Artificial Intelligence and Sports Betting Analysis: Good or Bad?

Well, the day has finally come. I am the living embodiment of the old man yelling at the cloud, as new technology - and artificial intelligence - creeps its way into the sports gambling landscape, and I’ve decided I need to put up a fight. Sure, it may be a silly and fruitless endeavor, but I’ve never claimed to be the most reasonable person and, every once in a while, I have to stand up for what actually matters.

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Many of you might not know this, but writing is how this character got its start. I was a nobody with a love of sports gambling who wanted to take some unused creative brainpower and try to bring back the dying art form of humorous but thoughtful sports content.

Places like ESPN, Bleacher Report, and even Barstool had long since given up on short form articles that made you laugh in favor of clickbait and other forms of media like podcasting or video. And, even though there is hardly any money in writing these days, I grew up reading high quality articles on those sites and even in the physical newspaper (yes, I’m that old) and I believed it was something people still wanted.

Over the last few years, my hopes of making it big via high quality written content haven't exactly come to pass. Maybe I’m not that good, or maybe people just don’t care, and I can live with both of those realities. But, even with a very moderate following, I’ve found that there are some people who really do gravitate towards what I write and how I operate, which has led to a small but committed group of followers who call themselves “the gaggle of morons.”

Interestingly, though, gambling media hasn't forsaken articles, and every twitter capper with half a following is out there writing short-form pieces for websites to make a few bucks per submission. Some of them are ok, many of them not, but they still flood the timeline of every person on gambling twitter. So where’s the problem? Well, we’ve surpassed the point of “dull” and hit the point of “soulless.”

As this account grows, many of you may be wondering "why is there a weird guy pretending to be a cartoon prospector who spends his time helping people gamble and making way too many unnecessary jokes"

Here's your answerhttps://t.co/QJtEcIfpHr

— Prospector Sam ⛏️ (@prospector_sam) June 27, 2022

As of this week, one platform can be seen on social media proudly promoting their new AI assisted technology, bragging about how YOU (yes you!) can skip the entire hassle of writing your analysis by simply plugging a few ideas into their system that will then spit out a warped piece of lifeless garbage. And that, my friends, is where I draw the line.

To begin, why even fucking bother? If you cant find the time to produce a few lines about an angle you like or a pick you want people to tail, we’ve got some serious problems. Not only is that a big old red flag that maybe the person giving out the picks isn't someone you should be tailing, but it also tells you that they cant even give up 10 minutes while expecting you to risk your money. If write ups aren’t your thing, just own it rather than selling readers a “home” that’s actually just a cardboard cutout.

Even more important, from my standpoint, is that this technology could kill off a lot of the writers who actually make high quality content for their readers. Not only will AI-generated pieces flood the sports gambling space with useless crap that’s no better than a mad lib, but it also turns real articles into a needle within a pile of manure or, worse, forces people who want to create quality content to just give up.

I may be stubborn and stupid, but fuck if I’m going to let that happen on my watch. At its best, good writing about sports gambling is a way to make people think and laugh while also providing them with some valuable information. Even without the creative quality, it still gives the reader insight into the brain of the handicapper and allows them to pick up on reasons they agree or disagree with the analysis. It’s both a tool and an art form, not a way to just fill space before giving out picks.

By putting this technology out there, they are taking both of those benefits away from readers. This isn't some administrative email being sent out to a company or a middle school essay on the Roman Army - it’s something with actual value. You might be cynical about the cultural or even artistic aspect of it, and I’m not here to say that anyone on gambling twitter is putting out Pulitzer Prize level work, but what people currently put out is thoughtful and meaningful - if it weren't. then companies wouldn't pay for it and nobody would click on it.

So what is the point of this rant, aside from a cathartic way to blow off some steam? Well, you can choose what matters. AI has its place in sports gambling and brings A TON of value in data and modeling that I 100% get behind (hence why I write for Dimers), but there’s got to be a fucking line. The same way people still gravitate towards real people giving out picks, you can gravitate towards real content - not just because I want you to but because it’s also a lot more useful to you.

With all that said, I leave with a parting thought; does reading an AI algorithm’s “ideas on a sports bet” really help you at all? Good technology makes your life easier, but all this technology does is take a basic idea and wrap it in a massive box filled with empty space. They’re saying “you’re too stupid to even care whether or not someone had to put thought into this, we can just spoon feed you a bunch of buzzwords and that will be good enough”. Think about whether that’s what you want, not just because I selfishly think it matters, but because it makes a difference to you. If I’m wrong, so be it, but at least I tried.

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