“Respected” Sports Bettor? Excuse me?

Still trying to catch up from vacation, and wanted to comment on the Phil Mickelson insider trading investigation (he has not been charged).

One of the other players mentioned in the many stories about the investigation is Billy Walters, apparently a sports bettor in Las Vegas – and a golfing buddy of Mickelson.

Now, I had never heard of Billy Walters until this summer, but was struck by the way he was characterized in a June 2, 2014 article in the Wall Street Journal, quoting a Mr. RJ Bell, himself an owner of a a sports betting web site:

Sports-betting legend William “Billy” Walters built a fortune by acquiring better information than others and using a complex system to turn it into profits.

“He is the most respected sports bettor in the world,” said RJ Bell, who runs a website selling sports-betting picks.

So there we have it. “The most respected sports bettor in the world”. I honestly didn’t know you could connect all of that in the same sentence.