Danny Funt

Pub Day: Joshua Sharpe, THE MAN NO ONE BELIEVED Today we’re starting a new occasional feature here on the Shed.

It's pub day for my buddy @joshuasharpe.bsky.social and his incredible book THE MAN NO ONE BELIEVED ... I did a Q&A with him about his reporting process, freeing innocent people from prison, and the magic of the pedal steel.

tommytomlinson.substack.com/p/pub-day-jo...

He Read (at Least) 3,599 Books in His Lifetime. Now Anyone Can See His List.

Lovely story about a man's lifelong book consumption. Seems like a character beyond his avid reading. I liked "The only things he asked for in the last year of his life were a soap dish, a watch battery and MSNBC." (By then, his eyes weren't up for reading.)

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/b...

The World’s Hardest Bluffing Game Why are some Iraqis so good at figuring out when a person is lying?

A mind-boggling game I had never heard of. Really expands your appreciation for human perception

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Extraordinary. If a props ban rippled across states, could the sports betting industry survive?

I've seen smart people associated with book publishing assert that social media doesn't sell books, and that's not my experience. I can't quantify how many books a site like Bluesky has sold for me, but it has given me a community, which has then spread word of my books to those who wouldn't see it.

Legal sports betting in Massachusetts raised $90M in taxes in 2023, @umassamherst.bsky.social finds. But MA bettors lost $450M that year and few jobs have been created.

When you factor in health costs, reduced discretionary spending, & the toll of more young people gambling ...

Is it worth it?

Sally is my favorite sports columnist. Obviously I'm excited for what she does at The Atlantic, but what a loss for The Post ...

Even in a departure letter, Sally Jenkins gives some of the best and finest writing you’ll read today.

Grateful to have had the chance to work with one of the all-time greats, a singular voice who lifted up Post Sports and made the whole place better.

Peak Chotiner, in a good way.

7) Lastly, I'm sorry for being a tease, but I can't resist mentioning that reporting for my upcoming book EVERYBODY LOSES happened to turn up some particularly noteworthy info regarding Malik Beasley ...

-30-

6)

-Fixing doesn't just mean intentionally playing poorly. You might take more shots than usual, go extra hard for rebounds, etc., to try to influence the overs on your props hitting.

5)

-A single betting slip doesn't tell the whole story. Sometime fixers will bet heavy on one side of a bet, then bet even more on the other side once the odds have moved in their favor. "Head fakes" were a signature of the gambling scandal involving NBA ref Tim Donaghy.

4) It's worth noting a few fundamentals about fixing (Beasley maintains his innocence, btw):

-Hustling isn't per se exculpatory. In fact, fixers often make a show of playing hard in some stretches of a game to disguise their intentional lapses at other moments.

3) The @pablo.show episode highlighted some loose ends:

-Beasley played well in games he's suspected of manipulating. What does that mean?

-Why did it take the NBA and FBI more than a year to flag those games, leading fans to keep betting on a guy who may have been fixing?

2) That provokes some obvious concerns:

-Why didn't the 3rd game raise red flags?

-How could the NBA/FBI probe of gamblers affiliated with Jontay Porter have been so cursory?

-Are there more tainted games?

-Will sportsbooks refund losing bets on these games? (fat chance)

1) If true, this represents an epic failure on behalf of the NBA and the FBI. The league is constantly reassuring fans that its surveillance of suspicious betting is airtight. Yet the NBA/FBI have said for a more than a year that Porter manipulated two games.

Now there seems to be a 3rd ...

YouTube video by PABLO TORRE FINDS OUT We Investigated Malik Beasley, "Moose," and the NBA Gambling Scandal | PTFO

Researching the Malik Beasley betting allegations (PTFO episode is def worth your time), those two discovered that the same guys seemed to know about Beasley and Porter before the feds. Pablo said he confirmed their digging led the FBI to broaden its Porter probe.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4u9...

Wait ... hold on ...

A few days of social media sleuthing from @pablo.show and @tomhaberstroh.bsky.social turned up ANOTHER potentially manipulated Jontay Porter game that the FBI (and presumably the NBA) had failed to identify after months of investigating?!

Some thoughts 🧵

"endlessly captivating" is pretty much the ideal review. Sounds like an awesome book

A cleaner conscience Why one writer left gambling trade publications to launch a new venture, GamblingHarm.org.

I wrote about Brian in my newsletter 👇

dannyfunt.substack.com/p/a-cleaner-...

Brian Pempus spent years writing for poker and sports betting affiliate sites, but seeing the damage that gambling can do ate at him.

A few months ago, he launched @gamblingharm.org, an independent news site.

He was kind enough to tell me why he'd had enough of the betting biz.

Today on All Of It: Larry Fink's photos in the Hudson Valley;
@dannyfunt.bsky.social on sports-betting; @nytimes.com new podcast season; Things to do in Queens.

Live at noon on 93.9 FM, AM820 or @wnyc.org

WNYC | New York Public Radio, Podcasts, Live Streaming Radio, News WNYC is America's most listened-to public radio station and the producer of award-winning programs and podcasts like Radiolab, On the Media, and The Brian Lehrer Show.

Look forward to discussing how gambling is changing sports with Allison Stewart on @allofitwnyc.bsky.social, live from 1:30-2 ET.

You can listen here:
www.wnyc.org/radio/

Lose bets, pay taxes? New bill has some gamblers apoplectic. A provision that allows bettors to deduct only 90 percent of their losses threatens to drive some professionals to other markets.

Lose bets, pay taxes? New bill has some gamblers apoplectic.

Lose bets, pay taxes? New bill has some gamblers apoplectic. Provision that allows bettors to deduct only 90 percent of their losses threatens to drive some professionals to other markets.

"Astounding"

"Asinine"

"One of the dumbest things I've ever seen"

Gamblers are irate about a subtle change to the tax code that could put sharp sports bettors out of business and cause others to pay income taxes on losing bets.

I explain what happened in @washingtonpost.com

lol

The hardest part of parenting a baby, bar none, is resisting the constant urge to pick my kid's nose.

thank you, sir!

EVERYBODY LOSES: on (pre)sale now! My book on the sports betting boom is officially available for preorder.

I shared more about the book in my newsletter yesterday:

dannyfunt.substack.com/p/everybody-...

Everybody Loses This jaw-dropping book pulls back the curtain on the alluring yet perilous world of American sports gambling.Everybody Loses is the first major inv...

"EVERYBODY LOSES: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling" is available for preorder!

What's at stake as billions of dollars are spent to turn a nation of sports fans into a nation of sports gamblers?

My findings after 300+ interviews are alarming.

www.simonandschuster.com/books/Everyb...