[Performify]

Couple comments:

1) I generally agree with what you're saying, homer

2) I think having one good "donk parlay" thread for everyone to post and sweat parlays was a good idea. I wouldn't mind seeing that come back, although I figured if there was demand for it someone would start it up again. Maybe I'll force that with a policy change for the forum and start an official each week and lock threads otherwise.

3) the "taking EV out of your own pocket" comment is highly exaggerated. I've yet to hear a compelling case for someone losing EV by posting a game they've handicapped after they've placed as much action as they want on the game.

You can actually create EV if you're actually good, by people piling on and later shifting the line. I was able to watch this in action on numerous weeks of MMA picks when pinnacle was around (now that its not, there's not enough volatility to move the lines as much imo). If one wanted to do so, an established capper with a winning record and a big enough following could create their own arbitrage opportunities simply by posting their picks. I would postulate that this artificial EV created by the following well outweighs any theoretical -EV which would occur from someone 'reverse engineering' your betting scheme.

I can agree with very limited scenarios where the betting scheme doesn't need your capping involvement. I.e. the over-publicizing of the value of wong teasers makes the market harder to beat and forces the books to evolve, which definitely takes +EV out of the pockets of those involved. Same deal with other very simple winning subsets which are easy for anyone to identify on their own. But other than those specific cases, someone who actually handicaps games / matches / whatever has zero to lose by posting picks (after they've locked in their action) and I'd really enjoy a debate with anyone who thinks otherwise...