Brent Musburger’s ages-old baseball-betting system proves to be viable in this day and age

LAS VEGAS — The Cubs’ recent 10-game winning streak made me consider Brent Musburger and his ages-old baseball-betting system.

When a team wins three in a row, wager on it until it loses. Following that guideline, a $100 punter would have cleared $632, or 6.32 units, over that eight-day run with the Cubs.

As usual, though, there’s more to it. For eight hours Sunday at the Green Valley Ranch sportsbook, I ran that parameter over the entire 2025 season to gauge the system’s viability.

On Monday morning, I rang Musburger at his home in Hamilton, Montana, about 50 miles south of Missoula, with those results, and with some trepidation.

For my 2019 sports-betting book, he first informed me about this particular tactic. He was on the run, so we didn’t have time for a proper distillation.

On Monday, he dropped the angle’s second part: to bet against squads once they’ve lost three consecutive games.

Musburger laughs, knowing that detail would send me back to the GVR book to track that aspect for every team last season. All told, 18 hours of pen-to-legal-pad research were required over those two days.

The exceptional Covers.com database proved vital to the work.

On Monday night, having excavated all those numbers produced the most coma-like, zero-dream, eight-hour slumber that I’ve experienced in decades.

Sweet returns

The results were somewhat staggering to me, so I was eager to reveal them to Musburger on Tuesday morning.

Simply blind-betting last season on an MLB team after it had won three consecutive games till it lost produced profit of 21.03 units. Wagering against a squad once it had dropped three in a row until it won netted 56.69 units.

Following those two plays for six months produced, approximately and unofficially, 77.72 units of profit, or $7,772 to someone accustomed to risking $100 a game.

“Maybe you want to keep that to yourself,” Musburger said with a giggle. “Think about that. As soon as you, well, the FanDuel and DraftKings bookies . . . you know, we’d better be careful.”

His laughter made all that toil worthwhile.

Just this season, there’s that Cubs run. The other way, the Mets ($916) and Phillies ($568) have had sustained skids that would’ve netted another $1,484 for a $100 bettor.

For just those three actions, $2,116 (or 21.16 units) would’ve been made in less than a month.

As a seasonlong safeguard, Musburger agreed that it’s incumbent to avoid betting on a public team that’s winning when a bet could cost -300 (risk $300 to win that $100 unit) or more, effectively wiping out three days’ profit.

With such a mindset, limiting last season’s winning action to just Cleveland, Miami, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle would’ve turned those 21.03 profit units into 39.95.

Overall, that would’ve resulted in a season profit of 96.94 units, or $9,694.

On the fly, punters should adjust accordingly to protect profit and bankroll.

As a cautionary tale, note Seattle at Minnesota on Monday. The Twins had lost five in a row, the Mariners had won their previous four games. A confluence of the system that strongly suggested a Seattle -129 wager.

Minnesota won 11-4.

A previous season’s results, of course, guarantee nothing regarding the future. Plus, the system requires patience and daily diligence for six months.

Daily diligence that I do not possess. Scribing, futures action and other shenanigans fill my plate.

It is curious, though, that something Musburger, 86, learned about so long ago would produce such succulent recent profit.

An old-school way

In the early 1960s, Musburger covered the White Sox for the Chicago American, which dissolved in 1975.

In Minneapolis to cover a series against the Twins, he dined one evening at Murray’s Classic Steakhouse, a city institution since 1946, with Leo Hirschfield and an associate.

Hirschfield produced the Green Sheet, another institution that supplied the nation’s bookies with odds and spreads, which spawned Mort Olshan’s Gold Sheet.

“They talked me through it,” Musburger said. “Leo said, ‘It’s an easier way, an old-school way; you don’t have to bet every game.’ Leo was a mover and shaker when it came to baseball.

“He was such a hardcore baseball bettor, he took his theory to the grave. I was a complete novice.”

A legendary sports broadcaster, Musburger graduated from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and is an honorary member of that school’s athletic Hall of Fame.

Growing up in Billings, Montana, he never knew about sports betting.

“I went to Chicago, and, my God, that was mafioso central,’’ he said. ‘‘Bookmakers all over. I enjoyed their company, and they were fun to be around, listening to their stories and watching them.

“I never felt I could make a living betting sports, or I would have done it. From a purely recreational standpoint, I enjoy it.”

With so many games in different sports, he noted, it’s too easy to get distracted. So he had drifted away from religiously playing that baseball system.

His major play last season was the Dodgers to win the World Series. This season, he parlayed the Mariners to win the American League West to the Cubs taking the National League Central.

Hirschfield died in 1968. Musburger does peruse the MLB standings daily, noting who has lost or won three in a row.

And after I gave him those 2025 figures?

“I think I’m getting hooked again.”

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

2025 season

Betting a team . . . that has won three in a row

Units Team

11.52 Brewers

11.11 Mariners

8.65 Marlins

7.14 Guardians

5.48 Red Sox

-11.96 Cubs

-8.57 Astros

-8.41 Phillies

-6.14 Athletics

-4.24 Diamondbacks

Fading a team . . . that has lost three in a row

Units Team

27.89 Rockies

15.58 Nationals

9.99 White Sox

9.03 Pirates

8.23 Athletics

-5.12 Brewers

-3.84 Rays

-3.77 Diamondbacks

-3.74 Cubs

-3.65 Red Sox

PROFIT

. . . on betting a team that has won three in a row

21.03 units

. . . on fading a team that has lost
three in a row

56.69 units

TOTAL

77.72 units

Source: Covers.com