All over the line

Tuesday, July 15, 2003 | 9:52 a.m.

As a maid moved from room to room inside one of the city's finer hotels last fall, she habitually turned on clock radios to KENO 1460-AM, then turned them off, on, off, on, as she made her rounds.

Upon discovering that a peer is tight with Rob Veno -- a cast member of "The Vegas Sportswire," the most compelling daily sports radio show in the country -- she had a clear message for her conduit.

"Rob Veno," she said. "He made me money last night. 'Take the Packers,' he said. Tell him to keep talking."

Veno has laughed a hundred times about that story.

"I thought that was hysterical," he said. "It goes to show you, when the cleaning lady listens ... "

Another time, Veno's celebrity struck him like a five-team parlay winner as he waited for Tim Trushel, the rudder of "Vegas Sportswire," at the Green Valley Ranch Station Casino 2 1/2 years ago.

As Veno stood in the property's race and sports book, someone asked him about a matchup. Another patron, a few paces away, soon tapped Veno on a shoulder.

"He says, 'I know who you are.' I said, 'Who am I?' " Veno said. "He says, 'You're Rob Veno, the guy on the radio.' From 20 feet away, by hearing my voice, he knew who I was. As I talk to you now, I still don'>t realize the popularity of that show."

That popularity has continued to soar since that Green Valley vignette, which took place about when John Hansen was named KENO's program director.

Whereas "Vegas Sportswire" started with the sole aim to coax bettors into buying picks from assorted handicappers, via the telephone, it is now a money-making machine in its own right. Trushel and his colleagues receive salaries, driven by the commercial success of the show. That will grow, too, because it is scheduled to debut in nearly a dozen new markets -- including Honolulu, Oklahoma City and Birmingham, Ala. -- this football season.

"It's not just about giving tips, but how to do it, when to do it and what to look for," Hansen said. "There is no wasted time, there's no script and they talk the way they would on the street if you walked up to them. The guys fascinate me.

"It's one of the most talked-about shows people ask me about whenever I'm out in public."

The crew is taking its annual holiday this week, in conjunction with baseball's All-Star Game. When it returns Monday, a slick, updated website will be unveiled, and Trushel will mix new players into his roster.

As a monthly influx of roughly 5,000 continues to relocate to Las Vegas, many have discovered the sports radio show with the edge.

Newcomers from Philadelphia will not hear loud-mouths who want to kick Pat Burrell out of town, Angelenos won't listen two hotheads bash the punchless Dodgers and others won't be subjected to a one-man debate about Kobe Bryant's street credibility.

No other radio show is as comprehensive or insightful.

"We do it from a betting perspective, leaving the issues and minutiae of the day to others," Trushel said. "We have a nice niche. No one else approaches it the way we do. We leave the societal stuff to others."

Last week, alleged misconduct by Bryant in Colorado was not mentioned, as it thoroughly was on a competing, albeit quarter-length, local radio show that professes to be about sports gambling.

Sammy Sosa's recent corked-bat controversy received minimal play on "Sportswire."

"The only comments made were about how it would affect the Cubs and their next 10 games or so," Trushel said. "Talking about a guy getting arrested, or other negatives in sports, I think, gets old. We're a refreshing antidote to that.

"We're a little bit different."

The leader

Trushel, 35, is in a six-month stretch in which he runs the show from a studio in his Nashville home, where he lives with his wife and three children. He spends the fall and winter in Las Vegas, splitting studio time between home and KENO.

In 1993, he moved to Las Vegas to play blackjack "semi-professionally," he said, after making a windfall at it during a trip to the Bahamas. That August, he switched his gambling focus to sports, began a newsletter and experienced instant success.

"Blackjack became too mundane, too much of a grind," Trushel said. "I built up a (sports) clientele and never really looked back."

He eventually participated in shows on the former KVEG 840-AM on fall weekends, before college and pro football games. He developed a solid rapport and smooth radio manner, then parlayed interest from KENO into his own gig.

"Vegas Sportswire," which he started in 1995, is owned by Sports Memorandum Inc., of which Trushel is CEO. He expanded it to the weekday 7-9 a.m. slots in March 2000.

KENO keeps five minutes at the top of each hour for itself, in a barter agreement, to use for a national news update, local fillers and its own advertisements.

Trushel, whose Trushel Sports Consultants employs 10 researchers and analysts, and his "Sportswire" troupe receive salaries and share in the revenues from the show's commercial profits.

