Prospector Sam's Summer Series

Time to kick off the Prospector Sam Summer Series (PSSS, trademark pending)!  

The same eclectic writing style and weird jokes, without any formal structure or boundaries. Sounds like a brilliant plan, right? Right? In all seriousness, this is probably a great break for me. As much as I love the consistency and rhythm I get from the weekly betting blogs, I also need a breather from that stuff every once in a while. Working a deadline is more stressful than I expected (especially when you don’t get paid to meet that deadline), and the time crunch stops me from diving into other topics that I’d like to write about. Without that barrier, I get to kick back and let the creative juices flow whenever and wherever they take me. Should be an interesting couple of months for all of us, and I hope you’re ready to get weird. 

What direction am I going to go for the grand opening of this new project? Well, it’s not going to be quite as laid back and humorous as most of the pieces will be, but its time to take a hack at a topic that I need to address personally because its too obvious and significant to ignore. Today, I’m going to dive into why writing, and specifically writing for sports gambling, is still important. This might be an awful idea, and it will be really hard to convey, but I’ve been feeling like I need to make this case for a while so I won’t shy from the challenge. If it flops, oh well; not many people probably read my work anyway. 

These days, thoughtful writing seems to be a dying medium. Newspapers are going out of business, major websites are cutting articles to small, digestible bite sizes, and every platform is moving towards audio and video. In part, its just a reality of where the money is, and I completely understand it. More clicks means more ad revenue, and you give the people what they want because its going to line your pocket. No company is a better example of that shift than Barstool Sports. Back when it reached the internet, Barstool was a bunch of funny and talented writers producing a handful of blogs every day. Now, its loads of podcasts and videos about Tik Tok stars and a lot of other content I’ll just call “internet vomit.” And I don’t blame them one bit. They’ve built themselves into a media empire, and sitting around writing blogs in a basement isn’t going to get you there. But it’s sad that the writing, which is what I enjoyed the most, has fallen by the wayside. 

Now, I have a lot of thoughts on why everything is moving towards that type of content, but they aren’t exactly productive or positive to lay out. And, more importantly, I honestly believe all of that media has its place too. Hell, I’m out there right now making videos for Gambling Goal$ and joining as a guest on podcasts, so I clearly don’t have some moral stance against their existence. But, as I’ve stated before, I’ll never give up on the writing because I find it to be the best part of this gig, even if people give it less attention these days. 

So what is it that makes writing so significant, at least in my eyes? Well, I’ll give you a simple list of reasons to make it digestible and then you can decide for yourself whether you agree or not. Simple enough. This will probably come off at pretentious or judgmental and I promise that’s not what I’m intending, but I’m trying to advocate for what I believe, so I guess I’ll have to crack a few eggs to make this omelet. Now, without further ado, here is why writing is still important in the sports gambling world in the 21st Century:

Words Still Matter 

As a “writer,” I spend a lot of time thinking through the words I want to use. It can be as simple as making sure nothing sounds repetitive, or something as challenging as coherently presenting my reasons for making a bet. While my writing may not come off as particularly sophisticated or intricately thought out (which it probably isn’t, to be fair), I spend a lot of time tweaking and adjusting things until I eventually get where I want to be. 

The reason I do that is because I care about what I say and how I say it. Once those articles get pushed out into the interweb, there’s no changing them and I have to live with what I put on the page. And, while I try to make them easy going and funny, that doesn’t mean the pieces aren’t important to me. I want to write articles that matter to bettors in a way they will enjoy, and being lazy and sloppy wont cut it. 

Why does that matter for writing specifically, relative to other types of work? Well, that’s all I have. Videos, for example, have many different aspects you can focus on; the visual piece, the auditory piece, AND the actual ideas are being discussed. They’re engaging because they provide a lot of different interesting things at once. But writing has nothing to hide behind or to distract people if the content is garbage. You live or die by how good you are at conveying your message, whether it be the importance of a topic in sports or the quality of a joke. And, when it works, it really resonates with people in a way that almost nothing else can.  

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Less is More 

One of the things I like the least about the way sports and gambling are covered is the recent movement to “quantity over quality.” Everyone is fighting for eyeballs, and in the world of Twitter and Instagram that means trying to put yourself in front of people as much as possible. It works, especially if clicks and ad revenue or your goal, but it leads to a lot more misses as people throw everything against the wall to see what sticks. 

