Education is an expensive thing. I'm not sure who came up with that one, but he was right on the money. Learning about sports handicapping can really be expensive. You lose the money you sent to the handicapper and then you lose what you bet on the games. The unfortunate fact is that you can count on both hands the number of good, honest handicapping services you can choose from. That's a terrible indictment of the industry I'm in, but if you've read my "General Information" section here on the site, you already know that I got into this crazy business because I was cheated EVERY time I signed up with a service. That was almost thirty years ago- and it's worse now than it was then!
Sports bettors WANT to believe there are sure things in the betting world. Fixed games. Inside information. Officials and players on the payroll. Everyone wants to win every game. Even if you accept that fact that you won't win every game, it's really easy to get a little desperate when you're down and you've lost money you shouldn't have wagered. You're in a hole and you need someone to bail you out. It's the perfect environment for the scamdicappers! Add to that the fact that in a lot of places, it's pretty difficult, if not impossible, to get any help after you've been cheated. Unless you're playing in Nevada, you can't go to the police and say, "I need your help. I've just been cheated while I was participating in an illegal activity." I would love it if the sports handicapping business could be regulated just as the vast majority of businesses are. That's probably never going to happen. If it did, 90% of the handicapping services out there would be out of business. In the meantime, understanding how the industry works is your best defense. That, and a little common sense! You'll shake your head reading this section, but EVERYTHING YOU'LL READ HERE IS TRUE!
FIND SOMEONE WHO USES THEIR REAL NAME!
There are a lot of scams out there that you can fall victim to because you didn't have the information, experience or knowledge needed to avoid them. Using a service where they don't use their real name or give you an actual street address for their office isn't one of them. C'mon guys, do you really think there is a handicapper whose real name is "Bobby Cash"? Or "Sam Wins"? If a service won't use their real name and all they give you is an 800 number and a P.O. Box for an address, that should raise a lot of red flags before you even get to any information about their service.
Let's get this one out of the way early. The easiest way to have your outlandish (and totally untrue) win rate validated is to have an independent, honest company monitor your plays and then make the results known to the public. Nothing to it! Many years ago, a pretty smart service (I never said these guys are stupid) came up with the idea of having companies monitor their results and make them available to anyone who wanted to call them or check on-line. All it took was a new 800 number, a company name and a new website. The monitoring industry was born! Problem was, it was owned by the same bogus services you should be trying to avoid. You don't know that the monitor is owned by the handicapping service, so when you call to verify the record and they tell you how good the service is, you think it proves the service is really outstanding. Then, they took it a step farther.
Customers starting asking everyone why they weren't "monitored". So the monitoring service offered other handicapping services the following deal. For $250 a week, you could turn your plays in to them, they would keep track of them and post your record after Monday Night Football for everyone to see. You could advertise that you were monitored and give their phone number and website for verification. For $600 a week, you could turn your plays in Tuesday morning, AFTER all the games had been played. Pretty sweet, huh? Almost as good as the pre-season magazines you get in the mail telling you who the Number One phone service is and who the Number One sportsbook is.
The only problem is that the same people who publish the magazines also OWN THE SERVICE AND THE SPORTSBOOK! It's public knowledge that a couple of years ago, one of the best known handicappers in the country was tried and convicted for his ownership in an offshore sportsbook. So, you need to understand that this guy was making big money selling his service and then he was making big money when his customers lost on his plays! Maybe just a little conflict of interest?
LOCK OF THE WEEK, OR YEAR, OR YOU NAME IT...
Let's get this straight. There is no such thing as a lock game. There is no inside information. Games aren't fixed. There are no players on the payroll- yes, it has happened a few times, but there are services out there who will tell you it happens every week. There are no Officials on the payroll or Officials who have a grudge against a certain team. A good salesman can make you believe all those things if you let him, but that's all he is- a salesman, not a handicapper.
