Hooligans Sportsbook

Gamelive- Forumville Poster of The Century

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I started posting in the English section of a Singaporean-Malay forum called Bola Jalan from 2002 to 2003.

Then I moved to a European forum called Betting Advice from 2003 to 2006.

In 2005 there was a big Hong Kong backed Malay based sportsbook that was going to stiff all the agents' players. People on the outside had no idea. I figured the players should know. I posted about it on Betting Advice and the mods deleted it. Then I discovered SBR because at that time it was gaining the reputation of advocating for the players. I sent in the report and nothing came of it, no posts about it, no warning to the players, nothing. I don't remember exactly the reply but SBR said something along the lines that they had no idea who this sportsbook was. That's when I figured SBR was clueless and the reviews were a charade. At the time it was the 3rd biggest operation in Asia and tens of millions of dollars were stiffed about 3 months after my whistleblower attempts.

Then I stayed lurking on SBR from 2005 on. In 2008 (or maybe it was 2007) I decided to start posting. I'm certainly not the oldest.
 
I'm pretty sure I started posting at TheRX around 2001-2002. I was in a dispute with SIA over a $2k withdrawal and Bill Dozer mediated it (and got me paid ) I was stuck in one of those kafkaesque administrative loops where it seemed like the book was using any excuse not to pay out. In hindsight, I think customer service was just super disorganized back then.

Less then a decade later I put my erect penis in a TP roll and Bread called me gay. Good times.

RIP The Shrink
 
Crazy how influential forumville has been on my life.

Originally signed up at SBR to post my college football pick videos. Got chucked by Willie Bee, but pleaded my case... wasn't selling anything, was just a fan. He allowed it.

SBR golden years were SBR golden years. Led to my eventual move out to San Antonio for the job. Absolutely wild in hindsight how underpaid and underutilized I was, but I was only 23 then, seemed like the coolest thing in the world (and was definitely an adventure I remember fondly despite the job itself not working out). Learned a lot about being independent then.

And it was here at GL shortly after the SBR fallout that Puckoff reconnected with me and got me a freelance gig at OddsShark.com. Started at 3 cents a word back in 2010. Was up to 18c/word by the time that gig came to a close just a couple years ago.

Had other jobs and careers along the way, but that one was always the undercurrent I could count on to pay the bills. And eventually by virtue of how long I'd been doing it for an established client like OS, I could get enough freelance gigs to do it full time. Eventually spun that into the full-time opportunity I've got now.

No GameLive, lose touch with all of you and never get that offer from Puckoff to spark the whole thing. Crazy stuff. And to think, I'm not even a real GameLiver.
 
Blitty
I never knew about your connection to Puckoff. You guys seem like complete opposites lol. 3cents to 18cents is an impressive price hike!
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Yeah Pucky is the man! Funny how different a lot of us are really, but it all works out in forumville. For us it was definitely our mutual love of hockey that sparked us clicking, I think.

And yeah I just asked for a raise every 1-2 years and always got it approved 😂. .03 > .05 > .08 > .10 > .12 > .15 > .18. Funny to imagine if I was one of those too-nervous-to-ask-for-raises folks I may have stayed at .03 the whole run.

One of the coolest parts of turning my BC freelance gig into a full time job was being able to see freelancer wages from the other side. Everything from .08 to .15, I was the only .20 on the list. Consider this your reminder to know your worth and negotiate folks!
 
Are you still able to get paid by the word Davey? I did that for a long time as a writer/translator, it was a pretty sweet deal. It's all gone now, and all my old colleagues are doing something else.

I was paid A DOLLAR A WORD by CAA in 2016-2017 to write bullshit listicles about cars and motorcycles. 500 words, $500, one to three articles a week. Sometimes I could bang one out in 90 mins if I knew the subject well.

Translation was between 10 and 30 cents a word depending on the source content. 2008 was my best year by far, I'll probably never make that much money again. Sometimes I would get fed repeat content that was slightly edited and my translation would barely change. I'd get paid twice to have my translation memory software tell me the source text was a 99% match to something I'd done previously. Feltgoodman.
 
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