Love 20/20 Sports Betting? Readers share 100 books like 20/20 Sports Betting...

By Logan Fields,

Here are 100 books that 20/20 Sports Betting fans have personally recommended if you like 20/20 Sports Betting. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Fast Company: How Six Master Gamblers Defy the Odds - and Always Win

Arnold Snyder Author Of Radical Blackjack

From my list on those contemplating gambling as a profession.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was a mailman when I became obsessed with card counting at blackjack. Not having enough money to play at a pro level, I decided to sell a mathematical formula Iā€™d devised for evaluating games and systems. I offered it for sale through gambling newsletters at $100. I immediately had big sales because no one had ever seen a method for estimating card countersā€™ win rates. I got letters from college math professors asking me how Iā€™d come up with the math. So, I started my own blackjack newsletter where I published my discoveries. I was inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame in 2002 and soon had big investors funding my play.

Arnold's book list on those contemplating gambling as a profession

Arnold Snyder Why did Arnold love this book?

Really fun true stories about six gambling legends. Titanic Thompson never entered an official PGA event, yet made more money playing golf than most of the top pros in his era, often by beating the famous pros at their own game. Minnesota Fats never won a major pool tournament, but made so much money traveling from city to city to hustle the local pool sharks he became a legend in the Midwest pool halls. Johnny Moss cut his gambling teeth in illegal poker games in Texas and Oklahoma, then went on to win the first two World Series of Poker championships in 1970 and 1971, winning nine WSOP bracelets in total, his last one in 1988 at the age of 81, making him the oldest WSOP bracelet winner ever.

By Jon Bradshaw,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Fast Company as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this classic book, Jon Bradshaw singled out from the world of full-time gamblers six men who consistently win - the men who year after year, deal after deal and proposition after proposition come away with their pockets filled and their sense of infallibility intact.

Bradshaw follows three legendary poker players - Johnny Moss, Pug Pearson, and Titanic Thompson; tennis player Bobby Riggs; pool player Minnesota Fats and backgammon player Tim Holland. His evocation of ambience and his dramatic description of the games themselves are fascinating but Bradshaw also deftly probes their minds and hearts as he attempts to defineā€¦


Book cover of Gambling Wizards: Conversations with the World's Greatest Gamblers

Arnold Snyder Author Of Radical Blackjack

From my list on those contemplating gambling as a profession.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was a mailman when I became obsessed with card counting at blackjack. Not having enough money to play at a pro level, I decided to sell a mathematical formula Iā€™d devised for evaluating games and systems. I offered it for sale through gambling newsletters at $100. I immediately had big sales because no one had ever seen a method for estimating card countersā€™ win rates. I got letters from college math professors asking me how Iā€™d come up with the math. So, I started my own blackjack newsletter where I published my discoveries. I was inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame in 2002 and soon had big investors funding my play.

Arnold's book list on those contemplating gambling as a profession

Arnold Snyder Why did Arnold love this book?

In-depth interviews with eight of the most successful modern-day gambling pros. Billy Walters, the most successful sports bettor in Las Vegas history, had a 30-year winning streak and was so feared by the Vegas sports books, he had to hire ā€œrunnersā€ to place his bets because the casinos refused his action. Tommy Hyland ran the biggest and longest-lasting blackjack team in history, winning millions from casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas. Alan Woods has won hundreds of millions using a computer system to beat the race tracks in Hong Kong. The interview format makes for truly compelling reading, as you get to learn these gamblersā€™ secrets in their own words.

By Richard W. Munchkin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Gambling Wizards as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Get into the minds of the greatest gamblers of all time. Read in-depth interviews with eight masters of the games. Learn how they think, how they play, and what made them successful.

The interview subjects include: Billy Walters (sports betting), Chip Reese (poker), Doyle Brunson (poker), Mike Svobodny (backgammon), Stan Tomchin (backgammon and sports betting), Cathy Hulbert (blackjack and poker), Alan Woods (blackjack and horse racing), and Tommy Hyland (blackjack).


Book cover of Comp City: A Guide to Free Casino Vacations

Arnold Snyder Author Of Radical Blackjack

From my list on those contemplating gambling as a profession.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was a mailman when I became obsessed with card counting at blackjack. Not having enough money to play at a pro level, I decided to sell a mathematical formula Iā€™d devised for evaluating games and systems. I offered it for sale through gambling newsletters at $100. I immediately had big sales because no one had ever seen a method for estimating card countersā€™ win rates. I got letters from college math professors asking me how Iā€™d come up with the math. So, I started my own blackjack newsletter where I published my discoveries. I was inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame in 2002 and soon had big investors funding my play.

Arnold's book list on those contemplating gambling as a profession

Arnold Snyder Why did Arnold love this book?

