This allowed bettors who knew the line of the game to be able to deduce his selection when betting the point spread: If the spread in the example game was the Raiders by five, bettors would know Snyder was picking the Raiders to beat it. Instead, Snyder would predict the score of each game for example, he would say the Los Angeles Raiders would beat the Los Angeles Rams 31–21. He had conflicts with Musburger (whom he once punched in the face at a bar when the show anchor insulted his intelligence) and Phyllis George (whom he once brought to tears before a show by making a comment about her husband, leading to Snyder taping his segments with Musburger in advance so that he and George were not on the set at the same time).Īs sports betting was illegal in most of the United States, and was at the time a general social taboo, his segment would not overtly mention betting or gambling. While already famous in gambling circles, his rough charm made him into a minor celebrity. Known simply as "Jimmy the Greek," he would appear in segments with sportscaster Brent Musburger and predict the results of that week's NFL games.
The sports line eventually led to a 12-year stint on the CBS Sunday morning show, The NFL Today, a pregame show for National Football League (NFL) games.
JIMMY THE GREEK PRO
He invested money in oil drilling and coal mining, but when those ventures failed, Snyder moved to Las Vegas in 1956 and began a weekly pro football betting line. In a later interview he indicated that he knew Truman was going to win because Dewey had a mustache and "American women didn't trust men with a mustache". Truman, getting 17–1 odds for Truman to win. As a teenager in Ohio, he became acquainted with bookmakers.Īccording to his autobiography Jimmy the Greek, Snyder bet $10,000 on the 1948 election between Thomas Dewey and Harry S. According to his New York Times obituary of April 22, 1996, Snyder's family roots were in the village of Tholopotami (Θολoποτάμι), on the island of Chios in the Aegean Sea.
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