The eccentric numerati David Walsh ascended – randomly in his telling – from humble origins in a housing estate in Hobart’s blue-collar suburbs to become among the most successful professional gamblers in history alongside his friend, mentor and fellow Tasmanian, Zeljko Ranogajec .

Walsh and Ranogajec took on the might of global gaming markets and managed to consistently win over three decades. Much like the most advanced hedge funds, which employ armies of PhDs to identify patterns in financial markets, Walsh and Ranogajec’s consortium, called the Bank Roll, created statistical models that allowed them to exploit mispricings in betting odds wherever they could be found.