Personal Strategies and Thoughts

Tips for making picks include:
1. Looking at records (especially home vs. away records)
2. Whether a team is on a "hot streak"
3. Whether a team has a game against an inferior team but has
an important match coming up (i.e.a team may overlook a game)
4. The starting pitcher is a huge factor in baseball
5. In professional basketball, if a team plays games 2 consecutive days, they may be tired the second day
6. Whether a team had travel problems.
7. Whether a team is looking for revenge from an earlier game.
Again, there are other factors but these are the main ones. Everyone has their own way of looking at games, so I cannot tell you exactly how much to weigh each factor. Just figure it out through experience.

Personally, I only play with sides (who will win a game) and do not touch totals (how many total points will be scored in a game), or propositions (like who will score first, which players will score the most, etc.) I am trying to actually "gamble" on what I feel gives me the best chance to win, and to me, totals and propositions are toss-ups. It is probably best, for you, to limit your options because sportsbooks try to sucker you in with so many betting options. If you continue to gamble on stuff that is 50-50 you will lose in the long run because you will get bad odds (i.e. you have to risk 110 to win 100, and if you win 10 out of 20 you will be down 100 bucks. Just play what you are comfortable with. Do NOT gamble solely for the sake of gambling, or just for fun. It is a serious business and I cannot emphasize that enough. It is your money.:)


I only bet on home teams. Of course, I do not simply take every home team, as that would definitely be a losing strategy in the long run I do this because the frequency of road favorites getting upset is much higher. In addition, I have had NO success taking road teams. Once again, if you have a strategy, you need to be disciplined to stick with that strategy and not waver.


I personally like to take favorites because I like to know that I have a good chance to win a game. Once again, I wouldn't recommend this strategy to everyone-you may be pro at picking upsets. But I would rather win 2 out of 3 games betting on favorites while taking, say, -150 odds (risking 150 to win 100), rather than getting fairly good odds but losing most of the time. Face it- unless you are REALLY good, when you pick underdogs you will probably lose most of the time. After all, good odds serve you no good if you do not win. If I said that you could win 1000 by risking 100, but you only had a 5% chance of winning, would you take it? Many players get suckered in by the enormous payouts they may receive by taking underdogs. Don't fall into that trap.


Home Page
Results of Past Picks
Introduction and words of advice
Legality of sports gambling
Relevant Statistics