"Pisky, we need betting accounts, and we need them FAST."
The Early Days
Fulldog & I began our journey in the sports betting world in 2003. We were young pups looking for summer jobs. One of our buddies mentioned he had landed a gig on the Native reservation next to our hometown and the company was hiring. "It's sports, it's easy, and it pays $10/hour!" SOLD! We weren't exactly sure what "sports" meant, but regardless, it sure as hell beat digging ditches for an irrigation system company and/or washing dishes (the two jobs we had the summer prior). The job turned out to be sports BETTING related and little did we know at the time, would end up drastically shaping both of our futures.
Working at a sportsbook is unique to say the least. Goodbye weekends, goodbye holidays, goodbye anything that resembles a traditional "9-5" lifestyle. Many people scoff at such obligations, but we were mesmerized by it. Call after call, bet after bet. Weekends were crazy, the phone never stopped. A random Wednesday afternoon during baseball season - those were a walk in the park. Catch up on some homework, read a book, heck, even throw a movie on your portable DVD player. It was during those quiet times that we wracked our brains for YEARS. Imagine if we could figure out something that could make us a little scratch on the side. I believe these days, they call it a "side hustle." Yeah, a side hustle would be great!
Over the next 8 years, all of our side hustles failed miserably. Fulldog was still with BetUS, but now based in Costa Rica. Pisky was a couple years into his new ProLine gig in Toronto. We were both still firmly entrenched in the sportsbook world, but only on the bookmakers side of the ledger. "Hey Fulldog, there's this new website called Betfair where you can trade games like they're stocks. I make $1 regardless of who wins the Lakers & Spurs game tonight!" The reaction I received from breaking that news was equivalent to being pants'd in front of an auditorium full of people....outdoors....in the midst of a Canadian winter. I stuck with it though. Believe it or not, Pisky HATES gambling, so this was perfect. Risk free sports betting! AKA - Arbitrage.
Those meager "$1 guaranteed" wagers turned into THIS. Banfield Group - Always Betting. I shit you not. @Drake, we need to have a sit down to discuss royalties on that "started from the bottom" hymn. It's quite astonishing to sit here and reminisce about the early days. Who would have ever thought? Nobody is the correct answer. The story gets crazier too, but we'll save those details for the podcast. A few months after the initial "$1 guaranteed" bets were cashed, "Pisky, we need accounts and we need them FAST" was born. Banfield Group was born.