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PrintATS Consultants, a sports investment firm that boasts a 67 percent lifetime win percentage, issued a press release Friday claiming that it recently cashed a Miami Heat futures ticket worth $625,815.
The company released a photo of the betting slip, which reveals that the wager ($250,326) was placed at MGM Grand on Dec. 24, 2011. MGM listed the Heat as 5-to-2 favorites to win the title, and the Consultants said the value was impossible to ignore.
“Our projection for the Heat had them as 2-1 favorites,” said Jordan Runco, CEO of ATS Consultants. “That extra 25% value we received makes a meaningful difference in this type of situation, considering the size of the wager and the confidence we had.”
But as it turns out, the Consultants didn’t actually place a bet.
Jay Rood, Vice President for Race & Sports for MGM Resorts, told BTB on Sunday that the ticket isn’t authentic and hasn’t been cashed.
Another Consultants slip, a $1.1 million payout on the Super Bowl champion New York Giants, was also exposed as a fake.
“[The slips] are not legit,” Rood wrote in an email.
While Rood’s confirmation helps, it certainly wasn’t necessary. A close look at the Giants ticket shows that the Super Bowl’s date is incorrect. The ticket lists the Super Bowl’s date as Feb. 5, 2011, rather than 2012.
If you’re surprised that a tout service would go to such lengths to portray themselves as something they’re not (big winners), then you shouldn’t be. Several touts, even well-known ones, have been accused of doctoring tickets many times before.
Remember: The packaging—not the picks—is what matters. Even so, it’s a bit shocking that the Photoshoppers would add up all the numbers ($) correctly but miss something as obvious as the event date.
Note: An email message to ATS Consultants on Sunday wasn’t immediately returned.
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UPDATE #1 (2:20 p.m. PT):
In a post dated June 28 on its website, ATS Consultants wrote the following:
Glasses were raised this past weekend at STK in Las Vegas, as ATS Consultants CEO, Jordan Runco, along with top execs celebrated the cashing of their largest single wager to date: a cool quarter of a million dollars on the Heat to win the 2012 NBA Championship.
We’ve reached out to a contact at STK to see if the Consultants partied as hard as they’re letting on, but have yet to hear back.
Anticipated response: “Who?”
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UPDATE #2 (3:05 p.m. PT):
David Purdum reports that the altered betting tickets could have ATS Consultants in hot water.
Rood contacted Gaming Control on Sunday to report the altered tickets.
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UPDATE #3 (7:49 a.m. PT):
An email to ATS Consultants has not been returned. An attempt to reach Runco by phone was unsuccessful. And the site’s Twitter account, apparently, also has no interest in discussing the matter.