While gambling is the show's backbone, "Sportswire" transcends that label because of the heavy amount of information it disseminates, and digests, on a daily basis.

Fantasy-league players and anyone in the sports industry will value it for statistics, trends, patterns and injuries. The average sports fan will be taken way past usual talk-show banter, rhetoric and giddiness.

"I get comments all the time from people who just love sports," Trushel said. "My best friend wouldn't gamble, or bet on a game, ever. But he listens all the time because of the details. Obviously, gaming is our focus. But we go beyond that."

The roster

One new thing, that's what Veno and Ted Sevransky, and other "Sportswire" contributors, strive to offer listeners on a daily basis. And that's why Trushel assembled his current lineup.

"If they aren't learning something new, anyone could do our jobs," Veno said. "We make a pretty good team. I'd take this group and match it with any other inside the industry. We'd stand up pretty tall."

Veno, 41, is most apt, and comfortable, to fill in for Trushel when business or personal matters force him to miss an hour slot, or even a day or two, as the "Sportswire" ringleader.

Veno toiled in the ceramic tile business with his father in Norwalk, Conn., for 13 years before creaky knees, an aching back and a distaste for renting drove him to Las Vegas in 1991.

He retains guilt over his first job here, which lasted three years.

"One of those 'boiler room' deals," Veno said. "You get names, call people and say, 'Hi, I'm Rob from Las Vegas and I know who's going to win tonight's game.' There are no make-ups for that. I couldn't say, 'The trainer's on the payroll.' Couldn't do it."

He switched gears, resuscitating a tout sheet. A chance meeting with Shaun Hess in The Gambler's Book Shop led to a few stints with the popular Hess on KDWN 720-AM on Thursday nights, which caught Trushel's attention.

Soon after Trushel started "Sportswire" in 1995, he invited Veno on to talk about college football for five minutes. Veno soon accepted an offer to become a fixture on the show. Gauging bullpen strengths and weaknesses is his baseball forte.

Veno lives in Richmond, Va., with his wife of 15 years, Nancy, and two sons.

"He's one of the catalysts in the growth of the show," Trushel said of Veno. "He is as smooth as anyone on the radio. I get that comment a lot. He's clear and concise. He interprets information, presents it well and is pertinent."

Sevransky, 35, is single. Known as "Teddy Covers," Sevransky recently added "Teddy Totals" to his monikers during a recent 16-game stretch in which he predicted 13 correct over-under plays

A native New Yorker, Sevransky battled through the University of Michigan on the seven-year plan, then he vowed to do his homework after working at a sports bar for the entire month of December 1994 to pay off a bookie for a slew of poor college football bowl wagers.

From 1995-97, he did his homework and capitalized on the Internet growth. Whocovers.com, Sevransky's website, became wildly popular and he landed in Las Vegas in 1998.

His detailed and thorough write-ups of games, and analyses of up-coming contests, were instant hits with many, including Trushel.

Sevransky also polished his radio presence by going on any show that would have him.

With some counseling from Veno, Trushel added Sevransky to his roster last year. He is the most animated of the group -- he took a "big, fat pass" on his offerings one day two weeks ago.

"He's analytical, not as fundamental as (Veno), but he looks for emotional and intangible elements," Trushel said of Sevransky. "I feel these guys are the strongest handicapping crew anywhere, and I take a lot of pride in the group we've been able to assemble."

Brent Crow, who has operated the Alabama-based Alatex Sports handicapping service for 10 years, was added last week. Scott Spencer, a well-known figure to professional gamblers who sets odds for an offshore book, will join the rotation in the fall.

Trushel is currently mulling audition tapes from 10 other candidates to expand the regular cast to five for the football season.

He is uncertain about the show's year-round appeal in many other markets, but Trushel is confident that it would thrive in many areas of the country during football season.

"There certainly would be hurdles to cross," he said. "It's possible other markets wouldn't be as receptive to openly talking about gambling. But the groundwork has been laid and there's potential for a national audience.

"The growth of cable markets has been fueled by college football and NFL gambling. Whether radio directors want to make that connection ... there's reason to make that connection."

The Sports Monitor, the industry's independent, Oklahoma-based watchdog, oversees more than 100 handicappers' picks and posts those statistics, with a minimum number of required plays during a week and season, regularly.

In the past calendar year, Veno has finished among the top dozen in NBA playoffs, NFL regular season and NFL playoffs. Sevransky finished fourth in the NCAA basketball tournament, and Crow finished second in direct-phone NFL playoff games.

