Smaluck tested it with 50 teachers in Ontario, Canada, where he lives, and although he said the feedback was positive, he couldn’t convince school boards to pay for the software.
With a new approach, he found a way to make it worthwhile.
Smaluck and his peers have long enjoyed prop betting – placing bets on specific outcomes within a sporting event, such as how many rebounds a power forward will grab or which player will score the first points of a game. And the software he created, a few tweaks later, provided useful data for researching what players’ devices might be worth. So useful, in fact, that his friends suggested he offer the resource online.
After a year and a half, props.cash is a profitable subscription service, according to Smaluck, and its red and green boards often appear on #gamblingtwitter, where bettors use them to support hypotheses or thank the company for their wins. .
“I never wanted to be in the gambling space. That was not my ambition,” Smaluck said during a video call from his office in Ontario, a painting of Toronto Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hanging behind him. “My ambition was always to learn mathematics; but it just turns out that the prop bettor is a math student. And having these basic tools helps them.
“So I’m still teaching math at its core, but not to the students.”
Smaluck — 38 and engaged to be married this fall — has a degree in math and statistics and a master’s in education, but he struggled to find his favorite post-graduation job amid a glut of teachers in parts of Canada. . Instead, he worked in data visualization for a newspaper and then as an engineer for startups, where he expanded his skills as a developer and learned how businesses work.
Now he works full-time to build his company, which employs eight people. Its product simplifies search — organizing what might otherwise be a dozen browser tabs into a neat dashboard — and simplifies statistical trends with color-coded charts, just like a math teacher.
This series will examine the impact of legalized gambling on sports, through news coverage, accountability journalism and advice on navigating this new landscape. Read more.
“It’s such a great, smart app that gives you a great starting point,” said Beau Wagner, an Illinois real estate attorney who, since mobile betting became legal in his state in 2020, has established itself as a high volume bettor. and influential. “They crunch the numbers for you so you can at least see the trends.”
The universe of available props has grown in the past couple of years, as sportsbooks offer more and more ways to invest in anything that can happen on the field of play. Want to predict if a run will score during the first inning of an MLB game? There is growing popular support for this. It offers instant gratification – or anxiety.
Johnny Avello, director of sportsbook operations at DraftKings, said more than 10 percent of his book’s handle is from prop bets. Bets that were once only offered on big games like the Super Bowl are now available every day.
Meanwhile, savvy bettors say it’s often easier to beat the books on props than standard or over/under spreads, which are more scrutinized.
“The sides and the totals are so sharp,” Wagner said. “The ballistas who run these books that come out with those lines, they’re brilliant. … I think with props, there are so many of them that you can find the soft spots.”
Avello, of DraftKings, agrees that props can be a little softer than other bets, especially as sites rapidly expand their offerings. And so a cat-and-mouse game ensues between the bookies and the punters.
“As we find ways to make the odds more efficient, they find ways to try to find ways to beat you,” Avello said. “I think they are getting better. I think we are getting better. If it’s going to be like that — we get better, they get better and it’s a setback — I’m fine with that.”
Props.cash – which charges $19.99 for a monthly subscription or $199.99 for an annual subscription – doesn’t offer clear advice on where to put your money, but it does try to make punters better.
Griffin Carroll was a props.cash user before becoming its public relations manager, a role that includes blogging on its website. He says he scored big goals this year shooting in a vulnerable market: goalpost shots in NHL games. Carroll publishes his picks, and his company’s green and red bar graphs—also represented in the props.cash logo—serve as proof of concept.
“People sharing profit receipts go a long way,” Carroll said explaining how props.cash has raised more than 49,000 Twitter followers. He added a caveat: “Obviously it’s important to recognize that no one is going to go on Twitter and say, ‘Thank you for this loser.’ “
Heading into the fall, Carroll is looking to own a spot in the NFL: longest running back prop. The joy, he says, is in the research.
That’s been true for Smaluck since he started betting a decade ago on Proline, a service offered by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission. Smaluck knew it would be hard to win, but analyzing the data was part of the thrill.
It is his mission at props.cash to make the search process engaging for everyone. He says he aims to “teach people math using relevant and exciting data,” regardless of his profession — which, perhaps one day, will include a classroom.
While Smaluck said he understands his connection to gambling may scare some in the teaching community, he still anticipates working with students. Finally, he wants to reconsider a career as an educator.
“I’ll get back to her,” Smaluck said. “After this prop trip is over, I’m going back to teaching math to kids. There is no doubt; it’s my trip of a lifetime.”