The author, a former casino executive, exposes the industryā€™s ā€œcomp system,ā€ through which casinos give away more than a billion dollars in ā€œcomplimentariesā€ every year, as an enticement to get people to gamble. Although the book appears to be aimed at amateur gamblers looking for casino freebies (room, food, booze, show tickets, etc.), the information in this book has been devoured by professional gamblers at the highest levels because it reveals the inner workings of how players are evaluated and rated, with tips on how to look like youā€™re betting more than you are, how to look like youā€™re losing when youā€™re winning, and basically how to look dumb when youā€™re smart. I personally made a lot of money from the information in this book.

By Max Rubin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Comp City as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Win every time you gamble? Is that possible? It is if you play for comps.

Every year, U.S. casinos give away more than a billion dollars worth of amenities to customers in return for their gambling action. These giveaways, known as ā€œcompsā€ (short for complimentaries), range from parking and drinks to gourmet meals and airfare. Are you getting your share? From nickel slot players to $500 a hand blackjack high rollers, Comp City has shown tens of thousands of gamblers how to get free casino vacations.

Since the first publication of Comp City, author Max Rubin has been teaching gamblersā€¦


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Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctorā€”and only womanā€”on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route upā€¦

Book cover of Million Dollar Video Poker

Arnold Snyder Author Of Radical Blackjack

From my list on those contemplating gambling as a profession.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was a mailman when I became obsessed with card counting at blackjack. Not having enough money to play at a pro level, I decided to sell a mathematical formula Iā€™d devised for evaluating games and systems. I offered it for sale through gambling newsletters at $100. I immediately had big sales because no one had ever seen a method for estimating card countersā€™ win rates. I got letters from college math professors asking me how Iā€™d come up with the math. So, I started my own blackjack newsletter where I published my discoveries. I was inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame in 2002 and soon had big investors funding my play.

Arnold's book list on those contemplating gambling as a profession

Arnold Snyder Why did Arnold love this book?

The four areas of a Las Vegas casino where youā€™d be likely to find the most professional gamblers would be the poker room, the blackjack pits, the race and sports book, and the video poker machines. Bob Dancer is one of the most successful video poker pros ever. Heā€™s written numerous books on the subject, has put together highly-profitable video poker teams, and is widely recognized as the gameā€™s top expert. This is his story about how he came to Las Vegas with $6,000 and within six years had won $1 million from playing video poker. Video poker is one of the most overlooked areas of professional gambling and one of the most accessible to players starting with a small bankroll.

By Bob Dancer,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Million Dollar Video Poker as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Bob Dancer is the best known video poker player and writer in the world. In just six years, after coming to Las Vegas with a $6,000 bankroll, Dancer won more than $1 million playing beatable machines. Million Dollar Video Poker recounts the events of those six years, with stories about his meteoric ups and downs, and lessons for players of all skill levels. Video poker is one of those rare casino games that can be beaten by a talented and informed player, and Dancer explains how itā€™s done. Never before has a top video poker professional shared so many ofā€¦


Book cover of Confessions of a Yakuza: A Life in Japan's Underworld

Howard Sounes Author Of This Woman: Myra Hindleyā€™s Prison Love Affair and Escape Attempt

From my list on biographies to put you in the mind of a criminal.

Why am I passionate about this?

The author of biographies, histories, and true crime books, Howard Sounes is best-known for Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, now in an updated edition; Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life; and Fred & Rose, the bestselling story of married English serial killers Fred and Rose West. Other books include Amy, 27, Seventies, Heist, and biographies of Paul McCartney and Lou Reed.

Howard's book list on biographies to put you in the mind of a criminal

Howard Sounes Why did Howard love this book?

A doctor interviews an elderly Japanese yakuza (gangster) as he recalls his life. Adhering to his own criminal code, the yakuza exudes a wayward nobility as he discusses the choices he made. Bob Dylan saw romance in this and quoted from the yakuzaā€™s dialogue on his album, Love and Theft.

By Junichi Saga, John Bester (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Confessions of a Yakuza as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This is the true story, as told to the doctor who looked after him just before he died, of the life of one of the last traditional yakuza in Japan. It wasn't a good' life, in either sense of the word, but it was an adventurous one; and the tale he has to tell presents an honest and oddly attractive picture of an insider in that separate, unofficial world.
In his low, hoarse voice, he describes the random events that led the son of a prosperous country shopkeeper to become a member, and ultimately the leader, of a gang organizingā€¦


Book cover of Bob the Gambler

Cara Bertoia Author Of Casino Queen

From my list on true stories set in the casino industry.

Why am I passionate about this?