If you look at a lot of betting publications, have you ever wondered just exactly how a service knows that on a particularly week in, say, October, they'll have their "SEC Game of the Year"? Realizing that all betting publications go to press weeks before the game, how does a service know that a particular game will be their "Game of the Year" without knowing what the weather will be, or who might be injured, or suspended, or sick, or any number of other circumstances that will affect the game? The answer is very simple- THEY DON'T. They're just counting on you not to ask any silly questions and to believe whatever B.S. they give you on the phone about the quarterback who's mad at his coach and is going to deliberately throw a couple of interceptions.
I once ask a handicapper how he could possibly have more than ONE "Game of the year". He said that each week actually started a new, different 52 week period, so it was a different "year". The "Lock of the week" or the "Game of the year" or any other special promotions like them are just that- promotions.
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Education is an expensive thing. I'm not sure who came up with that one, but he was right on the money. Learning about sports handicapping can really be expensive. You lose the money you sent to the handicapper and then you lose what you bet on the games. The unfortunate fact is that you can count on both hands the number of good, honest handicapping services you can choose from. That's a terrible indictment of the industry I'm in, but if you've read my "General Information" section here on the site, you already know that I got into this crazy business because I was cheated EVERY time I signed up with a service. That was almost thirty years ago- and it's worse now than it was then!
Sports bettors WANT to believe there are sure things in the betting world. Fixed games. Inside information. Officials and players on the payroll. Everyone wants to win every game. Even if you accept that fact that you won't win every game, it's really easy to get a little desperate when you're down and you've lost money you shouldn't have wagered. You're in a hole and you need someone to bail you out. It's the perfect environment for the scamdicappers! Add to that the fact that in a lot of places, it's pretty difficult, if not impossible, to get any help after you've been cheated. Unless you're playing in Nevada, you can't go to the police and say, "I need your help. I've just been cheated while I was participating in an illegal activity." I would love it if the sports handicapping business could be regulated just as the vast majority of businesses are. That's probably never going to happen. If it did, 90% of the handicapping services out there would be out of business. In the meantime, understanding how the industry works is your best defense. That, and a little common sense! You'll shake your head reading this section, but EVERYTHING YOU'LL READ HERE IS TRUE!
FIND SOMEONE WHO USES THEIR REAL NAME!
There are a lot of scams out there that you can fall victim to because you didn't have the information, experience or knowledge needed to avoid them. Using a service where they don't use their real name or give you an actual street address for their office isn't one of them. C'mon guys, do you really think there is a handicapper whose real name is "Bobby Cash"? Or "Sam Wins"? If a service won't use their real name and all they give you is an 800 number and a P.O. Box for an address, that should raise a lot of red flags before you even get to any information about their service.
Let's get this one out of the way early. The easiest way to have your outlandish (and totally untrue) win rate validated is to have an independent, honest company monitor your plays and then make the results known to the public. Nothing to it! Many years ago, a pretty smart service (I never said these guys are stupid) came up with the idea of having companies monitor their results and make them available to anyone who wanted to call them or check on-line. All it took was a new 800 number, a company name and a new website. The monitoring industry was born! Problem was, it was owned by the same bogus services you should be trying to avoid. You don't know that the monitor is owned by the handicapping service, so when you call to verify the record and they tell you how good the service is, you think it proves the service is really outstanding. Then, they took it a step farther.
Customers starting asking everyone why they weren't "monitored". So the monitoring service offered other handicapping services the following deal. For $250 a week, you could turn your plays in to them, they would keep track of them and post your record after Monday Night Football for everyone to see. You could advertise that you were monitored and give their phone number and website for verification. For $600 a week, you could turn your plays in Tuesday morning, AFTER all the games had been played. Pretty sweet, huh? Almost as good as the pre-season magazines you get in the mail telling you who the Number One phone service is and who the Number One sportsbook is.
