Bowls: TAKING THE ROOT TO PROFIT; SUPER BOWLTHE KING OF VEGAS 'I've won all my life and what I do is very simple'.

Byline: Graham Woods meets top NFL tipster Wayne Allyn Root 

THIRTY years ago the king of US sports betting was a man named Jimmy Snyder, or Jimmy the Greek, who was revered in Las Vegas and nationwide. At the same time the 16-year-old son of a butcher was making a name for himself as a shrewd football judge.

"People still to this day tell me 'I read about you in the papers 30 years ago and they called you the next Jimmy the Greek'," recalls Wayne Allyn Root, that same son of a butcher and now one of America's foremost sports betting tipsters, or handicappers as they are known.

"My dad wouldn't let me work in the butcher's shop.

Even if I needed money, he said he wanted something better for me.

"I went to Columbia University, Ivy league, to study political science, and spent four years studying gambling, studying football. Within four years of graduating I was on national TV, without any television experience, working as Jimmy the Greek's partner."

Root set up Winning Edge, a tipping service which now boasts some 2m clients in the US and broadcasts a weekly show on the Discovery channel. UK punters can catch the webcast at winningedge.com and see Root in his larger-than-life anchorman role, a kind of Vegas John McCririck with a successful mix of banter, razzmatazz and winning selections.

"I'd say 40 per cent of my business is about winning and 60 per cent about being a good communicator," says Root. "It's not just what you have to say, it's how you say it. You have to explain things to people in a way that's exciting and entertaining."

That clearly comes naturally to the gregarious and engaging Root, and so, it seems, does picking winners.

"This past year we have had a monitoring service for handicappers to be sure they aren't making things up.

Anyone can say anything, but now we have to prove ourselves.

"Out of 115 handicappers on college football I was ranked No. 3, and out of 85 on pro football I had a 68 per cent winning record. That made me No. 2. I'm very good at what I do."

Jimmy the Greek was famous for his extensive range of contacts throughout sport that he would use to garner the latest information, but Root goes about his work differently.

"I don't have any inside information," he says. "I don't have a load of coaches that I regularly call on. I have never had inside information, I don't want inside information.

"I've won all my life and what I do is very simple. I am a contrarian. I take the team that nobody wants to back and that way I always get value.

"The team I'm backing have been losing, they're angry, they've got a big target on the opposition's chest and they're going for them.

"The other team have been winning, everybody thinks they will keep on winning, maybe they believe that too."

Which brings us neatly to the Super Bowl, as one team who have kept on winning all season are New England with their perfect 18-0 record.

"But, of course, there are two distinct sides," says Root.

"There's winning the game and beating the line. Everyone is talking about New England, but they haven't covered the line, the handicap, once in the second half of the season.

They've been winning their games, but as far as gambling goes, they've been losers.

"Now they're playing the New York Giants in the Super Bowl, and the Giants aren't that good but they've covered in every game in the second half of the season.

"The opening line was 14 points and that's a very big spread but it quickly moved down to 12 and even 11.5.

That's because all the early money was for the underdog.

Early money is smart, late money is the guy on the street looking to get a bet on before kick-off.

"It's an intriguing match and I don't know yet what I'm going to do. I will wait and see where the money goes. Like I say, I'm always looking for value." WHEREVER Root's money goes, it will be on the handicap or the total points line and nowhere else. Special bets - winning margins, first scorers and the rest - are known as propositions or 'props' in the US and as far as Root is concerned, they are a no-go area.

"Props are sucker bets. You have no chance of winning, that's 100 per cent," is his forthright assessment.

"People who bet on them are getting toasted. For one thing, the price edge is always with the casino, with the sports book. I can see that the odds for one team to win by one to seven points are 6-1 and I'm being offered 4-1. The house always has the edge.

"And then you always need a bit of luck to land the odds.

"I don't consider my bets to be lucky. I can get lucky, or unlucky, in a game, but over a season luck plays no part."

The sale of Winning Edge to Betbrokers will bring Root closer to a UK audience, and he hopes to branch out into sports that are more popular this side of the Atlantic, but while the US environment is currently hostile to sports betting, Root believes change is imminent and inevitable.

"It's estimated that EUR380bn was bet on sports in America last year, and EUR2bn of that was legal, in Nevada," he says.

"The rest was illegal, and this is another area where we are behind Europe. People are going to bet so let them do it and tax them.

"I am someone who is opposed to taxation, but if I am having a bet, that is a voluntary act, not like tax on earnings. That's my price for having fun.

"Betting is fun. You could be in stocks and shares and make a lot of money, watching NBC and reading the Wall Street Journal, but that's boring.

"If you invest in a football bet you can watch your investment winning games, sacking the opposition quarterback, scoring touchdowns, and it's fun."

"It's estimated that EUR380bn was bet on sports in America last year, and EUR2bn of that was done legally, in Nevada"

CAPTION(S):

Wayne Allyn Root in London last week JON WINTER RACINGPOSTPIX.CO.UK