Weighing the odds in sports betting?
 

Has anyone had a chance to read King Yao's new book? I'm a complete novice when it comes to sports betting, and was thinking about picking this book up.

Re: Weighing the odds in sports betting?
 

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Has anyone had a chance to read King Yao's new book? I'm a complete novice when it comes to sports betting, and was thinking about picking this book up.

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His other book, Weighing the Odds of Texas Holdem, is fantastic.

Re: Weighing the odds in sports betting?
 

where have you seen this book?

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I have heard that a lot of great poker players lost big chunks of their earnings in sports betting, even Doyle Brunson has. I wouldn't go into it.

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I was just curious more than anything as I haven't heard about this book before. Not on Amazon or Conjelco

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it's on sale directly from Pi Yee Press and bj21.com

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I was just curious more than anything as I haven't heard about this book before. Not on Amazon or Conjelco

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here's a link http://professionalpoker.com/IP.php?...;productID=153

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I was just curious more than anything as I haven't heard about this book before. Not on Amazon or Conjelco

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here's a link http://professionalpoker.com/IP.php?...;productID=153

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I have it on order. The book release date in July 16th and we should have it available to ship within 1-2 days of that.
Mike

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always been a little "iffy" when it comes to these types of gambling books (well just about everything besides Poker and Blackjack for that matter). Reviews from people who have had experience in the field of sports betting would be good to see.

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I have read drafts of parts of it. I like what I've read. You can get an idea about the sorts of things it covers by reading his articles in various issues of 2+2 Magazine over the last year.

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he posts in the sports betting forum from time to time..i'm sure he would happy to answer any reasonable question about it you might have...maybe he'll come here and give an overview of the book

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I was just curious more than anything as I haven't heard about this book before. Not on Amazon or Conjelco

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here's a link http://professionalpoker.com/IP.php?...;productID=153

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I have it on order. The book release date in July 16th and we should have it available to ship within 1-2 days of that.
Mike

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Just got off the phone with the Publisher. He expects them to be in our hands sometime next week. The books have to ship out from the printer in the Midwest to the Pi Yee office in Vegas and that is expected to happen in the next day or two.

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Additionally, Yao has written several sports betting articles for the 2+2 magazine. You should go read those to get a feel for the type of stuff he writes about and his writing style. I don't sports bet, but I could see myself buying this book anyway because the subject matter is pretty interesting to me (the quant stuff, that is).

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I PM'd Mat Sklansky asking permission to start a thread announing my book. I haven't received a reply yet, but I noticed this thread, and figured there was no need for a separate thread. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

As mentioned, I write a monthly article on sports betting for the Two Plus Two Internet Magazine. The next two topics will be on the NFL Preseason (August) and Power Ratings in the NFL (September). Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting is written in a similar style as my articles and my limit hold'em book (Weighing the Odds in Hold'em Poker). If you appreciated the articles and/or my poker book, I'm pretty sure you'll appreciate the sports betting book.

The first section of Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting deals with basic information about sports betting that are important for all bettors.

The middle section of the book deals with issues and wagers in specific sports.

The last section of the book deals in general information about sports betting that is relevant in all sports.

Here are the chapters in the book:

Chapter 1 Introduction 19
Chapter 2 Basics 25
Chapter 3 Ways to Win 45
Chapter 4 Sports-Betting Market 57
Chapter 5 Scalping & Middling 69
Chapter 6 Hedging 79
Chapter 7 Hedge Mistakes 91
Chapter 8 NFL Season Wins 99
Chapter 9 NFL Parlay Cards 111
Chapter 10 NFL First Halves 119
Chapter 11 Office Pools 127
Chapter 12 Super Bowl Props 135
Chapter 13 March Madness Pools 145
Chapter 14 NBA Playoffs 153
Chapter 15 Baseball: First Halves 161
Chapter 16 Baseball: Totals 167
Chapter 17 Racing’s Triple Crown 173
Chapter 18 Futures 185
Chapter 19 Tips for Handicappers 195
Chapter 20 Tips for Bettors 203
Chapter 21 Handicappers 211
Chapter 22 Sports Bets in Unusual Places 225
Chapter 23 Internet and Media 231
Chapter 24 Interview with a pro 237
Glossary 243
Index 249

As far as I know, professionapoker is the only outisde source carrying Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting as a pre-order option (see his posts in this thread). That is very much appreciated...thank you!