In professional and collegiate football's regular seasons, and playoffs and bowls, The Sports Monitor determined that Trushel Sports Consulting finished No. 1 with a combined profit, in uniform units, of $30,800.

Jay Kornegay, the director of the Imperial Palace race and sports book, said the show is great for the state's books because it exposes them to the betting lines and could move them to make a bet.

Beyond that bottom line, "Sportswire" impresses Kornegay. It goes much deeper, he said, than usual shows that simply recite odds or recent history between two teams.

"I do give them a pat on the back for doing all that research," Kornegay said. "They'll give you information that you won't hear on other shows. It's very time-consuming, and I applaud them for their efforts and work."

The history

Sports gambling was legalized in Nevada 30 years ago. The Union Plaza opened the first sports book, hiring Bob Martin as its first oddsmaker. Other casinos waited until he posted a line to set their numbers.

Martin also hosted a Monday morning radio show during the football season, inviting wise-guy guests to scrutinize the spread.

The Stardust opened its sports book in 1976, and it assumed the status of the city's official line in 1983, when Martin was spending 13 months in federal prison for illegally transmitting wagering information across state lines.

"The Stardust Line," on KDWN, became the official source of late-night sports gambling chatter on a station whose 50,000-watt signal could, and still can, be heard in nine Western states at night.

Host Lee Pete established himself as a star, and football legend Jim Brown served as a side-kick for a spell. The window of the small Stardust studio looks out to the property's race and sports book.

When Ron Futrell, sports director at KTNV Channel 13, worked at a television station in Yakima, Wash., in the early 1980s, he regularly turned on his clock radio, already set to 720 on the AM dial, after his shift ended at 11:30 p.m.

"Lee claims it was the only sports talk show on the radio back then," Furtrell said. "I'd think, 'Vegas, what a great place ... what a fun place.' Lee Pete, what a great voice. When I first got here, I was on that show and, to me, it felt like the big time."

Futrell, an occasional marathon runner, will zip through morning workouts with "Sportswire" on his radio headset.

"This is unlike any other city," he said. "There are people in this town who know so much more about sports than I do, and I do it for a living. They have to know who's who and what's what on a daily basis, because they have money on the line.

"It's incredible. They run circles around a lot of us who do sports for a living. I can't keep up with that knowledge. To hear them talk is just overwhelming sometimes."

The show

Trushel usually introduces the show every morning, a few minutes past 7, with some version of how "Sportswire" will offer a look at sports "with a betting perspective."

Last Monday, he altered the delivery. "We leave the silly stuff to others," he said. "Even if you don't bet, you will be entertained."

It rarely strays from its blueprint.

When it does, it's a breather during a tidal wave of information about Cincinnati's odd move to a four-man pitching rotation or Minnesota's failure to let middle reliever Johan Santana start in a season that's slipping away.

Two weeks ago, Trushel and Veno veered on a hilarious '80s-music tangent. As soon as it started, however, it was over.

"Who in the hell deserves to be an All-Star from the Mets?" Trushel said on the air recently. "Very good question," responded Veno.

Mostly, the games, players and teams are dissected with impressive depth.

"They're playing baseball with a Triple-A roster in the major leagues," Sevransky said recently about the Detroit Tigers.

When Kansas City acquired Curtis Leskanic from Milwaukee, the "Sportswire" crew did not hesitate to highlight an important transaction that most might have overlooked.

"For guys like us, it was a big deal," Veno said on the air. "It's a huge move for Kansas City."

Because Leskanic was moving from one league to another, many American Leaguers wouldn't have knowledge of his talents. That would give Leskanic an edge on becoming his new team's solid bridge to closer Mike MacDougal.

That would secure more wins by the Royals, in theory, and they'd be more favorable to bettors. In his first two appearances, Leskanic struck out four of the five batters he faced, walking the other, on 21 pitches.

On the "Sportswire" website, the handicappers offer three to five "free" plays a day. A random selection of picks over the past two weeks resulted in Trushel posting a 4-2 mark in such recommendations, Crow and Don Black were 3-2 and Bryan Leonard 2-0.

At times, Sevransky said, someone slaps him on the back, or buys him a drink or dinner, for insight or commentary that hinted at a strong play, was wagered upon and delivered a winner.

"Sports betting is a legitimate investment, and I generally think that people who take it seriously can make a consistent income betting on sports," he said. "Look at the stock market; we don't call it gambling. And I think sports betting is a lot more fun."

When, that is, you do your homework.

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