How a computer science professor won $25,000 sports betting
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BOULDER, Colo. — Maribeth Oscamou does not gamble.
Yet in just two football seasons, the computer science professor collected about $25,000 from 24 different Colorado sportsbooks.
“I really didn’t even watch the games. It wasn’t for the games,” said Oscamou, laughing. “The fun part was, ‘Wow… I can use math to literally guarantee a profit every weekend.’”
In May 2018, the Supreme Court ruled the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) unconstitutional, therefore allowing states to make their own decisions on legalizing sports gambling.
Colorado was the 18th state to pass legislation making sports gambling legal. This took effect on May 1, 2020, near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oscamou, an associate teaching professor in the Department of Computer Science at CU Boulder, teaches courses in the “mathy” side of computer science, including statistics and discrete math.
Using this expertise, Oscamou constructed a formula to capitalize on sports promos offered by Colorado sportsbooks in the early days of legal state gambling.
She stresses the downsides of gambling, underlining that pulling off a similar maneuver today is much less likely.
“For me, it was fun to use my love of math and then apply it toward an area that I enjoy watching, but without any of the risk,” she said.
Video: Chase McCleary, Rocky Mountain PBS
While Oscamou considers herself a sports fan, it was the math and the opportunity provided by inflated promos available in the earliest days of Colorado sports betting that really captured her.
Despite a slow start, Colorado’s sports betting market exploded due in part to low tax rates and larger betting catalogs. Today, Colorado still ranks among states with the greatest number of active sportsbooks, and bettors have put down more than $22 billion in bets since legalization.
A sportsbook is an organization that accepts sports bets. It can be a physical location or a website. DraftKings, BetMGM and bet365 are some of the largest sportsbooks currently operating in the United States.
With a rise in sportsbooks came a rise in market competition, and in order to gain a foothold in the lucrative Colorado sports betting market, sportsbooks leaned into advertisements and promotions like “no-sweat bets” — bets where a sportsbook will fully refund losses — to hook new customers.
“When I first started this, the promos they were offering were amazing. It was huge,” said Oscamou.
Oscamou realized that by using the guaranteed winnings or refunds outlined in sportsbook promotions, she could calculate “mathematically advantageous” bets that would ensure her a profit, regardless of a game’s outcome.
With Oscamou’s calculated gambling, she could determine exactly how much to bet on Team A to win on one sportsbook and Team A to lose on another sportsbook in order to turn a profit.
Beginning in 2020, Oscamou, joined more than 20 different sports betting apps and websites. Using her own formula, Oscamou capitalized on each weekend of the NFL season. She sometimes bet on other sports like basketball, soccer or golf, but football was her primary target.
“I mainly wanted games where there couldn’t be ties, because if you have ties, then you have a third thing to match on. It’s just another extra level that I didn’t want to deal with,” said Oscamou.
“But you could do it really on any type of sport.”
To break down Oscamou’s methods in simpler terms, we can use a football game between Team A and Team B.
Let’s say we have a bonus bet for $200, meaning any profit we make on the $200, we get to keep. We will bet this money on the underdog — Team B — to win.
Then, we can use Oscamou’s formula to calculate exactly how much we need to bet on the favored team — Team A — using a different sportsbook to turn a profit.
The answer, in this scenario, could be $319.
This bet ensures that regardless of whether Team A or Team B wins, we will make about $121 — $79 in profit off our $200 bonus bet.
Using this method over the course of an entire football season, Oscamou won $25,000.
A recent Stanford study found that sports bettors lose about 7.5 cents per dollar wagered on average, compared to the 0.3 cents that bettors expect to win.
Zane Perry, a recent CU Boulder graduate who studied computer science and math (and who said he does not gamble), asked Oscamou to present her experiment for a regional conference of his professional engineering fraternity, Theta Tau.
Perry said that Oscamou’s presentation was in high demand among attendees, many of which — himself included — were more interested in the math than bolstering their gambling strategies.
“It’s important to know that there is math behind these things so you know what you’re putting your money into,” said Perry. He added that he had noticed an uptick in sports gambling on campus since its legalization.
Katie Miller, a junior studying Computer Science at CU Boulder, echoed Perry’s enthusiasm for the lecture. Miller said she does not gamble either, but she appreciated how Oscamou integrated statistics into real-world, relatable scenarios.
“I always just saw gambling as gambling, so it was fascinating to see the numbers behind this,” said Miller. “I’m still not going to bet, but I’ll use this awareness moving forward.”
Oscamou noted that she, as well as some of her students, have been approached by sportsbooks looking to bring on team members with their understanding of gambling statistics.
She said her love of teaching kept her at CU Boulder. Her sports gambling lecture is not public, but she plans to continue sharing her experience in the future.
Oscamou no longer bets regularly. Occasionally, she will check on the market’s current promos, but the promos are often weaker, and there are now a number of websites that offer similar, “profit guaranteed” services, making the hobby less appealing.
“You could argue that I’ve never really gambled in the sense that I’ve never had variance and risk,” said Oscamou.
“It was just fun to use the math that way for me.”
Episode one of “Cash Out,” our four-part documentary series looking at the rise of sports betting in Colorado, is dropping on Friday, November 21st on RMPBS+ and on the Rocky Mountain PBS YouTube channel.
If you or someone you know is struggling with a problem gambling disorder, you can call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit www.cogamblerhelp.org.
If you or someone you know is struggling with a problem gambling disorder, you can call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit www.cogamblerhelp.org.
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.