An update on Stealing Lines

It's been a fun ride

When Dalton and I started Stealing Lines four years ago, our goal was to do betting content with a certain type of honesty and transparency. Implicit in that goal was an idea the betting industry can be a little much, with a vibe that if you don’t adhere to certain accepted rules, you don’t belong.

Any industry has its norms and best practices, of course, and it’s only natural these things developed in an industry awash with shifty touts who shouldn’t be trusted. But any pendulum can swing too far, and we always felt there were ways the industry incentivized a different kind of posturing and BS that tends to inevitably permeate spaces that are policed in these ways. Instead of outright liars, you wind up with posers, who are a rung up but no less harmful. Take the article in The Athletic this week — everyone was quick to bash something I thought had at least enough value to be written and read, and how many unique takes did you see? There are so many parrots, but hey, at least they speak the language, right?

I don’t mean to preach on the way out, but we built this place on a mutual understanding and belief there’s nothing inherently wrong with admitting where your limitations are. If that meant we wouldn’t always use the correct vernacular, or get our bets in at the very best spot with the very best line, it wasn’t that we didn’t think those things weren’t important, or that a good tout shouldn’t do those things in most cases. It just meant that we were and are not lifers in this space. We argued there was still room for us to share our bets even if we weren’t trying to pretend we had those credentials.

And I’m proud of the way we stuck by that mission statement across our four years. I don’t think we did the best betting content in the world, and speaking for myself this hasn’t been what I thought it would be when we set out, which doesn’t mean anything too specific other than to say that’s always the case in a project like this. You always learn things, and at the same time you realize what you envisioned was evolving from the start anyway. But I think what’s important is you stand by what you say you’re going to be, and going to do. For me, what I’ll take with me about Stealing Lines is a belief we did that.

If you haven’t figured it out from the past tense I’m using here, this is going to be my final post at Stealing Lines. If you’re reading this, I can’t begin to thank you enough, whether you were along for the ride all four years or just joined up recently. The hardest part about moving on from this chapter, for myself, Dalton, and Mike, is you really do grow to appreciate the people who are willing to pay for your content, read it, hang out, and be a part of a community.

A lot of you have asked me about Dalton, and I’ve had the chance to talk with him and it seems like he’s doing great. I’ll let him share in his own words how things have been and what this all means for him, in his upcoming post which will be the final one here at Stealing Lines. While we’re in agreement about this step, I did talk to Dalton about March Madness a little bit, and he’s been getting excited for what’s always a fun topic around here. As part of his upcoming post, Dalton has also decided to write up his annual tournament guide as a sort of parting gift for the Stealing Lines community, so look for that after Selection Sunday. I can’t wait for it, and I know a bunch of you, like me, use it every year for our brackets, eliminator contests, and pools, in addition to the great bets he offers.

Through the past four years, I’ve been especially grateful to work with both Dalton and Mike Braude. Though Dalton wasn’t able to contribute during the final football season, he was always a diligent and thoughtful partner, and one I appreciate very much. You guys also know our third team member Mike, who always crushed it with the NBA props, and stepped up huge this year to fill Dalton’s NFL void, despite Mike’s own obligations running the Apex Fantasy Football leagues. It’s been a joy to work with both of these guys, who I’m glad to call friends.

As far as some administrative stuff, first of all, recurring subscriptions have been turned off, and they should’ve been paused for a few weeks now, since since pretty much right after the Super Bowl. I converted any annual subscriptions that renewed after the midway point of the regular season into monthly subs where I offered a refund beyond one or two months or whatever it was. I didn’t do anything with monthly subs but anyone who feels they are entitled to a refund should message me directly at bgretch at gmail dot com.

Going forward, the Discord will stay open, just for shits and giggles, in case anyone wants to hang out there. You can find me at the Stealing Signals Discord occasionally, or just subscribe to that newsletter. If I do any sides and totals next year, it’ll likely just be casual, and folded into my current fantasy football work in some capacity. But to be honest, part of this decision for me is I’m not thrilled about my edges as the sport is evolving. I’ve shared a lot of thoughts at my other Substack about that, and talked here about how the kickoff rules have really polarized totals, something I thought we saw the books acknowledging with more sub-40 and 50+ over/unders toward the end of the season.

So anyway, no promises on my end about future betting content. When we started, I’d been doing it for a few years, and had found more success than I’d expected in the notoriously difficult NFL sides and totals markets. In the years we did Stealing Lines, my results were perhaps predictably more mixed. (I know many of you have intimated you still appreciated the writeups and logic behind the bets even when the picks weren’t always crushing, and certainly I’ll still do football analysis at Stealing Signals.)

But for me, this will be it for Stealing Lines. One more person I need to thank is Dan Rivera for tracking our bets for all four years as the independent voice on our results. I’m hoping I’m not forgetting anyone else, but again, the biggest thank you goes to you guys, subscribers and readers, for following along. The betting space continues to evolve, and I continue to be uncertain about all of it, but I’m grateful for the past four years doing this work because you guys made it worth the effort and the energy.

Until you hear from me again in some other medium, I hope you run hotter than the sun!