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As far as I know, professionapoker is the only outisde source carrying Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting as a pre-order option (see his posts in this thread).

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Amazon Pre-Order

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King,

The writing style of your books is remarkably similar to Stanford Wong's. Wong has an unusual style of writing and your first book was written in a very similar pecuilar way.

I was wondering if Wong actually cowrites or writes the material for you.

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The writing style of your books is remarkably similar to Stanford Wong's. Wong has an unusual style of writing and your first book was written in a very similar pecuilar way.

I was wondering if Wong actually cowrites or writes the material for you.

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Hi,
Stanford initially edited the chapters in the Hold'em book, but then it was turned over to a professional copy editor. For the Sports Betting book, Stanford edited it with no copy editor. For my articles, usually it is unedited. Stanford doesn't see those at all. Sometimes I send them to friends who will take a look at comment on content and/or grammar/structure, but lately its rare that I finish an article with enough time to send it around.

100% of the content and ideas in everything I write is mine, unless I attribute it to someone else.

Re: Weighing the odds in sports betting?
 

Thanks! That must have just come up yesterday or today.

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King,
I understand your loyalty to the publisher Pi Yee Press but I have a complaint about all of their books that I own including yours: The paper/binding quality is terrible and they fall apart after one read. It seems the glue or whatever that is used to keep the pages in doesn't work very well and once one page falls out it you start to lose the next twenty or so. I have several chapters that I would considered "filed" within the books now as opposed to still being part of it.

I did like the information in your book and I do enjoy reading your articles though.

Re: Weighing the odds in sports betting?
 

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Thanks! That must have just come up yesterday or today.

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You're welcome.

Will the basics (such as terminology) be covered well enough that a true newbie can understand the material that follows?

Re: Weighing the odds in sports betting?
 

Hi, this is the first time I've heard of any physical problems with the books. The binding on all the books I've handled have been superb. I'm sorry this happened to your copy. If you contact my publisher (via BJ21.com), I'm 100% sure they'd correct the problem for you.

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Will the basics (such as terminology) be covered well enough that a true newbie can understand the material that follows?

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Yes. The Basics chapter is 18 pages and covers basic topics such as: Converting a money line into percentage, terminology of cents, and reading the board in a Las Vegas sportsbook.

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This is going to be negative so dont read if you want to drink the kool aid.
King is a smart guy and uses his skills learned from the trading business in the sports world.
Weighing the odds of poker was an unneccesary book. It covered no new ground, and was imo written in a style very similar to that of his publisher's books, stanford wong.
Wong has written some good books in the past, but always based on others findings, none his own.His latest was a book on controlled dice throws, and he hopped on the ban-wagon after several books had already been published on the subject, and he added nothing new.His sportsbetting book, considered to be the bible, was derived from his own forum at bj21, and inspired by the posts of others. Im not saying hes not smart, just not original in my opinion.
King yao was discussing writing a shorthanded book on his blog, but scratched the idea after going online and not being able to beat the game, decided he would write a book on sports betting. Now, as far as I know King IS a sports bettor, but if he actually taught you and I how and where he makes his money, he would lose his edge, so you can expect a very general book on subjects such as futures betting etc, which imo isnt going to teach you to make money. Read the articles that he has written and if you think those will make you money then ,...buy the book.
King has been ocasionally testing the waters on various forums as to the response for a sports betting book, and that's fine, but just like his poker book, you wont profit from it. These of course are just my opinions and I have nothing against him personally. good luck

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This is going to be negative so dont read if you want to drink the kool aid.

