Making bets, you can involuntarily catch yourself thinking about whether anyone has achieved great success in this matter and managed to earn a huge amount of money. In this article, you will be able to read the story of one of the most successful sports bettors – Haralabos “Bob” Voulgaris (the nickname is known thanks to Bill Simmons’ podcast).
Haralabos Voulgaris’ biography
Vulgaris was born in Greece. Later his family moved to Canada. Haralabos’ father was poor but, having moved to Canada, he became a successful businessman in the field of real estate and made a fortune. He was also a gambler. According to Haralabos, his father could take a newspaper and randomly choose betting options. He sometimes saw in a dream some numbers and made bets based on these dreams. Bob says that his father simply did not know how to bet correctly and was a regular unsuccessful gambler. In order not to make such mistakes, it is necessary to select reliable gambling establishments the conditions of which allow players to win large sums of money.
When Vulgaris was eighteen, after leaving school and before starting college, he and his father temporarily went to Las Vegas. The father played in a casino but Haralabos was not allowed to go there (in order to gamble at a casino in Las Vegas, a person must be over twenty-one). Therefore, he spent a lot of time in a local bookmaker’s office and watched the work of representatives of this field.
There, in Las Vegas, Haralabos assisted by his father made his first bet of one hundred dollars, which the future successful gambler lost. After that trip, he realized that it is impossible to win without understanding what you are doing.
Afterward, Vulgaris went to college, got a job at the airport, and continued to make small bets on basketball.
Haralabos Voulgaris’ sports bettor’s career
Vulgaris achieved success in the 90s and became a very rich man at the age of 25. For one gaming day, his NBA betting turnover could be a million dollars. Especially successful for him were bets on the Los Angeles Lakers team, which won the championships in the seasons of 1999 and 2000.
In addition to bets in those years, he was fond of poker, playing for big money in Las Vegas and other major American cities where gambling was legalized. At present, players from diverse countries of the world can try gambling online.
Vulgaris Haralabos was naturally talented and hardworking. He spent a lot of time watching matches and analyzing the information. However, at the same time, he knew how to take risks in order to win.
By 2002, the gambler was at the peak of his successful career. The secret of his successful bets in those years was the bookmakers’ poor preparation in setting odds. Vulgaris noticed a mistake and took advantage of this.
Vulgaris was enjoying his success. He lived in Hollywood and paid $12,500 per month for the house, traveled a lot around the world, and, according to rumors, Haralabos Voulgaris’ girlfriend was a fashion model. At that period, he thought that it would last forever.
However, after some time, bookmakers figured out the Vulgaris’ strategy and made adjustments. According to the sports bettor, this was a real disaster for him. In the 2002-2003 NBA season, in just a month, he lost a third of his money. Vulgaris analyzed the situation and came to the conclusion that it would be necessary to change his approach.
Ewing betting model
The first computer program to predict sports matches was created in 1970. Vulgaris knew about all the research in this area and always dreamt of coming up with his own mathematical model of the game.
He needed a program to calculate all the matches of the NBA championship. Keeping huge amounts of statistical information in mind and calculating everything by himself was already too difficult. In addition, since the 2002/2003 season, official service of all statistics of NBA basketball has appeared in open Internet access.
The gambler began looking for a person who would be a talented mathematician and programmer. The search lasted for two years, and he managed to find a real mathematical genius. He does not reveal his name, calling him “The Whizz”.
It took two years to create the first version of the program. Vulgaris did not immediately begin to use the program since, according to the tests, Ewing had some drawbacks. Success came after another secret component was added to the program. It was introduced in 2009, and after that, the program began to produce good results.
Starting triumphantly, the Ewing betting model overtime began to give less and less profit. In 2010-2012, it amounted to only a few percent. Vulgaris and “The Whizz” constantly refine their program. According to the well-known gambler, their task is now not so much to improve Ewing but simply not to let it get worse.
Haralabos Voulgaris & Mavericks
Once Vulgaris claimed that one of his dreams is to become the general manager of the NBA team. Most likely, it was for this reason that Haralabos violated one of the main commandments of a professional betting player in 2010. He began to give a large number of interviews on the topic of betting and NBA to various publications and Internet blogs. Of course, this was thought out, like everything that this person does. He wanted to become a famous basketball expert, and it worked. Now he is the Director of Quantitative Research and Development for the professional basketball club “Dallas Mavericks”.
Haralabos Voulgaris’ net worth
Vulgaris is considered one of the most prolific sports bettors in history. Besides, he is an experienced poker player who participated in high-stakes tournaments in Las Vegas, Macau, and other major gambling zones. As for poker, his largest tournament win is fourth place in the 2017 WSOP One Drop event. All the achievements and winnings have contributed to the fact that in 2019, his net worth is approximately $500,000-$2 million.
Is he a liar?
A lot of people who are interested in the sports betting industry and have heard about Haralabos Voulgaris want to know whether the gambler has achieved success fairly. Of course, in such a case, you can not say anything for sure but, on the basis of known information, it is possible to conclude that the gambler just took advantage of a flaw in the bookmakers’ odds where the total points for both halves of NBA games were simply half of the predicated game total. In general, in any basketball game, more points are scored in the second half due to the fact that the teams utilize more fouls as well as time-outs, which leads to higher scores. Having found out about this, the sports bettor managed to achieve success.
Haralabos Voulgaris’ wife, girlfriend, and personal life
The well-known sports bettor seems to be really closed about his private life. As we have already mentioned, he had some relationships with a model in the past but they did not last long and the girl did not become Haralabos Voulgaris’ wife. At present, he is not married and does not have any children. However, it is still unknown whether he has a girlfriend. The gambler does not share any personal information on social networks and only occasionally jokes about this topic. For instance, not so long ago, on Haralabos Voulgaris Twitter, there was a message about his unhealthy relationship with Bitcoin.
Haralabos Voulgaris’ hobbies
Taking into the fact the gambler has always been extremely dedicated to sports betting it is possible to conclude that he does not have a lot of time for other hobbies. Of course, the well-known sports bettor continues to follow diverse basketball matches (at Haralabos Voulgaris’ house, there are numerous TV screens, which allows him to be abreast of sports news and the latest poker news in the world) since Haralabos is now the Director of Quantitative Research and Development for one of the professional basketball clubs.
Besides, he is also known as a poker player. However, he has not managed to achieve a big success in this industry and win any WSOP bracelets and titles.
As mentioned earlier, match-fixing became illegal in Sri Lanka. The violators will face serious punishments.
Read more: Best Indian Casinos
