A sports-betting pool that began in a Wall Street office grew to $837,000 and turned a schoolteacher into a potential felon
While working as a currency broker on Wall Street in 1990, New Jersey resident John Bovery, now 58, started a fantasy-football pool in his office. Fifty-seven players joined for $50 each, making the total payout $2,850.
Over the next two decades, his pools mushroomed in size to $837,000 and included more than 8,000 people from around the globe, according to NJ.com.
The explosive growth, however, came to an abrupt halt in 2010, when police investigating a Jersey mobster with ties to sports betting found out about Bovery’s lucrative hobby. At the time, New Jersey had banned sports betting, even fantasy pools, which have become a ubiquitous element of office culture around the country.
Since then, Bovery had his banks accounts seized and spent time in jail, and he now stands in the throes of a years-long legal battle, all while $150,000 in debt.
“I’m a rules guy,” he told NJ.com. “You want to enforce the letter of the law? Fine. But I’m the only pool manager you’ll able to find in the state? The first one you ever found? …. Why am I the only one?”
Realistically, Bovery isn’t. Some put profit estimates for the fantasy realm as high as $70 billion — and that’s just football.