Pro Madden Gamer Turned Professional Gambler: The Story of Joke

When professional gamer Raidel Brito created a free gambling Discord server in January of this year, he couldn’t have imagined that just six months later it would have a community close to 30,000 bettors, all sharing ideas and cashing monstrous tickets nightly.

He also couldn’t have imagined that it would take him away from the life of pro gaming and turn him into a legitimate professional gambler. But that’s what is about to happen with the gambling hot shot on the verge of turning a side hobby into a fully-fledged business, with a subscription service that is set to land him a potentially bigger payday than any lotto parlay could.

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Brito, otherwise known by his online handle Joke, a 29-year-old from West New York in New Jersey, who originally made his name through professional competitions of the EA Sports video game Madden, is an entrepreneurial success story of the ever-expanding and exploding online gambling world. His Discord, called Beat The Books, has been operating essentially as a free VIP betting service since the beginning of the year, combining his own picks in the NBA and MLB with a raft of other handicappers sourced from the online gambling space to do exactly as advertised: beat the sportsbooks.

Speaking to Dimers.com on the eve of Beat The Books turning paid on August 1, Brito says he is surprised by how quickly the Discord has grown since January. 

“When I first made ‘Beat The Books’ there was honestly no goals or hopes for the Discord,” he explained.

“I never thought it would ever grow as fast as it did. I honestly just made the Discord because I love sports and I was genuinely enjoying doing research and then being able to sweat the games.

“To me it was basically just a side hobby because the Madden competitive season finished a few months early this year so I had a ton of free time.”

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While it might appear like an overnight success, Raidel says his love of gambling began all the way back when he was 13-years-old, when he started gambling on online Madden - a game he would later turn pro at.

“I remember convincing my Mom to add $100 to an account called Gamersaloon which allowed wagers on video games, and from that $100 I remember being able to buy myself my own system, my own phone (and pay for it monthly) and used to have enough money to buy snacks during school.” he said.

“I think that helped me become a responsible gambler because at an early age I learned how to consistently profit off of gambling without ever betting more than I could risk losing.”

A wise lesson learned. If not slightly illegal, though.

With a quasi-apprenticeship in Gambling 101 complete, Brito quit his job as a pro Madden player and turned his attention to creating his own gambling Discord that was in the ilk of many of the paid gambling handicapper VIPs that have become a staple of the online community over the past 18 months. The fact that the Discord was free to join resulted in Joke’s server quickly growing to become larger than many of the VIP services he was once in awe of.

Even though the Discord has been successful through it’s point of difference in being free for users to join, its creator knew that the decision to announce that it would be turning into a paid service as of August 1 would be a decision that wouldn’t be popular with everyone, but sighted the results seen among the team of 11 handicappers that currently populate the chat with plays that have resulted in an accumulative net gain of over 600 units in 2022.

“I was nervous (about turning the Discord into a paid service) for sure,” he admitted when asked about the initial feelings he had when making the announcement.

“I saw both points of views. Some people think I’m selfish for switching it to a paid service, but those people fail to realize the amount of time and work that goes into running a discord with 27,000 members.

“There’s always going to be criticism in anything you do in life. You can’t satisfy everyone. But I believe I put together a team of 11 of the best handicappers in the world who at the end of day will help every member who decides to join our paid subscription make more money than they started with at the start of each month and hopefully the people who have been in the discord realize that.”

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Whatever the result, and whatever the reaction, Brito is in line for a big financial windfall; just rewards for the past 6 months of hard work. While he did not disclose his targets or projections for just how much money he stands to earn, it takes some rough math to figure out that if just 10% of current members signed up at the entry level of a $50 monthly subscription, he stands to generate close to $150,000 in subscription revenue per month alone. 

Regardless of your thoughts or views on the online gambling community or paid VIP gambling services, Joke’s story and rapid rise is a lesson for anyone wanting to parlay their love of gambling into a full-time career. With online sports betting still in its infancy in the United States, the industry has become the new land of opportunity for budding entrepreneurs. Anything is possible, quite literally.

For Joke, with football season on the horizon, things are sure to get a whole lot crazier than he could have ever imagined. Right now, though, he’s focused on making his community the best.

“I have a ton of dreams and goals in life but at the moment, day in and day out all I think about is ways to try and make the discord the biggest, most profitable, and most enjoyable community to be part of.

“This is the main focus in my life.”

Follow Joke on Twitter!