I’m not sure why I thought this was a good idea, but I ‘bet myself’ $1,000 in imaginary money this past week on all 14 NFL games, 3 NHL games, 2 NBA games, and all 5 games (so far) of the World Series.

It’s a great time of year for sports, so I thought I would see if – on paper – I might have potential as a sports gambler. The Supreme Court ruled last year that states have the right to allow sports betting / sports books, so maybe I could have some fun with this.

I started out strong, winning on the NHL MN Wild game that my wife and I went to last Tuesday. Then things got complicated. I had to build a spreadsheet to keep track of my hypothetical parlays and although I finished strong with the GB Packers win last night, I ended up losing on 14 of my 24 bets against the spread. I lost on 4 of the 5 World Series games.

In the end, I turned my $1,000 hypothetical dollars into $890. Not a great return. I suppose I could create a larger pool of games to bet on, but this was a good trial. I also learned that it takes a lot of time to track these bets, even over just a week.

Since I feel like I follow sports better than I follow the S&P 500, I think I’ll forgo a career day trading stocks, too. Think how complicated that would get. Especially at tax time. I think it’s better to stick to low-cost index funds than trust myself.

It will also leave me more time to goof off anyway!

Happy Monday – Have a great week!

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