About jonvsdow.com

Jon vs. Dow – Proving I can outperform the stock market by betting the NFL!

jonvsdow.com is a personal challenge against the stock market. Unlike most who compare themselves to the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI), I have no plans to make any investments or investment recommendations throughout this blog. Instead, I am going to simulate betting NFL football games using live lines from an unnamed sportsbook. Of course, life would be easier if I just lived in Vegas and could legally place these bets, but to prove my point this will have to do for now.

So now that is cleared up, back to why I am doing this. Well for starters, you don’t need an MBA from Harvard to understand the fragile state of the US economy. With the current administration in place, things likely aren’t going to get much better anytime soon but I won’t bore you with politics or economics. This blog is for the die-hard football fan and gambler, those who live and die by every “Oh by the way Touchdown” that the 6.5 point underdog scores with 16 seconds left in a game they were trailing by 13  points in. Let’s set this straight, first I am not encouraging you to partake in any illegal activities. Second, I am not recommending you choose gambling as a means of funding your retirement account. Ask Charles Barkley how that worked out!

I am an avid fan. I don’t leave my couch on Sundays unless I’m blowing a portion of the hundreds of dollars I blow every season attending Patriots games. I can name more backups than the average fan can name starters in the NFL. What point am I trying to make? I may be an MBA student with a decent understanding of finance and economics, but there is nothing I know more about than the game of football and the NFL. This experiment will hopefully prove what I have been thinking for the past few years, the fact that gambling on NFL games if done properly is no more risky than investing in the stock market in today’s environment.

My fictional account will start with $2,000. The first bet of the season will be on the New England Patriots over 11.5 wins for the season at -120. Since this money will sit there untouched all season and I am ultra-confident in the outcome, I am allocating half of the funds toward this one bet ($1,000 to win $833.33). That leaves me with $1,000 to work with from today through Super Bowl 46. Over this same time period, I will track how much that $2,000 would be worth if I had invested it something that followed the trends of the Dow. For reference, the Dow closed at 11,284.54 on Friday August 26, 2011.

Be sure to check back daily. Throughout each week, I will post other tidbits related to gambling, fantasy football, and the NFL in general. Every Sunday, I will post my bets with live updates throughout the day. Feel free to replicate my betting strategies but don’t send hate mail if you lose money, I am not making any guarantees here!