Ed Bain update

A couple more details come out of this Ed Bain update, and we're still way too early in the game to see if any of this has legs, but it sure is intriguing. Some questions I have after reading the update: Does the mainstream media not cover this because they don't believe it? Why would you call someone so they can threaten you? Why does he switch from 1st to the 3rd person? When did the Jockey Club get so powerful, really, they own all the information? Ok, I'm being a little snarky, but I am interested in this case, and interested to see how it plays out. I'd be over it by now, but that IP LOG is sure intriguing, that evidence will make me try and stay up to date with story.

Clarify

Ed Bain was kind enough to clarify some of my shoddy journalism below: "when in 2000 he was forced to enter into an agreement w/ Handicapper's Data Warehouse (HDW) and It's Data Services" We did not enter into an agreement with It's Data Services. We entered into an agreement with HDW. We talked to ITS about buying data electronically for our own business and going on line when they said that we could not buy data from them to compile my stats and then sell these stats on line. The only way they could sell me data was for personal use. They said that if we bought data and compiled my stats and sold them on line that Equibase would put me out of business. When we spoke with HDW they said the same. Ed said he'll keep us up to date when he can. I honestly can't wait to see what happens next.

Really?!

I know it's not really very "bloggerly" of me to just take the top headline from Equidaily and tell you all to read it. I'm sure many of you do, but in this instance you might have read the first couple words and just given up, it is after all a lawsuit written in lawyer speak. And, boy you were wrong to do that. If you don't have any idea what I'm talking about get ready for a good old conspiracy theory that's actually going to court! Ed Bain is a public handicapper and has his own system for getting winners. I've read the lawsuit, which was filed April 27th, I have no idea why it's taken 3 weeks to catch on, so I'll try and paraphrase, but do yourself a favor and read it all. You'll come to the conclusion that Ed Bain is either completely crazy or that the Jockey Club and some other high profile players might not like to play fair (and you know neither sound completely impossible.) Lawsuit Overview (plus commentary) Ed Bain had been making picks and making them public since 1995, when in 2000 he was forced to enter into an agreement w/ Handicapper's Data Warehouse (HDW) and It's Data Service, both of which are affiliates of Equibase. Ed Bain claims he was threatened w/ being blackballed in the handicapping industry (Does this mean no Andy Beyer Christmas cards? I don't know) if he didn't enter this agreement. Then 6 years later Ed Bain ended this agreement with those parties, all "Ed Bain" info would be taken down and not resold. (No word if the handicapper's mafia was ok with this, or if Mike Watchmaker asked for his fruit basket back). He struck out on his own again. Unfortunately, HDW has kept the layoff+claims up on their site and supposedly said to customers that Ed Bain would be out of business (ie don't leave us for some hack), and it doesn't appear that the layoff+claims that Ed Bain claims is his "idea" is going anywhere fast. This appears to be a simple case of contract dispute... but wait it gets better. Ed Bain went on Bris and purchased his "own data". This caused the president & CEO of BRIS, Happy Broadbent (part owner of Steppenwolfer) to contact Ed, and told him that they know his IP address and they weren't going to sell him anything anymore. (I guess you can refuse service to anyone as long as it's not based on racial or other unfair categories, but a personal call!). Now, many who know BRIS say this isn't out of the realm of possibilities. I gather that scanning a few bulletin boards, and the name Dr Quirin always come up, a lot of people think BRIS stole this guy's idea (I haven't read up on this enough, but post comments if you know). Victor Espinosa then got involved, and he seems like the muscle of the group. Pretty much offering utterly rediculous deals to Ed to get back the source material he needs for his handicapping. Now, it really gets crazy. Ed Bain claims his computers were infected with multiple viruses that would allow remote control, and the Jockey Club is brought into this lawsuit. Ed Bain bought a firewall and started to log IP addresses. Ed Bain contends that an IP address that he logged came from the Jockey Club and that this is the address involved with the viruses. He claims not only were his handicapping sites hacked, but his PayPal and a relatives anniversary site. The viruses completely crippled his web presence and he's looking for $30,000 to rebuild what has been destroyed. Now, if you hear anymore on this let me know. This is almost better than Paris going to jail.