ESPN’s Streak for the Cash: It’s a Way of Life

It was a Tuesday morning in mid-April of 2013.

I was sitting behind the computer screen, tired, bored, and procrasinating on work I had to get done.

Scrolling through ESPN, I skimmed through some headlines about the NBA playoff races, NHL postseason scenarios, and the MLB regular season getting underway.

But on that morning, it was something else that caught my attention.

A small gray box asking for the winner of the Chicago Blackhawks vs. Minnesota Wild game that night starred at me, asking to be clicked.

At first, I thought it was just another hockey poll.

But when I checked the “Blackhawks” square, no percentages showed up. Confused, I studied the box a bit closer and noticed that this was no poll.

This was a prop for an ESPN fantasy game called “Streak for the Cash”.

I had heard of this contest before, but never bothered to look into it.

Today would be no different.

I closed ESPN and shut down the computer.

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Three days later was a Friday, and while doing some mental NHL analysis, something popped into my head – “Hey, that Streak game!”

The Blackhawks had beaten the Wild on Tuesday night, and that meant that I had checked the correct square.

To see exactly what this meant and what I had potentially won, I went onto the Streak for the Cash website and was mesmerized by what I saw.

From hockey to baseball to soccer and everywhere in between, at least 20 sports props were ready and waiting to be picked.

They ranged from full-game props like “Who will win this game?” to in-game props like “Will Chelsea score a goal in the first half?”

Upon further research, I found out that the point of this contest was to build a streak of consecutive correct picks. You could pick as frequently or as infrequently as you wanted, but you could only pick one prop at a time.

Then, at the end of that month, the ESPN user with the longest winning streak would win a large sum of money.

This appeared so easy, yet when I began playing, it turned out to be a lot harder than I thought.

And though I kept losing and did not consistently play, as the months went by, I became more and more hooked.

All of the props, discussion boards, greens, reds, and streaks made this game insanely addictive, and in February of 2014, I started playing full force, meaning that I would never miss a prop just because I wasn’t paying attention.

Going full-out like I did, you discover that with 4-7 seperate props every day, this game starts to become a part of your every day life.

After February and acquiring what to this day remains my personal-best winning streak (I got 10 in a row, and trust me, it’s harder than it sounds), I actually had to take a break to focus on other things because the game was on my mind a lot on a daily basis.

I’ve been playing on and off since then, and though I have never come close to winning the grand prize, it creates a very fun competition among friends or family.

In addition, there are props 365 days of the year so you don’t have to wait in anticipation for the game to start.

And if you live a busy life, there’s no worries. As I mentioned earlier, you can pick as frequently or infrequently as you want, and some say that picking slowly is one of the best strategies out there.

So what are you waiting for? Get off this blog and start building your winning streak.

But I warn: it’s very hard…and extremely addictive.

 

Want to win a $10 Amazon gift card.? Follow me on Twitter @jacobs_sports, and click on the following link for more information: https://jacobssportstalk.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/annoucing-jacobs-sports-talk-nfl-twitter-trivia-contest

ESPN “Experts”: Why I’m Not a Fan

When picking games, there are those match-ups that you look at both teams, the quarterbacks, running backs, receivers, defense, coaches managers, and you try to pick a winner. You think, you think harder, and you try to give one team an edge but you can’t because both teams are so even. All NFL pickers are faced with this scenario at one point or another. But you still have to pick one team, so what do you do then? Do you flip a coin? Just pick one? Look at the stats? The first and second choices aren’t very smart. And unless you’re playing for money, most people are too lazy to do the third. They make others do the work for them. And what better way to do this then looking at the predictions of the NFL “experts”. Now, prove me wrong but isn’t an “expert” supposed to be someone who is particularly skilled in an area? And I’m gonna let everyone reading this on a little secret: The people chosen to be NFL “experts” aren’t really experts. Yeah, most of them have played football in the NFL, and yeah, most of them were really good even at that high level. But when it comes to  modern football, these guys aren’t necessarily the best. Let’s take ESPN, for an example. They have eight human experts that pick games every week. Now, last season if you combined every week of my picks together I finished with a grand record of 168-88. Guess how many of the eight ESPN “experts” picked that high? Zero. And keep in mind, last season I didn’t run this blog. I didn’t put in the extra effort to actually research statistics. This year I will, and can almost guarantee I will pick considerably better than last season. So the question for me is, why can’t ESPN or any other football media site hire the people who can pick the best make their picks. Yes, it’s pretty cool when guys that are very good at playing the sport get to pick, but shouldn’t an expert be someone who is the best at one area? That is why I’m encouraging you and anyone you know to come to this site for your weekly NFL picks. Again, I did better than all eight of the ESPN “experts” and only plan to do better this year. Come on, you’re already here, so why not come around on September 5 and look at some serious, accurate, descriptive NFL predictions. Get ready. We’re just 40 days away.