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Yummm, kool aid....

Come on, buying and reading a book doesn't constitute a suicide pact.

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Weighing the odds of poker was an unneccesary book. It covered no new ground...

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Your standards are very high. Though expected value calculations were of course not new, his extensive use of them in every situation he analyzed made the book both unique and useful.

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Now, as far as I know King IS a sports bettor, but if he actually taught you and I how and where he makes his money, he would lose his edge, so you can expect a very general book on subjects such as futures betting etc, which imo isnt going to teach you to make money.

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I rarely get the chance to do sports betting and know pretty much nothing about the topic. But I am curious about it. A good general introduction is pretty much what I'm looking for.

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Weighing the odds of poker was an unneccesary book. It covered no new ground, ...

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Too bad you didn't get much out of it, but I don't agree with your opinion as it fits other readers. It wouldn't serve me any good to argue your opinion in a public message board, but all I can say to others is to take a look at the reviews for other opinions.

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....and was imo written in a style very similar to that of his publisher's books, stanford wong.

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A couple of people have mentioned that my writing style is similar to Stanford's. He edited both books I wrote. Maybe some of his style came through the editing. The bottom line is that I wrote both books and although I like Stanford a lot as a friend and publisher, I resent the implication that Stanford was the ghost writer of my books. Maybe this is not what you were implying, if not, my apologies for mis-reading your post.


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King yao was discussing writing a shorthanded book on his blog, but scratched the idea after going online and not being able to beat the game, decided he would write a book on sports betting.

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I did discuss writing a shorthanded book, mainly expanding the two chapters in Weighing the Odds in Hold'em Poker into a full-blown book, but then I scrapped it. It surely wasn't because I was losing. It wasn't like I just started playing shorthanded when I posted in my blog. That was the main form of poker I played online since 2002 in the days of Planet Poker's 5-max games. Go ask Roy Cooke (Planet's room manager at one point) if I was one of the biggest winners in the shorthanded game. Planet's 5-max game was one of the few (if not the only one, I'm not sure) dedicated shorthanded games out there in the early days of online poker. So why did I scrap the idea of writing a short-handed book? The main reason is that I started writing sports betting articles for 2+2 and the time and energy I dedicated to writing went towards those articles...which then turned into Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting. I couldn't do both and I decided to abandon poker and concentrate 100% on sports. That included the time I spent gambling and writing.


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Now, as far as I know King IS a sports bettor, but if he actually taught you and I how and where he makes his money, he would lose his edge, so you can expect a very general book on subjects such as futures betting etc, which imo isnt going to teach you to make money.

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The point about me not spilling all the beans is a valid point. Its a problem when writing or discussing sports betting in general. I wrote about it in the introduction. I do think the majority of sports bettors, even the experienced ones, will benefit from the book. But I might be wrong. I'll have to wait to see the reviews and what sports bettors (experienced or not) think about it.

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Read the articles that he has written and if you think those will make you money then ,...buy the book.

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This point I agree completely. For the readers that didn't enjoy and/or got nothing out of my sports betting articles, there is little reason to buy my book, that makes sense. For some, it may be worthwhile to read the three articles that are online right now to see if its worthwhile to spend the money for the book. I know I'd do that if I was a potential buyer. Here are the links to the three articles online right now.

http://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/current/yao0707.html
http://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/issue30/Yao0607.html
http://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/issue29/Yao0507.html


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King has been ocasionally testing the waters on various forums as to the response for a sports betting book, and that's fine, but just like his poker book, you wont profit from it. These of course are just my opinions and I have nothing against him personally. good luck

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I disagree, but respect your thoughtful opinion. Nothing personal taken (except possibly for the implication that my work isn't really my own...if that was the implication you were making). Good luck.