Growing up in a strait-laced Southern family, I was always fascinated with casinos. In my twenties on a summer hiatus from teaching in North Carolina, I drove to California and became a dealer at Caesars in Lake Tahoe. My mother highly disapproved of my working in a casino, "a place so bad it has 'sin' in the middle." Eventually, I returned east to take a hi-tech job in Boston. I also began working on my MFA in writing at Emerson. My characters were breathed into life from my years in the gambling industry. You learn a lot about the human personality when you watch thousands of people from behind the felt of a blackjack table.

Cara's book list on true stories set in the casino industry

Cara Bertoia Why did Cara love this book?

This is a novel based on Frederickā€™s own gambling addiction on the Mississippi riverboats. Ray and Jewel Kaiser love to gamble, until a fun night out becomes a compulsion. They find themselves showing up at the Paradise casino all hours of the day and night, becoming intimate with the employees and escalating their bets. After visiting the area, I knew the scenes in the casino ring true and the dialogue is so on point, that you root for Ray and Jewel even though in the back of your mind you know the house always wins. 

By Frederick Barthelme,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bob the Gambler as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A New York Times Notable Book In this darkly funny story, Ray and Jewel Kaiser try (and push) their luck at the Paradise casino. Peopled with dazed denizens, body-pierced children, a lusty grocery-store manager, and hourly employees in full revolt, this is a novel about wising up sooner rather than later--"a wise and funny tale" (New York Times Book Review) that is "masterfully observed" (John Barth).


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Book cover of The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever

The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier,

The coaching book that's for all of us, not just coaches.

It's the best-selling book on coaching this century, with 15k+ online reviews. BrenƩ Brown calls it "a classic". Dan Pink said it was "essential".

It is practical, funny, and short, and "unweirds" coaching. Whether you're a parent, a teacher,ā€¦

Book cover of Tricky Business

Susie Black Author Of Death by Jelly Beans

From my list on funny men whose stories take place in Florida.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am Susie Black. Before I became an award-winning, humorous, cozy mystery author, I had a successful career as a ladiesā€™ swimwear sales exec. As you can imagine, I spent a lot of time in Florida. I interacted with progressive, traditional, and conservative buyers and sellers from large cities to small towns all over the Sunshine State. My experiences gave me a unique perspective on the social mores and hierarchy of Floridaā€™s diverse, multi-layered, and complicated society. 

Susie's book list on funny men whose stories take place in Florida

Susie Black Why did Susie love this book?

I bet itā€™s because I lived on a houseboat for ten years that this hilarious book grabbed me by the sea legs and never let me go. Nothing tickles my funny bone more than a group of people who have nothing in common and are thrown together on a boat out to sea but going in circles.

The antics of this ship of fools on a gambling boat who are seemingly clueless as to the shipā€™s nefarious real business make for a madcap tale of side-splitting laughter. 

By Dave Barry,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Tricky Business as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Extravaganza of the Seas is a 5,000-ton cash cow, a top-heavy tub whose sole function is to carry gamblers three miles from the Florida coast, take their money, then bring them back so they can find more money. Travelling this trip are Fay Benton, a single mom and cocktail waitress, desperate for something to go right for a change; Johnny and the Contusions, a ship's band with so little talent they are, well, the ship's band; Arnold and Phil, two refugees from the Beaux Arts Senior Centre; Lou Tarant, a wide, bald man who has killed nine people, thoughā€¦


Book cover of Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street

Barbara Rockefeller Author Of Technical Analysis For Dummies

From my list on for traders using technical analysis.

Why am I passionate about this?

Economics isn't really a good starting point for financial market analysis for the simple reason that its models are wildly inaccurate. As behaviorial economists like Daniel Kahneman have been showing, irrationality and the inability to measure risk properly are a very big component of the investment and trading decisions. But statistical risk management is also sloppy when applied to human behavior because people are not objects that reliably behave the same way under similar circumstances. So when you read an economist about markets or an engineer about risk management, you're missing a lot of the story. In the end, technical analysis is fascinating because how and why humans behave is an enduring mystery.

Barbara's book list on for traders using technical analysis

Barbara Rockefeller Why did Barbara love this book?

The subtitle is The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System that Beat the Casinos and Wall Street. This book is an easy-to-read narrative of the intersection of the grimy underbelly of betting--with high-minded math. It reminds you that trading is not conducted in a clean little bubble. Technical analysis can give you an edge, but trading is still engaging in battle with opposing forces; strategy and tactics can count as much as building an elegant technical system. 

Your opponent on the trading battlefield will try to trick you, like a general in real warfare. He may keep selling and selling after you have bought, triggering a sell signal in your trading system. He is hunting for your sell signal. The mechanical response is to sellā€”your system says sell, and you should follow your system. To exit a position when the market goes against you is named a stop,ā€¦

By William Poundstone,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Fortune's Formula as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1956, two Bell Labs scientists discovered the scientific formula for getting rich. One was mathematician Claude Shannon, neurotic father of our digital age, whose genius is ranked with Einstein's. The other was John L. Kelly Jr., a Texas-born, gun-toting physicist. Together they applied the science of information theoryā€”the basis of computers and the Internetā€”to the problem of making as much money as possible, as fast as possible.