I couldn’t do that if I tried, which, I think, is a good thing. Even without a real job, I doubt I could produce more than a few of these articles a week. And I don’t think anyone would want to read my nonsense more than that anyway - there’s only so much of me you can tolerate (just ask my fiancé). I try to hit the sweet spot where I write enough to be consistent but not too much to be tiring, and I think that leads to some of the best work. Thoughtful, but not too long to make you want to kill yourself. Maybe that’s not how other people view it, but I’ve found the best quality takes more than a few hours, and writing forces me to create that kind of product. 

In sports gambling, I think that’s a big deal. One person churning out 500 bets a day or 7 articles might give people a bunch to look at, but it doesn’t usually produce high quality results. Not only do I have to think through bets carefully, but I also have to decide what bets are my favorite because I can only write so much (both for my sanity and yours). In all honesty, I think its probably made me a better gambler because I only make bets I really believe in. Who knew this gig would even lead to some self-improvement? 

No Trash 

I’ll start by going on record that there is absolutely nothing easy about producing high quality work in any format. But, in my experience, producing writing that people actually want to read is the hardest thing to do. You throw a 3-minute video in my face and I’ll watch it without even thinking, but getting me to read an article, or to read articles from one source consistently, is a much bigger task. I go to maybe 3 websites to read because they’re the only ones I know won’t give me garbage. 

I’m probably biased about my content, but I try to only put out high-quality work and I never publish anything that doesn’t meet that standard. I’ve tossed articles and restarted weekly write ups because I didn’t like them enough, mostly because I don’t want readers to stop coming due to half-assed content. While that makes for some frustrating days, it also means I provide people who follow me with the best I have every time I publish something. You may not like it, and that’s fine, but I would stand behind everything I’ve written for Dimers 100%. And, honestly, I take that as a matter of pride. I can’t afford to lose readers by giving them trash, so it leads to better work from me. Maybe it’s all a bit conceited, but I think writing leads to better overall quality than anything else because anything less than great is useless. 

Readers vs Listeners/Viewers 

This is probably the most important item, and it’s about you. Time to give readers a little love and credit. In my opinion, readers are much harsher critics than viewers or listeners, especially when it comes to big articles. You can throw on a podcast while you work or watch a video while you run on the treadmill, and still get a lot out of it. But when you actually decide to read an article or blog, it generally takes someone’s full attention and focus. That’s good, but it also means nothing will slip through the cracks and lazy work will be punished. 

My articles usually take about 10-15 minutes to read, and nobody is going to bother giving up that much time unless its damn well worth it. Even one boring paragraph and people will click away to something more interesting. Very few people have time to waste on weak writing, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all. Every sentence or thought has to be meaningful, and every argument for a pick has to be buttoned up or a reader will tear that shit apart. It keeps me responsible and honest, and it’s a big reason why I like writing the most. I have to convince you that I’m worth your time, and when I get a consistent reader it means I’ve done that. There honestly is nothing I’m more proud of than finding out someone comes back to see my work, even though it’s the biggest challenge in growing this project. 

The Pendulum  

Diversity of ideas is important. Video and Audio might be more fashionable right now for a number of reasons, but there needs to be some balance too. Unfortunately, these days it feels like there just isn’t much good writing any more. As I mentioned, that makes sense from a money prospective, but I think there are still a lot of people out there who want good writing as much or more than they want other content. The problem is that, as the money moves away from writing, so does all of the talent, and its lead to a shortage of high quality work. In that sense, the “pendulum” has swung too far leaving a lack of balance. 

I may be overly optimistic (for my own gain), but I really believe that people want more of this; Interesting and engaging writing that’s more than two paragraphs long and isn’t just informational. And, if I’m right about that, then it matters that me and other people fill that demand. I could be wrong, and people could just not give a damn about writing anymore, but if that’s true then nobody will read this anyways.  

This point may be a broader principle than the others, but I think it applies directly to sports gambling too. While sports and betting may be fun, it also requires a ton of focus and insight. It’s really hard to convey that hard work intelligently in just a few sentences on Twitter, and I think people appreciate seeing my full thought process (which puts me on the line on the line) when I post write ups. At the very least, it means I’m not hiding anything and I’m fully accountable for every bet. Even if its not my work, I expect that people will be asking for this type of detail over time if you want the public to trust you as a sharp. 

Where does that leave us? Well, if you walk away from this piece with one thing, I hope its that high quality writing actually matters. Maybe I wasn’t convincing and all I did was show that I’m self indulgent and biased, but I really believe that it does. At the very least, I felt I had to give this topic a shot as someone diving head first into writing at a time when everyone is walking in other directions, because this at least explains why I do what I do. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, and I hope to see you all next time! 

You can follow Prospector Sam on Twitter @prospector_sam, or chat to him every day directly in the Dimers Discord group

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