The only problem is that the same people who publish the magazines also OWN THE SERVICE AND THE SPORTSBOOK! It's public knowledge that a couple of years ago, one of the best known handicappers in the country was tried and convicted for his ownership in an offshore sportsbook. So, you need to understand that this guy was making big money selling his service and then he was making big money when his customers lost on his plays! Maybe just a little conflict of interest?
LOCK OF THE WEEK, OR YEAR, OR YOU NAME IT...
Let's get this straight. There is no such thing as a lock game. There is no inside information. Games aren't fixed. There are no players on the payroll- yes, it has happened a few times, but there are services out there who will tell you it happens every week. There are no Officials on the payroll or Officials who have a grudge against a certain team. A good salesman can make you believe all those things if you let him, but that's all he is- a salesman, not a handicapper.
If you look at a lot of betting publications, have you ever wondered just exactly how a service knows that on a particularly week in, say, October, they'll have their "SEC Game of the Year"? Realizing that all betting publications go to press weeks before the game, how does a service know that a particular game will be their "Game of the Year" without knowing what the weather will be, or who might be injured, or suspended, or sick, or any number of other circumstances that will affect the game? The answer is very simple- THEY DON'T. They're just counting on you not to ask any silly questions and to believe whatever B.S. they give you on the phone about the quarterback who's mad at his coach and is going to deliberately throw a couple of interceptions.
I once ask a handicapper how he could possibly have more than ONE "Game of the year". He said that each week actually started a new, different 52 week period, so it was a different "year". The "Lock of the week" or the "Game of the year" or any other special promotions like them are just that- promotions.
How much must someone have to f*ck up to resort to cold-calling strangers to sell sports betting picks?
That must be an incredibly sad existence. Even sadder, though, is that there are enough idiots out there who fall for the "sales pitch" to keep the process churning.
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How much must someone have to f*ck up to resort to cold-calling strangers to sell sports betting picks?
That must be an incredibly sad existence. Even sadder, though, is that there are enough idiots out there who fall for the "sales pitch" to keep the process churning.
be that as it may, in my experience, when they are trying to sell themselves, and the do not offer you a lock everyday, they probably have a winner here. They know they have a winner so they give you this and hope that you call them on the weekend. I was already on UCLA but this makes me more confident believe it or not
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be that as it may, in my experience, when they are trying to sell themselves, and the do not offer you a lock everyday, they probably have a winner here. They know they have a winner so they give you this and hope that you call them on the weekend. I was already on UCLA but this makes me more confident believe it or not
So true. It's all bs. No one in the world has inside information. They are just very good salesman trying to take your hard earned money!
100% true.. very good salesman.
But I must say I have a few friends (players) that are in the NFL, and not that they have "wont loose cant loose info" but from time to time over the course of the year, they give me "tips" that I have utilized over the course of the last few years to really grown my bankroll. I'm lucky if I get "tipped" off 10x a year. This year was only 8 games in which I was on the right side of 6 of them (so these games still can lose). But, have met a lot of scouts/agents/trainers through these players and what they share is very unique. Its funny though, because people simply just don't believe you when you tell them you have ties to the NFL, but then again you have all these 800 services and guys pay these services all the time and THEY KNOW NOTHING & CLAIM THEY KNOW EVERYTHING!
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Quote Originally Posted by tomnolan:
So true. It's all bs. No one in the world has inside information. They are just very good salesman trying to take your hard earned money!
100% true.. very good salesman.
But I must say I have a few friends (players) that are in the NFL, and not that they have "wont loose cant loose info" but from time to time over the course of the year, they give me "tips" that I have utilized over the course of the last few years to really grown my bankroll. I'm lucky if I get "tipped" off 10x a year. This year was only 8 games in which I was on the right side of 6 of them (so these games still can lose). But, have met a lot of scouts/agents/trainers through these players and what they share is very unique. Its funny though, because people simply just don't believe you when you tell them you have ties to the NFL, but then again you have all these 800 services and guys pay these services all the time and THEY KNOW NOTHING & CLAIM THEY KNOW EVERYTHING!
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