Good books, beside the ones in the FAQ?
 

Hi,

I am a COMPLETE newb, and when i mean complete, i am a really really complete newbie in sports betting.

I am looking to get into it, and what books would you suggest to teach me bout sports betting? Even good links?

- Thanks!!!

Re: Good books, beside the ones in the FAQ?
 

Look in the FAQ for the sites they list that list this exact sort of thing.

Re: Good books, beside the ones in the FAQ?
 

There really aren't any other sports betting books not listed in the FAQ. Sharp Sports Betting is the Super System of Sports Betting. No one has written a Sklansky-level follow up to it.

Best bet is Sharp Sports Betting, the linked sites and resources in the FAQ, and online forums such as this one.

I updated the FAQ to address this question more directly. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Re: Good books, beside the ones in the FAQ?
 

For a good overall book check out Education of a Sports Bettor by Bob McCune. It's older, so you'll have to get past some editing mistakes, but it's very good.

For football I'd also suggest How Professional Gamblers Beat the Pro Football Point Spread JR Miller and Beat the Sports Books by Dan Gordon.

There aren't that many books out there, but I can say that each of those books will definately cut your learning curve in some form or another, and that's priceless.

Re: Good books, beside the ones in the FAQ?
 

One note about those books is that you should ignore the advice about Kelly betting in the Miller book, and ignore the advice about parlays, teasers etc. in the Gordon book. Dan Gordon is a reasonably decent handicapper but pretty clueless about optimal betting.

Re: Good books, beside the ones in the FAQ?
 

Added to the FAQ, thanks guys.

Re: Good books, beside the ones in the FAQ?
 

You should ignore the advice to ignore the Kelly advice in the Miller book. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] If you can maximize your sports wagers using Kelly then my hats are off to you, and I'd like to know the secret.

The highlight of the Gordon book is really the subjective type of factors.

Re: Good books, beside the ones in the FAQ?
 

when it comes to good links:

like Thremp said, read anything and everything in the FAQ

spend some time browsing on here and figure out who the 'sharps' are

go back in time and look at all their posts

I won't name all of them, since I would likely forget someone and hurt their feelings

I will say that starting with the moderator is a very good place to start

Re: Good books, beside the ones in the FAQ?
 

Listen to the Beet Man. What Miller says about Kelly is just plain wrong. I like an awful lot of what's in the book, and I applaud the author for tyring to instill a sense of conservatism in bankroll management into his readers, but he clearly just does not understand this particular topic.

I don't know anyone who bets "strict Kelly" since I don't see a whole lot of people making $1173.47 bets out there, and it's easy to misunderstand Kelly and hurt your bankroll badly, but it has been mathematically proven that if you *know* your winning percentage, Kelly betting is the best betting method for bankroll growth.

If Kelly isn't working, then either one doesn't understand it or one doesn't really know their edge on each bet. In sports betting it's VERY tough to know what your real edge is, and many, perhaps most, winning sports bettors overestimate it. But if you have a firm grasp on what you're doing, you can't expect to grow your bankroll faster by using a method other than Kelly.

Re: Good books, beside the ones in the FAQ?
 

How about the free book that Perf posted a link for.

That was a good one.

Search back a few pages and you will see it.

Re: Good books, beside the ones in the FAQ?
 

npc, you hit the nail on the head: knowing your winning percentage and calculating your edge on a sports bet.

No one knows what their winning percentage will be over the next XXX amount of games--if you did then it's obvious how to spread your money.

I don't really care either way if you don't agree with the argument Miller makes in his book, but I've never met anyone that is able to accurately calculate their exact winning percentage and edge they've got on each bet. Estimating (which I do) is totally different from know for sure, and if you do know then as I said, my hats are off to you, and I'd love to buy whatever it is you're selling.

Re: Good books, beside the ones in the FAQ?
 

You properly utilize Kelly in sports betting by betting fractional Kelly amounts. 1/4th of the recommended Kelly amount is fairly commonly used.

The argument against using Kelly because you don't "know your exact edge" could just as easily be used to argue that you shouldn't be making the bet in the first place! How do you know you actually have an edge, period?

Here's a very simple example--say I decided to bet the Browns last week at +7.5 -110. I then shopped around and discovered that a well known "square" book had +7.5 +105. The break even rate at +105 is 3.6% lower than it is at -110, so it would be quite foolish if I didn't increase my bet size given that I'm getting +105.

Re: Good books, beside the ones in the FAQ?
 

We can agree to disagree, and this seems to have been beat to death in the Probability forum.

Most bettors will go broke using the example you provide--only worring about winnings, and not about losses.

Re: Good books, beside the ones in the FAQ?
 

One book not mentioned yet that's pretty good is Scott Kellen's "The Unemotional Football Bettor." I believe Gambler's Book Shop has it and you can also order it from Scott's site http://www.sixthsensesports.com.

Re: Good books, beside the ones in the FAQ?
 

link not working for me.

Re: Good books, beside the ones in the FAQ?
 

Sorry, the period at the end of my sentence screwed up the URL. It's http://www.sixthsensesports.com