Hello friends,

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted something here. The grind of the baseball season, providing picks and enjoying some Sumertime Chi took up a majority of my time the past few months. I do miss writing, researching betting angles and making 90’s movie references, so I’m hoping to be doing that more in the near future.

As for this article, I have a couple updates both about the website and me personally. First, I’ve decided to pivot away from the pick-selling business. I’ve come to realize this isn’t the direction I want Fast Break Bets to go, and it’s distracted me from my original purpose of creating the site. I try to be honest and transparent about my service, but it’s still a slimy business to be in and I’m not cut out for it. From the self-promotion, touting short-term results and competing against straight-up scams, it’s not for me. Only a true professional is qualified to sell picks in my opinion, and there’s still plenty for me to learn in this business. But while I’m learning, I’m hoping to teach others along the way.

On that note, I'm also hoping to be much more active here and in the #GamblingTwitter community by contributing a bit more than just picks. Time will tell what that entails exactly, but dropping "tout" from my title frees me mentally to be more myself rather than posing as a pro bettor. That may seem silly and I felt I was always clear I wasn't, but I always watched what I said or posted to  maintain a somewhat sharp image. That never felt right, so I'm excited for the coming change. As Derek Sivers said in his book, Anything You Want,

"We've all heard about the importance of persistence. But I had misunderstood. Success comes from persistently improving and investing, not from persistently doing what's not working."

Selling picks wasn't working for me, so instead of grinding through that I'll be improving and investing in both myself and the site in other ways. As I said, I don't know exactly what that will be yet, but I have some ideas.

Another reason to drop the tout game is that it simply isn’t worth it anymore, both financially and mentally. Unlike most touts, I actually win from my picks and projections so I have built up a decent bankroll to use moving forward. I’m still working towards becoming an actual pro where my primary income comes from betting, but the small fee I was charging isn’t worth the extra work anymore (not that I didn’t love my subscribers, because they were all incredibly supportive). Additionally, losing others’ money has oddly been worse than losing my own, so the losing days got to me more than they normally would. Since managing your emotions is paramount, it’s best for me to cut this unneeded stress.

I started my site as a blog years ago to mainly educate beginners and improve their craft, so I’m going to be focusing more on that moving forward (especially as the media continues to provide awful content and information). I will still have a subscription service for my projections for those interested, but it will be marketed more as a tool since I’d like to be more hands off with that aspect. This may seem similar to pick selling, which I can see an argument for, but I’ll be much less involved and I don’t want to publish that information for free to help maintain the edge I believe I have.

As for the personal news, I recently accepted a new job and just moved (back) to Colorado! This is another reason why I’m stepping away from providing picks, as my work schedule may limit my availability during the day. I’ll still have plenty of free time for capping games, but again the projections will be more hands off and posting plays may not be at consistent times. And for those wondering, I’ll be working for a skiing and outdoor recreation program in Aspen, so if any of you are skiers come out and visit!

I’ll have more updates soon but for the time being, I’ll be providing my football picks and MLB playoff projections for free (along with some scenic photos of Colorado) on my regular Twitter handle @FastBreakBets if you weren’t already following. I haven’t decided how/when I’ll release my NBA plays from my model since I’ll have the projections as a premium service, but I do plan on posting those in some way or another. I’ll have more news on that as we get closer to that starting up, which will be mid-November. But for now, sit back, relax and cash some tickets.

May the odds be with you,

Stephen