustle on the golf course. I then moved to Germany, with my wife and got a real job, my first one in higher education. Little did I know at the time that the "job" would be the starting point to a 26 year career serving students as an advisor, faculty member, department chair, dean, chief academic officer and chief executive officer. I didn't gamble too much in Germany other than the occasional golf game and some baccarat in a back alley casino. I tried to work hard, got to do a lot of traveling, and enjoyed all the European continent had to offer. 13 different countries including skiing in the Swiss Alps and watching Pope John Paul the II deliver Midnight Mass in Rome, an experience I will never forget. Upon my return to Ohio, I was 26 and I had to make up for lost time. Poker was becoming very mainstream thanks to the WSOP and this new game called Hold'Em...ever heard of it? My favorite game of stud quickly became a dying breed. I started my own poker games, played at various places from home games to the underground circuit, usually snuck in a back door by an uncle, and every guy in those poker games placed bets on sports so I got into the action. I loved it so much, that like the generations before me, I became addicted. Obsessed with poker and sports picks while trying to hold down a job in higher education wasn't easy. I would play poker 3 or 4 nights each week and travel to Vegas to legally, without watching my back, bet on games. I had a very high rate of success early and often and kept planning my next trip to Vegas. I would hit 3 and 5 team parlays with the same frequency that most people hit single bets. That success hooked lady luck's claws into me even further. In 2008, we moved to Denver, so now I was even closer to Vegas but my gambling would slow down thanks to lovely daughter #3. It went from income, to recreational, and my Vegas trips went from every other month to 3 or 4 per year. In 2010, we moved to Phoenix and now, I could drive to Vegas! I then got my wife hooked on Vegas, we were there a lot. In the downturn of the real estate market, we were very close to buying a second home there for pennies on the dollar. Now, that same house is six times the price. That is one gamble I didn't take that will have me kicking myself forever. From 2010 to 2012, I would bet heavily in Vegas as the short 3.5 hour drive was just too easy to resist. I was making a lot of money and I was introducing new friends to the action. I would make them a very similar guarentee that you find on Moneyliners. If my friends, who were not sports bettors, would simply bet the exact same tickets that I bet, I would buy their losing ticket at face value and if they won, I got 25%. It was an easy way to get them into the action with me and provided our group with some extra money for the night.

In 2012, we moved to Utah, the most conservative state in the country. They will never legalize sports betting in Utah and playing a house poker game felt so dangerous that it could lead to 20 to life. I would only gamble in Vegas, which was still only 5.5 hours away, from that point forward. From 2012 to 2017 while living in Utah, we would go down to Vegas regularly, maybe once a month, grab a cheap hotel and bet on sports all week or weekend long. We would usually pick big events like March Madness or NFL Wild Card Weekend to create the most intense action. In 2014, just like everyone does at some point, I had that historic run where everything went wrong. My wife and I were there for March Madness and I was prepared to break the books like never before. I knew college basketball during the 2014 season like I had never before and I was coming into town to win big. We arrived very early in the morning on Thursday and I placed a flurry of bets, I was going to count the green all day. I will never forget watching our first game, one that I had in a series of parlays and a big single, Dayton v. Ohio State. These were two teams I knew very well. Being from Ohio and following them very closely, I was confident in my selection. I was on Ohio State at -6 and when game 1 of the second round hands you a pile of losing tickets right from the start, it is never a good sign. I could not win a game, it felt like I was going to lose every game, even if I bet both sides. Weird stuff like really bad calls, balls bouncing like they had a string on them, simply some unbelievable action. My wife was with me on that trip and we will never forget it because it wasn't pretty. I lost focus, had no betting discipline, and really responded poorly. It was a like a bad movie that she had never seen before. She was used to winning, having a ton of fun, nice dinners and shows on the casino's dime and on this trip, she saw what losing felt like and saw her husband, who she had always seen calm and in control, methodically placing bets and cashing tickets, lose his way for a few days. I fell off the proverbial cliff that trip. Our experience together in March of 2014 would prove to be a catalyst for growth in our marriage. After that trip, I took a step back, focused on the family and my career like normal people. I still followed sports and started playing fully legal daily fantasy football online which created a new obsession, the performance of individual players. I would analyze players to the point of knowing what they ate and every behavioral tendency they displayed at various points in a game and in certain match ups. Those few years of playing daily fantasy and getting to know so much about individual players started to help me pick games in which they played a big role, at a much higher success rate.

In the spring of 2017, we moved here to Indiana, the second most conservative state in the country. No home poker games, no sports betting, and Vegas was now a very long way away. We still would go more often than most, just not as often as we did while living out west. My wife was happy to see that I could go and remain calm, cool, and collected, win or lose, and that is how I have been each time since our first return after March of 2014. I still place my best first thing in the morning while she is still asleep but we then go enjoy our day by the pool and evening at dinner and a show. That was a significant change from watching games all day in the book. We have actually grown fonder of Vegas because we have learned to appreciate it for the great town it is without the gambling. In 2018, we learned that Indiana was considering the legalization of sports betting. They were going to follow the lead of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and several other states. That was when my wife and I sat down and said, "let's do this". I can pick winners, I can make other people a lot of money on their picks, and make a living doing it which is how Moneyliners was born. Just as Moneyliners was launched in the fall of 2019 and was gaining traction topping 100 new customers within its first 30 days, we were struck with the pandemic in early 2020 which stopped the sports world completely. Unlike other businesses that managed to navigate with a few customers just being served in different formats, the very essence of Moneyliners, "sports" was gone. There was nothing to bet on anymore except boiling water or squirrels perhaps. For the remainder of 2020, Moneyliners remained down and during that time, our family, like so many others, moved back to our hometown of Dayton, Ohio. When sports began again for our world, Moneyliners relaunched and has remained operating since. Now, the state of Ohio has legalized sports betting and will launch formally on January 1, 2023 with the usual brick and mortar and mobile platforms rolling into town. Moneyliners now gets to enjoy the best of both worlds, being home, and being in a state that will join the many others that have opened the books for sports enthusiasts.

I am just a guy like you, a family man who is starting a new business doing what I love to do and now I can do it transparently and legally as more and more states continue what should have been done 20 years ago. All of my friends that have made a lot of money off of me over the years now have to pay for my picks, they have had enough freebies over the years. They can sign up for a package and start winning right along with you. I hope you enjoy your Moneyliners experience, if not, let me know how I can help make it better for you. If something doesn't meet your expectation or you have a suggestion, please send us a note.

Sadie Nickell

2005-2018

support@moneyliners.com

260-999-3015

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