Self-Proclaimed 'Best Sports Bettor in the World' Refuses to Share $9.2 Million, Then Loses it All
Big name poker pro Joshua Arieh is not impressed with one Josh Ladines.
Here is the warning issued by Arieh:
PSA to anyone thinking of doing biz w the self proclaimed “best sports bettor in the world”.
1. I’ve heard nothing but bad/negative things about him from people that would know.
2. About 5 years ago Josh Ladines called me to purchase a large amount of Powerball tix for a group of poker players. Sean was part of that group. The amount ended being about $40k. I bought the tix and took a bunch of pics. Sean accused me of voiding the sales and basically screwing the group.
Josh Ladines doesnt know me too well, I had a friend call him and vouch for me, that I was honest and would never do that.
After some back n forth, sean offered to bet (I don’t remember $10 or $20k) that I didn’t purchase the correct amount of tix.
We obv accepted the wager, but Sean disappeared and basically backed out.
Moral of the story is that I believe he has larceny in his heart, to think that’s a possibility.
I’ve never heard anything good about the guy… maybe he’s changed
Brian Oki offered some useful advise in return, especially in light of all the cheating allegations over the past 12 months alone.
"If the poker community wants to ever be taken seriously, they need to use their status on player advocacy teams to spend less time on blinds clocks and more time on blacklists and protections. They need someone with a strong understanding of this process to combat the suits."
But not everyone is on board with those making the allegations either.
One individual on Twitter responded by challenging Arieh to "produce the tickets, or it never happened".
And here we are thinking it was high stakes poker player Sean Perry who's "the greatest sports bettor of all time", which brings us to the Circa Survivor Contest.
Meet the Gambler Who Refuses to Split $9.2M Circa Survivor Prize
It's such a thrill for us here at Gambling911.com to promote the Circa Survivor contest year after year. The event is truly one of the best in the world of sports picks contests.
Sadly this year's event has been marred by one contestant's refusal to split his $9.2 million winnings. Albeit the sports betting gods would come down to save the day. More on that momentarily.
Todd Dewey of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports the contest was whittled down to 13 contestants two weeks ago, 12 of the remaining contestants quickly agreed to a partial chop of the $9.2 million pot. Our understanding of past contests is that this process is pretty common.
The deal was that each entry would get $400,000, and they would continue to compete for the remaining $4 million.
The Grinch in this case - a last remaining holdout - was none other Perry, a high-stakes gambler and poker player who has almost $7 million in career live tournament earnings.
The 27-year-old, who calls himself the "Golden Boy" explained his rationale via Twitter.
“I said, ‘With all respect, I’m the best bettor in the world. There’s no way I’m ever chopping. I wish you guys all the best. I’ll see you at the finish line,’” the fast-talking Perry told me in an interview this week.
Perry did offer to chop if he got $2 million, because he believes he has an advantage.
“Why would I chop when I have an edge?” he said. “If you do $400K each, any money I take out of the prize pool is money I’m, in theory, losing because I have an edge. I believe I have the best team left, and I’m confident in my ability. This is what I do. I’m a big-time crusher. I’ve been the biggest winner in sports for the longest time.
“To be honest, I’ve kind of taken a big step away from the poker world and into sports because I’ve been crushing and making so much.”
Perry was eliminated from the Circa Survivor football contest the day before Christmas after the Denver Broncos lost 26-23 on a last-minute field goal by the New England Patriots.
As they say, Karma is a bitch!
- Nagesh Rath, Gambling911.com