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"Money Talks," the reality television show that follows the day-to-day trials and tribulations of Las Vegas sports handicapper Steve Stevens, has been renewed for a third season, Gambling 911 can reveal in a world exclusive report!
In addition, the program, which aired on cable business news channel CNBC its first two seasons, will have a new home for its third season--Esquire, a cable channel affiliated with Esquire magazine.
News of the show's renewal and move to a new channel was announced by Stevens, whose real name is Darin Notaro, during an interview with Gambling 911 earlier this week.
"I couldn't be more excited," Notaro said about moving from CNBC to Esquire, which will keep him working for the same corporate parent company, NBC Universal. "I'm excited to be there. CNBC can only take you so far. Esquire is a network that's a little bit more risque. I'm going to be the face of the network. They can pretty much support who I am."
And just who is Steve Stevens/Darin Notaro?
He is a 41-year-old Las Vegas native who owns and operates VIP Sports (www.vipsportslasvegas.com), a Vegas-based tout service he opened in 2010 and that he says has almost 25,000 paying customers around the world.
He is also an ex-con man and an ex-con, having serving two stints in prison for telemarketing fraud back in the 1990s, involving swindling senior citizens out of their life savings.
But now, he says, he's a reformed man who just wants to introduce America to the joys of handicapping and wagering on sports.
And he's using the reality show "Money Talks" as the vehicle to do that.
"The whole show, in general, is to educate people that don't know anything about sports betting," he said. "And to educate them on what it is, what a line is, what a side is, what a bet is. There's more money to be made in sports betting right now than any other investment in the world. I've lost millions of dollars in the stock market and now I'm making millions of dollars in the sports betting industry. I just want to scream it from the top of my lungs so everybody knows about it."
Filming for the third season of "Money Talks" is scheduled to begin later this year and will likely air in the spring of 2016, he said.
In the meantime, Esquire is currently airing reruns of the show that originally aired on CNBC, he said.
Notaro has received a lot of negative press in the past because of his past, but now he wants to turn his image around.
"I went to prison when I was 19 years old for working at a telemarketing company," he said. "They (the authorities) wanted me to tell on the owners and say that they taught me how to do it (the telemarketing fraud), which they did. I didn't tell on them and I got 18 months in prison. I got out of prison and got a telemarketing job, which was a violation of my probation, which nobody knew, and went back to prison for a few more months. And haven't been in trouble since.
"I went to prison for not ratting on my bosses. It was 20 years ago. It has nothing to do with winning games. It has nothing to do with making money. It has nothing to do with my connections in the NBA and NFL. I'm like the new Lefty Rosenthal of Las Vegas. All I want to do is make people money. My past has nothing to do with being the best sports consultant money can buy."
For $250 a week, bettors can sign up for a week of VIP Sports' basic service, he said.
There are also higher levels of service which are more costly, he said.
In addition, for $2,500, serious bettors can receive Notaro's top NFL play of the week, and they also get to speak to Notaro personally on the telephone.
Notaro also stressed that he doesn't just talk the talk, he says he walks the walk too--meaning he bets his own plays.
"Before I became a sports consultant, I was a bettor," he said. "That's how I survived. Now I do both. I bet anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000 on certain games.
"People say to me, if you're so good, why don't you bet yourself? I do. Then after I max out at $50,000 or $100,000 a game, I tout over a million dollars a day and get 30 percent of that. Is that a good answer why I opened up a service?"
By Tom Somach
Gambling 911 Staff Writer
tomsomach@yahoo.com
