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Sports betting tout Mazi Smith has been sentenced to 12-48 months in state prison after pleading guilty to fraud charges recently. Scroll down for all the top gambling stories across the globe.
Mazi, whose real name is Darnell Smith, has been transferred to DOC. It's unclear what institution he's currently at due to the site being down.
Smith often boasted of his high-stakes winnings that include wins like $1.45 M on the Chiefs and $548 K in another instance. He claimed to have made dramatic profits such as $317 K in a single day. Some reports suggested he has been in police custody since May 16. That just happens to be the day Mazi stopped posting on X (formerly known as Twitter).
The story has captivated Gambling911.com readers in recent months. While not a mainstream story, per se, Gambling911 has seen better than 50 percent of all searches pertaining to Mazi Smith coming to the site for more details.
The New York Times even profiled Smith as "a major influencer by flaunting his expensive lifestyle and his big-winning wagers. Other gamblers say he can’t be what he seems."
That paper interviewed a professional sports< bettor from the Boston area, 24-year-old Ryan Noel. If that name sounds unfamiliar, you'd be forgiven. Noel is none other than X Spaces phenom, Elf.
“He is where he is for a reason — he’s the best marketer in the business,” says Elf. Noel told the Times that would-be clients should ask themselves, when they’re looking at an Instagram page like Mazi’s: “What are they really selling? Are they selling sports picks or are they selling lifestyle? If you’re an uninformed gambler, you’ll look at him and be like, ‘Damn, this guy has the life.’ And he does. He has the life,” Noel says. “But that’s what he’s really selling. And that’s what the people purchasing his picks really want.”
Indeed, it was Elf who helped break the news of Smith's legal issues.
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
