There have been a lot of movies that deal with the world of sports betting. There have been dramas and comedies about sports betting with the highs and lows that come from wagering on sports like we all like to do with the help of online sportsbooks.
Here are the top five all-time movies with sports betting references.
Two for the Money (2005)
This drama is loosely based on a true story and features two Oscar winners in the main roles in Matthew McConaughey and Al Pacino. McConaughey plays Brandon Lang, who is a former college football star that never makes it big because of an injury.
He ends up at a telemarketing job before Walter Abrams (Pacino) sees him as a diamond in the rough for his ability to handicap and pick the winners for football games. The film delves into how sports handicappers sell their products to the gamblers and the highs and lows of sports betting.
Lang starts out on fire with his picks for the season and shows his rags-to-riches story of becoming one of the top handicappers. However, he starts to lose and has a fall from grace, and he and the relationships he has start to fall apart when he is not picking winners.
The film is great when it comes to showing sports betting “sharps” and is also one of the best when it comes to showing the real life of sports betting operators.
Eight Men Out (1988)
Eight Men Out is a true story and one that is the most infamous when it comes to sports betting in history. It has to deal with the 1919 World Series and the Black Sox scandal where eight players from the Chicago White Sox, including the legendary Shoeless Joe Jackson, were banned from baseball for life for receiving money to throw the 1919 World Series.
In the movie, the players are not really the villains, but it explains how they came to the conclusion to throw the World Series because of the frugal owner of the White Sox in Charles Comiskey. He reportedly treated the players of his team poorly, and when the team won the AL Pennant in 1917, he served the team flat champagne and made the manager sit a pitcher, who was on the verge of earning a bonus with another win.
Both of these reported instances were in the movie. The cast featured the young actors, including Charlie Sheen, John Cusack, and David Strathairn, and Clifton James played Comiskey.
Lay the Favorite (2012)
Lay the Favorite is based on the true to life memoir of Beth Raymer, who went from a stripper to a betting “sharp.” Rebecca Hall plays the main character, and everything changes for her when she meets Dink Heimowitz (Bruce Willis) in Las Vegas, and he sees her as great with numbers and a kind of a lucky charm.
She eventually joins his sports betting team in Vegas but then moves to New York and then to Curaçao, where Beth runs the betting operations.
The film delves into sports betting in the highs and lows of gambling debts and illegal activity. Eventually, Beth helps Dink get out of trouble getting a tip on a basketball game, which he wins, and all debts are paid.
In the end, Beth leaves the life of sports betting, and in real life, Raymer would finish college and become a writer.
The Gambler (1974)
The Gambler is a dramatic film than does not show the lighter side of sports betting. James Caan plays Axel Freed, a Harvard educated college professor in New York City that gets in over his head because of gambling debts.
The film shows gambling addiction, as Freed gets the money ($44,000) for his debt from his mother, and he ends up going to Las Vegas to win big before blowing it all on basketball losses.
Freed comes home and knows the grave consequences for not paying his debt and ends up convincing a student of his, who plays on the basketball team, to shave points on a game.
He ends up winning big, but the film shows what happens when people have a gambling addiction, as Freed’s girlfriend leaves him, his mother disowns him, and the mob wants him dead.
Many felt Caan was snubbed in not getting an Oscar nomination, but he did receive a Golden Globe nomination. The Gambler was remade in a 2014 release with Mark Walberg but did not have nearly the same positive reception as the original.
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Silver Linings Playbook featured an all-star cast with the likes of Robert DeNiro, Bradley Cooper, and Jennifer Lawrence, who won an Oscar for her performance. While the main theme of the film is Patrizio “Pat” Solitano Jr. (Cooper) and his struggle with mental health, there are sports betting references throughout.
DeNiro’s character, Patrizio Sr., runs a small-time bookmaking operation, and in wanting to open a restaurant, bets all his money on a game the Philadelphia Eagles are playing. Patrizio Sr convinces Pat to join him at the game as a good luck charm, but he gets arrested at the stadium before entering the game.
The Eagles lose, but Patrizio Sr. is given an option to double down if the Eagles win the next game, and Pat and Tiffany Maxwell (Laurence) score at least a five in a local dance competition.
Both of these things happen for a Hollywood happy ending for a great dramatic movie that was a hit at the box office and received eight Academy Award nominations.