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Now, as far as I know King IS a sports bettor, but if he actually taught you and I how and where he makes his money, he would lose his edge, so you can expect a very general book on subjects such as futures betting etc, which imo isnt going to teach you to make money. Read the articles that he has written and if you think those will make you money then ,...buy the book.

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I'm not a sports bettor, but I know several people who are and they are small time compared to what I've heard people wagering on games. There must be Billions of $ bet on sports in the US every year, with most people betting $50+/game on 5-6 games a week (correct me if I'm wrong here). So, in order to profit from a $20 book, the average bettor would need to have >40% of winning 1 more bet in his lifetime . Even if King doesn't give up all his secrets, I'd say a book like this is a good bet.

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King,

Earlier when I mentioned Wong as a possible collaborator I wasn't trying to insult you in any way. It's just that Wong has an unusual writing style at times and at certain times in your first book (for instance the River Paradox introduction) the writing reminded me of Wong's. The copy on the back of the book and the advertisement for your new book also seem as if possibly written by Wong.

I trust that the ideas are your own I just thought that perhaps Wong was assisting in the writing or editing and perhaps his influence came through.

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Thanks for replying, I appreciate it. Thanks for the comments.

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The copy on the back of the book and the advertisement for your new book also seem as if possibly written by Wong.

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Although Stanford did edit the sports betting book, ironically, the copy on the back of the book wasn't edited (or maybe just one or two words). I guess this simply means my writing style has become similar to his.

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It seems the glue or whatever that is used to keep the pages in doesn't work very well and once one page falls out it you start to lose the next twenty or so. I have several chapters that I would considered "filed" within the books now as opposed to still being part of it.

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same thing with my copy.

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Im not implying that your book was ghost written at all. Im saying there really isnt anything original in your work.
You take a slight twist on looking at pot odds in weighing the odds in Holdem, but virtually everything in the book has been widely discussed. Im also saying that Stanford Wong has done the same thing very successfully, starting with his black jack books. He is a good marketer. The example I used was his latest book about controlled dice throwing.
Is your sportsbetting book ground breaking with new infornation not available at better sports betting websites
such as Fezziks, sharp sportsbetting.com, etc. ??
And it covers new material not found in Wongs book,
and those books available at Sharp Sportsbetting .com?
Will i be able to not just gather info, but actually take the info and realistically be able to make money from the information provided in your book?
You admit that spilling the beans fully about methods, and places to make the money you make, would be hurtful to your
income, yet you promote the value of the basic, general information that your book will discuss. I see nothing in your table of contents that isnt available to anyone who really is interested, for free on the net.
I know you are a smart guy Mr yao, but maybe an opportunist
as well. You have every right to write and market your book, but I have every right to also inform and express my opinion on your work. Again, I dont know you and have nothing personal against you, I just dont see the value in your work.

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Another item, I did not say you wrote in a style similar to Stanford Wong. That was another poster, who apparently sees some things i see.So please dont mis quote me.
You said you were a winner on planet poker. I believe you.
But that was in the earliest days of the internet and before Weighing the Odss came out.
Im talking about your shorthanded play after the book.
the game had already changed quite a bit bit by the time you started playing again, and you found out something, like maybe online shorthanded is very hard to beat , maybe?????????????? good luck Mr Yao

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Thanks for the responses.

I agree that if you do not think there is anything new in the book for you, then it doesn't make sense for you to read them. I do think there is something new for many (most?) sports bettors. So I do think there is value for others. But of course, I am biased since I am the author.

Best of luck.

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Thanks for the responses.

I agree that if you do not think there is anything new in the book for you, then it doesn't make sense for you to read them. I do think there is something new for many (most?) sports bettors. So I do think there is value for others. But of course, I am biased since I am the author.

Best of luck.


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I always respect the way you handle yourself on these forums King Yao. It is usually quite a bit better than many author/posters.

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It has arrived! Those that ordered it..its in the mail.
Mike