Shannon and MIT mathematician Edward O. Thorp took the "Kelly formula" to Las Vegas. It worked. They realized that there was even more money to be made in the stock market. Thorpā€¦


Book cover of No Limit: The Rise and Fall of Bob Stupak and Las Vegas' Stratosphere Tower

Mark Bollman Author Of Basic Gambling Mathematics: The Numbers Behind the Neon

From my list on people who challenged Las Vegas.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve been playing card games since childhood, and have had a parallel interest in the mathematics behind the games for nearly as long. While I didnā€™t visit Las Vegas in person until 2000, the stories of how that city was built around the gaming industry quickly came to fascinate me. Digging into the details of the people who have made that city what it is and have come to make their way in the desert has been a fascinating sidelight that has enhanced my recent work writing books on gambling mathematics.

Mark's book list on people who challenged Las Vegas

Mark Bollman Why did Mark love this book?

No list of Las Vegas entrepreneurs is complete without Bob Stupak, the marketing mastermind who successfully sold many tourists on a visit to Vegas World, a small casino at the far northern end of the Las Vegas Strip. 

The self-described maverick challenged the more established Las Vegas casinos throughout his career, culminating in the building of the Stratosphere Tower which now anchors the Las Vegas skyline. His story mingling success and failure is skillfully told here by a titan of Nevada journalism.

By John L. Smith,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked No Limit as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Of all the modern Las Vegas casino operators, none had more flair than Bob Stupak. The self-proclaimed "Polish Maverick" rose from humble origins as the son of a Pittsburgh boss gambler to head one of the largest privately owned casinos in Las Vegas, the infamous Vegas World. Stupak parlayed a small slot joint into a $100 million-a-year gambling operation by manipulating the local and national media with outrageous stunts and promotions. His headline-grabbing handiwork is now the stuff of Las Vegas legend.

Remember Vegas World's VIP Vacation? Stupak's cleverly worded advertisements flooded millions of mailboxes around the country and appearedā€¦


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Book cover of Norvel: An American Hero

Norvel by Kenneth F. Conklin,

NORVEL: An American Hero chronicles the remarkable life of Norvel Lee, a civil rights pioneer and Olympic athlete who challenged segregation in 1948 Virginia. Born in the Blue Ridge Mountains to working-class parents who valued education, Lee overcame Jim Crow laws and a speech impediment to achieve extraordinary success.

Heā€¦

Book cover of A Rogue by Any Other Name

Britt Belle Author Of The Earl Was Wrong

From my list on historical romance heroes who were wrong.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love a romance where the hero has his viewpoint changed by the woman he falls in love with. He might become a better family man, or transform his politics, or change his priorities, but it all cases loving her alters him. Additionally, I love a heroine who is exceptional in a distinct way but overlooked or dismissed by others. They can be bluestockings or spinsters, reformers or quiet and shy, but theyā€™re all steadfast and they all derive strength from the heroā€™s support. In short, the love they find together makes them better people. 

Britt's book list on historical romance heroes who were wrong

Britt Belle Why did Britt love this book?

I loved this book because Penelope is supposed to be a means to an end, but she ends up being Bourne's everything.

Bourne wants revenge. He believes that his happiness lies in recovering the land that he foolishly lost in a card game. Penelope proves to him that regaining his legacy is not enough. She helps him rediscover the man he would have become if he hadnā€™t lost everything that mattered to him.

When he lets himself love her, he chooses to abandon his quest for revenge so he can be worthy. Bourne is an absolute sweetheart by the end and is completely devoted to his wife.

By Sarah MacLean,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked A Rogue by Any Other Name as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

What a scoundrel wants, a scoundrel gets. . .

A decade ago, the Marquess of Bourne was cast from society with nothing but his title. Now a partner in London's most exclusive gaming hell, the cold, ruthless Bourne will do whatever it takes to regain his inheritanceā€”including marrying perfect, proper Lady Penelope Marbury.

A broken engagement and years of disappointing courtships have left Penelope with little interest in a quiet, comfortable marriage, and a longing for something more. How lucky that her new husband has access to an unexplored world of pleasures.

Bourne may be a prince of London's illicitā€¦


Book cover of Fast Company: How Six Master Gamblers Defy the Odds - and Always Win
Book cover of Gambling Wizards: Conversations with the World's Greatest Gamblers
Book cover of Comp City: A Guide to Free Casino Vacations

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5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in gambling, sports, and logic?

Gambling 42 books
Sports 1,016 books
Logic 44 books